Residence

In partial fulfillment of the residence requirement for the degree of Master of Arts, the student must complete 9 resident credit hours during one regular semester or one 10-week summer semester. Upon recommendation of the student's advisory committee and with approval of the Office of Graduate Studies, a student may be granted exemption from this requirement. However, such a petition must be approved prior to the student's registration for the final 9 credit hours of required course work.

Full-time staff members of the University or of closely affiliated organizations stationed at the campus at College Station may fulfill total residence requirements by completion of less-than-full course loads. Specific authorization for such programs must be granted in advance by the employing agency. Employees should submit verification of their employment at the time they submit their degree plan. See Registration.

Student's Advisory Committee

After receiving admission to graduate studies and enrolling for course work, the student will consult with the head of his or her major or administrative department concerning appointment of the chair of his or her advisory committee. The student's advisory committee for the master's degree will consist of no fewer than three members of the graduate faculty representative of the student's fields of study and research. The chair or one of the co-chairs of the advisory committee must be from the student's department, and at least one or more of the members must be from a department other than the student's major department.

The chair, in consultation with the student, will select the remainder of the advisory committee. The chair will then notify the tentative members of the advisory committee, giving the student's name and field of study, and request that they consider serving on this committee. The student will interview each prospective committee member to determine whether he or she is willing to serve. Only graduate faculty members located on the campuses at College Station, Galveston, Texas A&M University-Temple Campus or Institute of Biosciences and Technology-Houston may serve as chair of a student's advisory committee. Other graduate faculty members may serve as co-chair with an individual located at College Station or Galveston. The chair of the committee, who usually has immediate supervision of the student's research and thesis, has the responsibility for calling required meetings of the committee and for calling meetings at any other time considered desirable.

If the chair of the student's advisory committee is unavailable for an extended time in any academic period during which the student is involved in activities relating to an internship, thesis, dissertation or record of study and is registered for 684, 691, 692 or 693 courses, the student may request, in writing, that the department head appoint an alternate advisory committee chair during the interim period.

The duties of the committee include responsibility for the proposed degree plan, the research proposal, the thesis and the final examination. In addition, the committee as a group and as individual members is responsible for counseling the student on academic matters, and, in the case of academic deficiency, initiating recommendations to the Office of Graduate Studies.

The committee members' signatures on the degree plan indicate their willingness to accept the responsibility for guiding and directing the entire academic program of the student and for initiating all academic actions concerning the student. Although individual committee members may be replaced by petition for valid reasons, a committee cannot resign en masse.

Degree Plan

The student's advisory committee, in consultation with the student, will develop the proposed degree plan and it must include study in more than one area of specialization, but these areas may be contained within the course offerings of a single department. The degree plan must be completed and filed with the Office of Graduate Studies following the deadline imposed by the student's college, and no later than 90 days prior to the date of the final oral examination or thesis defense. No exceptions are allowed.

This proposed degree plan must be typed and submitted on the official form as it appears on the website at vpr.tamu.edu with endorsements by the student's advisory committee and the head of the student's major department (and chair of the intercollegiate faculty, if appropriate).

Students submitting proposed degree plans for Master of Arts degrees should designate on the official degree plan form the program option desired by checking "thesis option" or "non-thesis option."

Additional course work may be added to the approved degree plan by petition if it is deemed necessary by the advisory committee to correct deficiencies in the student's academic preparation.

Credit Requirement

A minimum of 30 semester credit hours of approved courses and research is required for the thesis option Master of Arts degree.

Limitations on the Use of Transfer, Extension and Certain Other Courses

Some departments may have more restrictive requirements for transfer work. If otherwise acceptable, certain courses may be used toward meeting credit-hour requirements for the master's degree under the following limitations.

Exceptions will be permitted only in unusual cases and when petitioned by the student's advisory committee and approved by the Office of Graduate Studies.

