ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

Applicants must have a composite score of 1000 or more on the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Exam, and an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0 overall and 3.4 in history courses. Applicants who are not history majors should have the equivalent of at least a minor  in undergraduate history courses (15 hours, of which at least 12 must be upper level), or should complete additional undergraduate history courses at UNF before applying for the M.A. program. Only in exceptional circumstances will the department consider applicants who do not meet the minimum admission criteria.  For further information consult the graduate coordinator.

A prerequisite for admission is completion of an undergraduate history methods course.  At UNF, HIS 3051 The Craft of the Historian fulfills the requirement if a grade of A or B was earned. Students who have not completed HIS 3051 or its equivalent may be admitted on conditional status until the requirement has been met. Transfer of up to 6 graduate credit hours taken at another approved institution may be arranged by the graduate coordinator. Requests must be accompanied by catalogue descriptions and course syllabi, and by official transcripts which establish that grades of either A or B were earned. A maximum of 9 hours completed at UNF in a non-degree status may be transferred to a degree program. Students hould consult the UNF Graduate Catalogue for additional information on credit transfer and time limits on prior coursework.

Applicants must submit

• a typewritten essay three to five double-spaced pages in length, describing their career goals and areas of historical interest, and
• three letters of recommendation -- at least one should be written by a former or current history professor.
• Students may also submit a sample of their writing on a historical topic (this is optional; an undergraduate paper will suffice).

The Graduate School application, transcripts, GRE scores, the essay, letters of recommendation, and writing sample should all be sent to:

The Graduate School
University of North Florida
1 UNF Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32224

More information about applying to the Graduate Program, and the application form, can be found on The Graduate School page.

Recommendation forms can be downloaded here (you must have Adobe Acrobat to view and print the form).

Graduate Teaching Assistantships: the History Department is able to offer a limited number of Graduate Teaching Assistantships. These Assistantships provide tuition and a stipend for two years. In their first year, Graduate Teaching Assistants take a two semester sequence of courses, European History and Historians, that provides an introduction to the teaching of Western Civilization. In their second year, the Teaching Assistants are Friday section leaders for the Core (Western Civilization) classes in the fall and spring. More information about the Graduate Teaching Assistantships, and the application form, can be downloaded here (you must have Adobe Acrobat to view and print this form).

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THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM

All MA history students must meet with the graduate coordinator during their first term of graduate work in order to plan their course of study, and discuss any questions they may have.  A hold will be placed on registration for a second term of graduate course work until this obligatory meeting takes place.  Students may not take a 5000-level survey course for graduate credit if the student took that course at the undergraduate level.

Students may not choose between thesis and non-thesis options until they have completed two 6000-level seminars.  Regardless of the option, only a total of three courses from the categories Directed Readings and/or Independent Studies may be included in the graduate program of study.  Thesis and non-thesis students shall take no more than four graduate history courses with one faculty member.  This does not include thesis students' continuous registration in Master's Thesis Research.

Graduate students are expected to maintain at least a 3.0 average, and no student may be awarded a master's degree unless the graduate average is B or higher.  For additional information on academic policies and regulations, graduate students should consult the UNF Graduate Catalogue.

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THESIS OPTION

At least two 6000-level seminars are required; one must be in the area of concentration; the other may be outside the area of concentration.

United States History Concentration
Minimum 12 hours of U.S. History, including at least one section of AMH 6936 Seminar in American History.

• Minimum 12 hours of non-U.S. History, including one 6000-level graduate seminar if only one US  history seminar has been completed.
• Directed readings, Independent Studies, and Internships will not substitute for the two required 6000-level seminars. Only one section of HIS 6946 Internship in History will be permitted for a thesis program.
• At least 6 and no more than 15 hours of HIS 6971 Master's Thesis Research. After course requirements have been completed, students will enroll in Thesis Research until the thesis is completed.

European History Concentration

• Minimum 12 hours of European History, including at least one section of EUH 6936 Seminar in European History.
• Minimum 12 hours of non-European History, including one 6000-level graduate seminar if only one section of EUH 6936 has been completed.
• Directed readings, Independent Studies, and Internships will not substitute for the two required 6000-level seminars. Only one section of HIS 6946 Internship in History will be permitted for a thesis program.
• At least 6 and no more than 15 hours of HIS 6971 Master's Thesis Research. After course requirements have been completed, students will enroll in Thesis Research until the thesis is completed.

Additional Requirements for the Thesis Option

Foreign Language: All students taking the thesis track, as well as those non-thesis students who opt for the language requirement, must demonstrate reading knowledge of a language other than English.  The department will arrange an appropriate test.

