Mar 28, 2024  
2016-2017 Graduate Catalog 
    
2016-2017 Graduate Catalog [Not Current Academic Year. Consult with Your Academic Advisor for Your Catalog Year]

Spanish, PhD


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College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences  > Department of Hispanic Studies  > Spanish, PhD

Admission Requirements

For unconditional admission to the PhD in Spanish, applicants must have earned an MA degree in Spanish, or its equivalent, with a minimum grade point average of 3.20 (A=4.00).  Students who have a MA degree in a field other than Spanish must take, concurrently with the other courses normally required for the doctoral program, one course from each of the following groups:

  • Hispanic literature of the United States
  • Latin American literature through Modernism
  • Latin American literature since Modernism
  • Peninsular literature through the XVII century
  • Peninsular literature, Centuries XVII through XX

Students with a M.A. degree in a field other than Spanish whose emphasis is linguistics will also be required to take a number of additional courses in the field. (They will be advised by the Senior Linguistics Professor).

Applicants must have acceptable scores on the General Aptitude section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). A score of at least 79 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required for international graduate students.  Three confidential letters of recommendation from professors detailing the potential of the candidate as a graduate student are also required.

Once admitted to the program, no course in which a grade below B- (2.67) is received may be applied toward the Ph.D. degree.

At the end of each student’s first year of course work at the Ph.D. level, a screening procedure will be conducted by all faculty members with whom the student has studied in order to determine whether the individual is progressing satisfactorily toward the degree objective.

Degree Requirements

The PhD in Spanish requires that, beyond the achievement of the master’s degree, students complete a minimum of 36 semester hours of approved graduate courses and 6 semester hours of dissertation as follows:

  • Required core courses    Cr. 9.
  • Elective courses              Cr. 27.
  • Dissertation                     Cr. 6.

Core courses


Students are required to take:

Elective courses


Ph.D. students must enroll in all 7000-level courses available (exceptions may be authorized by the Graduate Director).  The 6000-level Spanish courses listed in the Graduate catalogue and courses in other departments will be chosen in consultation with the Graduate Director.

Language requirements


Reading knowledge of one language in addition to Spanish and English is required (in addition to the 42 hours referred to above).  Reading knowledge may be demonstrated in one of the following ways:

  1. Four college semesters at the undergraduate level (or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated by testing) in another Romance language.
  2. Reading knowledge of Latin or any other approved language, as demonstrated either by satisfactory scores on the Educational Testing Service examinations for that language, or the completion of two semesters of graduate reading courses in the language chosen with a grade of B- or higher.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam


A written examination over different areas in literature and linguistics as well as an oral examination must be successfully taken before admission to candidacy.

Ph.D. Dissertation


The student must develop a dissertation on a topic in literature which can be considered to be original and of significance to scholarship.

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