Transfer of Credit

A student who has earned 12 hours of graduate credit in residence at Texas A&M University may be authorized to transfer courses in excess of the limits prescribed above upon the advice of the advisory committee and with the advance approval of the Office of Graduate Studies if these courses are not available at Texas A&M University. Courses taken in residence at an accredited U.S. institution or approved international institution with a final grade of B or greater might be considered for transfer credit if, at the time the courses were completed, the student was in degree-seeking status at Texas A&M University or at the institution at which the courses were taken, and if the courses would be accepted for credit toward a similar degree for students in degree-seeking status at the host institution. Otherwise, the limitations stated in the preceding section apply. Course work in which no formal grades are given or in which grades other than letter grades (A, B, C, etc.) are given (for example, CR, P, S, U, H, etc.) is not accepted for transfer credit. Courses appearing on the degree plan with grades of D, F or U may not be absolved by transfer work. Credit for thesis research or the equivalent is not transferable. Credit for course work submitted for transfer from any college or university must be shown in semester credit hours or equated to semester credit hours. An official transcript from the university at which the transfer course work was taken must be sent directly to the Office of Admissions and Records.

Courses completed at other institutions are not included in computing the GPR.

Continuous Registration

Students in the thesis option of the Master of Arts program who have completed all course work on their degree plans other than 691 (Research) are required to be in continuous registration until all requirements for the degree have been completed. See Continuous Registration Requirements.

Foreign Languages

For the degree of Master of Arts, a reading knowledge (usually represented by two years of college study) of at least one foreign language is normally required.

Thesis Proposal

For the thesis option Master of Arts degree, the student must prepare a thesis proposal for approval by the advisory committee and the head of the major department. This proposal must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies at least 14 weeks prior to the close of the semester or summer term in which the student expects to receive the degree or prior to the scheduling of the final examination, whichever comes first.

There are compliance issues that must be addressed if graduate students are performing research involving human subjects, animals, infectious biohazards and recombinant DNA. Students involved in these types of research must check with the Research Compliance Division, Office of the Vice President for Research at (979) 845-8585 in order to ensure that they have met all compliance responsibilities. Additional information can also be obtained on the website vpr.tamu.edu/policy.html.

Thesis Option

An acceptable thesis is required for the Master of Arts degree for students who select the thesis option program. The finished work is expected to be a competently executed development and exposition of the student's original research topic. Guidelines for the preparation of the manuscript are available in the Thesis Manual which may be purchased at the copy centers on campus and the MSC and Galveston campus bookstores. An online copy can be accessed via the website at thesis.tamu.edu/thesismanual.php.

After successful defense (or exemption therefrom) and approval by the student's advisory committee and the head of the student's major department (and chair of the intercollegiate faculty, if appropriate), students must submit their thesis to the Thesis Office. Students have the option of submitting their thesis in paper format (two blue-line copies required) or electronic format (one pdf file required). Both formats require a signed original approval page (two on blue-line paper for paper submittal, one for electronic submittal).

Deadline dates for submitting are announced each semester or summer term in the "Office of Graduate Studies Calendar" (see Time Limit statement). These dates also can be accessed via the website vpr.tamu.edu.

Before a student can be "cleared" by the Thesis Office, a processing fee must be paid at the Fiscal Department. After commencement, each thesis is bound, microfilmed and digitally stored.

A thesis that, because of excessive corrections, is deemed unacceptable by the Thesis Office, will be returned to the student's department head. The manuscript must be resubmitted as a new document, and the entire review process must begin again. All original submittal deadlines must be met during the resubmittal process in order to graduate that semester.

Non-Thesis Option

In some departments of the University requirements for the Master of Arts degree may be satisfied by completing a minimum of 36 semester hours approved by the student's advisory committee and department head and subject to the Limitations on the Use of Transfer, Extension and Certain Other Courses.

