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Art History

Undergraduate Program

The 4+1 MA Program in Art History

The Art Department now offers a 4 + 1 program leading to the BA and MA in Art History.  This program is intended primarily for outstanding undergraduate majors at Tulane who are eager to continue their study of art history beyond the BA but either do not intend to pursue the PhD or are not yet ready to do so.  Students in the program take more advanced courses as undergraduates and then continue as graduate students for the fifth year, writing a thesis the final semester.  Students in the 4 + 1 program then emerge with the BA and MA.  They may then go to other universities for the PhD but may not pursue the PhD at Tulane.  

Requirements:

1. The student must have an undergraduate major in Art History and a minimum GPA of 3.0 overall and 3.25 in the major by the fall semester of their junior year in order to be considered for acceptance.
2. The student should apply to candidacy for the fifth-year MA no later than fall semester of the student's junior year.
3. The student is required to complete the normal course and distributional requirements for the BA except that the two required seminars must both be at the 600 level.  In the junior and senior years, the student will be expected to take two additional 600-level seminars or 700-level courses so as to accrue 4 courses (12 credits) at the 600 or 700 level.  Up to but no more than four of these higher-level courses may count toward fulfilling the MA requirement.
4. The MA requires 24 semester credits of courses (8 classes) plus a thesis.  The student, having taken 12 credits (4 classes) at the 600 and 700 level as an undergraduate, would typically take 3 graduate-level courses in the fall semester of the fifth year, and in the spring take one graduate-level course (3 credits) and finish the thesis.  The student will have to satisfy the (slightly different) distribution requirements of both the BA and MA programs.
5. The student must satisfy the graduate foreign language requirement by the end of the senior year.
   

Application:  Applicants complete an online application form available from the Graduate School and submit it along with the application fee.  There is no fixed deadline.  In the blank for Specialization, the applicant puts “4+1.”  No GRE scores or official transcripts are required.  However, a statement of purpose is required, as are two letters of recommendation and a writing sample (e.g., term paper).

Costs:  Although there is no financial aid available for the fifth year of the 4+1 program, tuition is offered at the reduced rate of $600 a credit hour ($1800 a course), with a maximum cap of $5,000 a semester.  Thus, tuition for the fifth year will not exceed  $10,000 regardless of the number of courses taken.  Fees are in addition to this.

For more information, please see the Graduate Coordinator, Florencia Bazzano-Nelson.