Statistics:  A Statistics course must also be completed prior to graduation.  At UNF this requirement may be fulfilled by completing STA 2014, Elementary Statistics for Health and Social Sciences, or its equivalent.

THE THESIS

 Admission to the thesis track/approval of the Prospectus:
Students may not opt for the thesis track until they have successfully completed two 6000-level graduates-only seminars.  However, students nearing that mark may begin to discuss thesis possibilities with the history faculty member with whom the student hopes to work.  Admission to the thesis track is formally complete when the student has prepared a prospectus, and the prospectus has been approved by the thesis advisor and the other two members of the committee.  The prospectus should contain a clear exposition of the working hypothesis, the approach and materials the student intends to use, and some indication of the significance of the work.  Approval is indicated by the committee members’ signatures on the cover sheet of the prospectus, which must include the student’s name, the tentative title of the thesis, and the statement “This prospectus has been approved by the advisor and committee members whose signatures appear below.”  The original goes to the graduate coordinator, with copies to the student and the thesis committee members.

Committee
At least three graduate faculty members, at least two of them historians, shall serve on the thesis committee.  The thesis advisor, always a historian, will be selected by the student at the time the student chooses the thesis option.  Other committee members will be chosen by the student in consultation with the thesis advisor.  An oral defense will be scheduled after the thesis has been approved by the committee.  Committee members will conduct the defense, which may be attended by any member of the graduate faculty.  After the defense, the student is responsible for fulfilling the university's requirements regarding binding of the thesis and its delivery to the UNF library.

Timetable
A thesis option student will have two years following completion of regular course requirements to write and defend the thesis.  Continual enrollment in HIS 6971 Thesis Research will be required (summer terms excepted); thesis students must complete at least 6 hours of HIS 6971.  A student who has not finished the thesis two years after completion of course work will be required to transfer to the non-thesis option, and will have a third year for the additional course work and the comprehensive examination.

Students who take the thesis option should be aware that approval of the thesis for graduation involves defense before the department committee and approvals after that from the department chair, the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Graduate Dean.  The oral defense should usually be scheduled about four weeks before commencement if you wish to graduate in that term.

Thesis Preparation
Master's theses prepared for the department of history must use footnotes (rather than endnotes).  Footnote form must follow the Chicago Manual of Style (current edition), available in the library and in the department office.  This is also the style reflected in Clifford's Advice on Doing History (www.unf.edu/~clifford/ca/ca.html).  Theses must conform to the general manuscript guidelines spelled out in the University's policy, which can be consulted at and downloaded from the UNF Library website, http://www.unf.edu/library/pol/THESIS.html

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NON-THESIS OPTION

Three 6000-level seminars are required; two must be in the area of concentration.

United States History Concentration

• Minimum 18 hours of U.S. History, including at least two sections of AMH 6936 Seminar in American History.
• Minimum 15 hours of non-U.S. History, including one 6000-level graduate seminar.
• Directed readings, Independent Studies, and Internships will not substitute for the three required 6000-level seminars. Only two sections of HIS 6946 Internship in History will be permitted for a non-thesis program.

European History Concentration

• Minimum 18 hours of European History, including at least two sections of EUH 6936 Seminar in European History.
• Minimum 15 hours of non-European History, including one 6000-level graduate seminar.
• Directed readings, Independent Studies, and Internships will not substitute for the three required 6000-level seminars. Only two sections of HIS 6946 Internship in History will be permitted for a non-thesis program.

Additional Requirements for the Non-Thesis Option

Students must fulfill either the foreign language and statistics requirements described above or complete a six-credit minor in another discipline (literature, sociology, philosophy, for example). The minor must be approved by the graduate coordinator. Courses may be either upper-division or graduate-level, but they will not fulfill the requirement if taken while completing a baccalaureate degree. Students who are completing a second master’s degree in an Arts & Sciences discipline may consider the first MA as having fulfilled the minor requirement.

Two seminar or research papers of approximately 20 pages each must be written for two different faculty supervisors and must receive a grade of B or higher (B- will not be accepted).  Each supervising faculty member will read and grade the paper and will communicate the results to the student and the graduate coordinator.  It is the student's responsibility to meet all of the specific research and writing requirements established by the faculty supervisor of each paper.

Two faculty members from the student's field of concentration, selected by the student and the graduate coordinator, will prepare and administer a written examination.  The three-hour essay exam will cover areas and topics represented by the student's course work in the field of concentration and will be graded either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.  The two faculty examiners will communicate the results to the student and the graduate coordinator.

Non-thesis students will have two years following the completion of their course work to finish all of the non-thesis requirements.

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