Students pursuing the non-thesis option are not allowed to enroll in 691 (Research) for any reason and 691 may not be used for credit toward a non-thesis option Master of Arts degree. No credit hours of 684 (Professional Internship) may be used for the degree of Master of Arts, with the exception of the non-thesis option Master of Arts in Philosophy, for which students may use up to 6 credit hours of 684. A maximum of 8 credit hours of 685 (Directed Studies), and up to 3 credit hours of 690 (Theory of Research) or 695 (Frontiers in Research) may be used toward the non-thesis option Master of Arts degree. In addition, any combination of 684, 685, 690 and 695 may not exceed 25 percent of the total credit hour requirement shown on the individual degree plan.

A thesis is not required. A final comprehensive examination is required. The requirements as to level of courses and examinations are the same as for the thesis option Master of Arts degree.

A student shall be given only one opportunity to repeat the final examination for the master's degree and that must be within a time period that does not extend beyond the end of the next regular semester (summer terms are excluded). No examination may be held prior to the mid-point of the semester or summer term in which a student will complete all remaining courses on the degree plan.

Non-thesis option students cannot be exempted from their final examination. A positive vote by all members of the graduate committee with at most one dissension is required to pass a student on his or her exam. A department can have a stricter requirement provided there is consistency within all degree programs within a department.

All requirements for the non-thesis option Master of Arts degree other than those specified above are the same as for the thesis option degree.

Time Limit

All degree requirements must be completed within a period of seven consecutive years for the degree to be granted. A course will be considered valid until seven years after the end of the semester in which it is taken. Graduate credit for course work which is more than seven calendar years old at the time of the final examination (oral or written) may not be used to satisfy degree requirements.

Students who have chosen the thesis option must have the final corrected copies of the thesis accepted by the Thesis Office no later than one year after the final examination, or approval of a petition for exemption from the final exam, or within the seven-year time limit, whichever occurs first. Failure to do so will result in the degree not being awarded.

Application for Degree

Graduate degrees are conferred at the close of each regular semester and 10-week summer semester. Candidates for advanced degrees who expect to complete their work at the end of a given semester must apply for graduation by submitting the electronic application for degree to the Office of the Registrar and by paying the required graduation fee at the Fiscal Department no later than the Friday of the second week of the fall or spring semester or the Friday of the first week of the first summer term. The electronic application for degree can be accessed via the website degreeapp.tamu.edu.

Thesis Defense/Final Examination

The candidate must pass a final examination by dates announced each semester or summer term in the Office of Graduate Studies Calendar. To be eligible to take the final examination, a student's GPR must be at least 3.000 for courses on the degree plan and for all courses completed at Texas A&M which are eligible to be applied to a graduate degree, and there must be no unabsolved grades of D, F or U for any course listed on the degree plan. To absolve a deficient grade, the student must have repeated the course at Texas A&M University and have achieved a grade of C or better. All course work on the degree plan must have been completed with the exception of those hours for which the student is registered. Additionally, all English Language Proficiency requirements must be satisfied prior to scheduling the examination. An approved thesis proposal must be on file in the Office of Graduate Studies.

The final examination covers the thesis and all work taken on the degree plan and at the option of the committee may be written or oral or both. The final examination may not be administered before the thesis is available to all members of the student's advisory committee in substantially final form, and all members have had adequate time to review the document. The examination is conducted by the student's advisory committee as finally constituted. Unless otherwise authorized by the Office of Graduate Studies, the final examination for the master's degree must be administered on the campus at College Station. Thesis option students must be registered in the University in the semester or summer term in which the final examination is taken. Persons other than members of the graduate faculty may, with mutual consent of the candidate and the major professor, attend final examinations for advanced degrees. Upon completion of the questioning of the candidate, all visitors must excuse themselves from the proceedings. A positive vote by all members of the graduate committee with at most one dissension is required to pass a student on his or her exam. A department can have a stricter requirement provided there is consistency within all degree programs within a department.

A request for permission to hold and announce the final examination must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies a minimum of 10 working days in advance of the scheduled date for the examination. Examinations which are not completed and reported as satisfactory to the Office of Graduate Studies within 10 working days of the scheduled examination date will be recorded as failures. A student may be given only one opportunity to repeat the final examination for the master's degree and that must be within a time period that does not extend beyond the end of the next regular semester (summer terms are excluded).