About the M.A. in English

Degree Prep

Most students have undergraduate degrees in English or closely related field.

Our degree requirements are designed to give students maximum choice in their degree, and we encourage you to focus your studies in ways that best reflect your interests. To complete the English  M.A. degree, you need to earn 30 credits of graduate-level English coursework and 3 credits of Master’s-level research.

Degree Roadmap

Coursework and language studies in first year, coursework and thesis (or non-thesis project) in second year.

Most English M.A. students choose the non-thesis degree track, which we designed to help best prepare you for your next steps upon completing the degree. The non-thesis track culminates in a Master’s Project, which can take various forms. Traditionally, it involves working closely with a faculty mentor to produce an essay suitable for submission to publication that can also serve as an excellent writing sample for job and Ph.D. applications. But students are also welcome to propose alternative formats that prepare them for the next steps in their careers, including digital projects such as Storying Extinction: Mapping the Loss of North Idaho’s Mountain Caribou.

Scholarships

The College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences provides annual scholarship awards totaling approximately $1,600,000. For information on specific scholarships, please email class@uidaho.edu.

You can find general need- and merit-based scholarships on the Financial Aid Office's scholarships page. 

In addition to the funding opportunities above, our Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) offers extra-departmental funding in the form of research and travel grants to qualifying students throughout the academic year. We also encourage English M.A. students to apply for CD?L Fellowships with our library’s Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning.

Teaching and Research Assistantships

Many students in the English M.A. program are fully funded through Teaching and Research Assistantships. All Assistantships come with a full tuition waiver and a stipend, which for the current academic year is roughly $15,000. The English M.A. Admissions Committee automatically considers prospective students for assistantship positions; you do not need to submit any additional application materials for these appointments. 

Research Assistants (RAs) are employed through various offices and initiatives on campus as communications content producers, editors, and grant consultants.

Financial Aid

To learn more about FAFSA deadlines and processes, available scholarships, and financial aid program types and eligibility requirements, please visit the University of Idaho Financial Aid Office.

Hands-On Learning

Teaching Assistantships awarded on a competitive basis. Opportunities to organize scholarly conferences, work in student government, work with leading academic journals and participate in community-based projects.

Internship and Practicum Opportunities

We offer several internship opportunities for English M.A. students. The Confluence Lab is an interdisciplinary initiative that brings together scholars in the arts, humanities, and sciences, and community members, to engage in environmental issues impacting rural communities. Fugue, our in-house literary magazine, is edited and managed solely by University of Idaho graduate students and publishes poetry, fiction, essays, hybrid work, and visual art from established and emerging writers and artists.

In addition to these internship opportunities, we also encourage practicum credits for our English M.A. students that allow you to gain on-the-ground experience teaching  undergraduate literature, composition, and/or linguistics courses.

Graduate English Conference

The University of Idaho Graduate English Conference (UIGEC) is an annual event sponsored by M.A. and M.F.A. The UIGEC is a unique opportunity for graduate students in the English Department to gain experience in planning, executing, and presenting at an academic conference. See the UIGEC website for more info.