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English, Master of Arts

The Master of Arts (M.A.) in English at St. John’s offers broad and intensive engagement with literary, cultural, and writing studies.

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Earn a master's degree in English at St. John's University in New York City!

The Master of Arts (M.A.) in English at St. John’s offers broad and intensive engagement with literary, cultural, and writing studies. Distinguished faculty teach courses in traditional and emerging fields of literature, cultural studies, critical theory, writing, and composition studies.

The 33-credit program features the option to write a three-credit master’s thesis in place of one course. In the final semester of course work, you submit a master’s portfolio, including one extensively revised paper and a 10-page critical overview of your growth as a reader, scholar, and writer.

The program is designed for both full-time graduate students and professional educators, administrators, and writers who want to pursue a master’s degree part-time. As a full-time student, you can complete the degree in three or four semesters. If you are a part-time student, you may proceed more gradually toward completing the requirements.

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are optional for this program.

For additional information about the M.A. program and the Department of English, please follow our department’s blog, which features course descriptions, faculty profiles, upcoming events, departmental publications, departmental forms, and listings for available jobs and internships.

Department Faculty

View a list of our English faculty. 

Department Contact

Granville Ganter
Associate Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
[email protected]

 

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Degree Type
MA
Area of Interest
Humanities
Associated Colleges or Schools
Program Location
  • Queens Campus
Required Credit Hours
33

Admission

The requirements for admission to the M.A. program in English at St. John’s are as follows:

  1. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with at least 24 credits completed in English. 
  2. An undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0, and a 3.5 GPA in English courses.
  3. Three letters of recommendation, two of which should be academic letters attesting to your work as a student.

General Record Examination (GRE) scores are optional for this program. 

Office of Graduate Admission
718-990-1601
[email protected]

Tuition and Financial Aid

Graduate assistantships are available on a competitive basis through the Department of English and the Institute for Writing Studies. These assistantships provide tuition remission and a stipend, along with the experience of tutoring St. John’s students in the Writing Center. New students who are interested in an assistantship should indicate their interest on the application form. The deadline for assistantship applications is February 15.   

Some administrative graduate assistantships are also available throughout the University. These positions also offer tuition remission and a stipend, and require you to perform administrative support on campus. Available positions are listed on the Graduate Assistantships and Fellowships page.

For more information about tuition and other sources of financial aid, please visit Tuition and Financial Aid.

Courses

All English graduate courses at St. John’s are seminars, taught by research faculty members committed to teaching and mentoring. We offer a wide range of courses each semester in the late afternoon and evening on the Queens campus. We also offer online courses during the summer. The master’s program in English consists of 33 credit hours, or 11 courses, including the option to write a three-credit master’s thesis in place of one course.

In the final semester of coursework, you will submit a portfolio of your graduate work. The portfolio consists of three course papers, including one extensively revised paper, and a 10-page critical overview of your growth as a reader, scholar, and writer.

Career Outcomes

The ability to think critically, write effectively, and engage with intellectual discourse will serve you well as both an academic and professional in a wide range of fields.

Recent graduates of the M.A. program have received fellowships for doctoral study at some of the best graduate programs in the United States, including Columbia University, Brown University, The City University of New York (CUNY), the University of Maryland, and the University of California, San Diego. Others have gone on to law school, established careers in publishing and editing, and obtained middle school and high school teaching positions. 

You can find assistance with landing a job or internship through Career Services, which hosts several workshops and career events throughout the year in addition to one-on-one career counseling.

Additional Information

The English department sponsors an active intellectual life. There are several colloquia a year, in addition to lectures by department faculty. Details about upcoming events can be found on the blog. We also encourage you to participate in our annual English graduate student conference, which is held within the department. For additional information, please consult the Graduate Bulletin.

Complementing the graduate courses in the M.A. program are opportunities for practical experience in tutoring, editing, and research. You may contribute to our graduate program’s literary journal: The St. John's Humanities Review, which features book reviews, essays, and interviews by contributors on campus and from around the world. We also publish a literary journal of student poetry and fiction, Sequoya.

Loretta and Frank Kunkel Scholarship

The Loretta and Frank Kunkel Scholarship is a graduate endowment available to students in the M.A. and Ph.D. English programs. 

Interested in Humanities, but not sure if English, Master of Arts is right for you?

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