Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2021-2022 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: English MA (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
All MA candidates are required to pass a comprehensive qualifying exam in order to graduate. The exam, offered each fall, and in the spring by petition, gives MAs the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge about literary periodization and to use close-reading skills. Three hours in length, it asks MAs to complete three of five questions—each one addressing a different major literary period. For each question, test-takers are provided with a passage from a work of literature; the name of the work’s author; the date of the work’s publication; and some prompts about the work and a keyword relevant to it, such as lyric or Transcendentalism. Test-takers are asked to address one or more of these prompts through a close reading of the passage. The objective is to demonstrate mastery of a wide range of skills in answering each question. The exam is graded pass/fail. We recently calrified the scope of the comprehensive exam questions and revised the online description [https://www.bc.edu/content/bcweb/
schools/mcas/departments/english/graduate/master-of-artsprogram/ guidelines.html#comprehensive_exam].
MAs are also examined on a basic reading knowledge of one foreign language. The language exam consists of a two-hour translation of one scholarly, fictional, or non-fictional passage with the aid of a dictionary. We offer language exams in the fall semester at the same time as the comprehensive examination, and in the spring by petition. They may be taken during candidates’ first or second year. A wide range of languages can be accommodated. In recent years, we have set exams in Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Irish, Korean, Latin, Old English, Spanish, Russian, Italian, and Japanese. MAs may waive the exam if they have substantial and recent undergraduate foreign-language coursework; or if they take an intensive summer language course; or if they have native-level proficiency and have completed a university degree through
the medium of the language. The exam is graded pass/fail. At the end of the fall semester, all the graduate faculty write evaluations of first-year MA candidates who have applied for TFships and/or TAships. Since almost all first-year MAs apply, these comments become a comprehensive review of individual and cohort performance. Faculty are asked to comment not only on applicant fitness for teaching but also on their progress in the program. If any concerns are raised by faculty, the program director follows up as s/he sees fit (such as, meeting with candidates, consulting more with individual faculty, raising concerns with the dean of graduate studies). The MA Program Director also reviews all student grades at the conclusion of each semester, following up with any students showing signs of not meeting our learning objectives. This has been a change to our approach, one enabled by the introduction of Eagle Apps. The MA program director administers an online survey to all graduating MA candidates, asking for their input about whether they have met the stated outcomes of the program. The director of the program also meets with all graduating MAs as a group to discuss outcomes and elicit
suggestions for improving the program. The director also invites second-year MAs to meet with him/her one-on-one to discuss their experiences and to elaborate on any feedback they are willing to provide. Over the past two years, we have conducted several additional surveys soliciting feedback from MAs and faculty members on topics including career aspirations, our relatively new policy of offering combined graduate/undergraduate seminars, and scheduling preferences for our new speaker series. Feedback on all these aspects of the program continues to be positive.
Review Process:
The Graduate Curriculum Committee, consisting of the Chair, the MA program director and assistant director, the PhD program director and assistant director, the writing program director, and other interested faculty, meets annually following Commencement to review exit data and make recommendations to the whole department for improvement. The committee assesses each of the stated learning outcomes in deciding where to devote efforts at improvement.
Resulting Program Changes:
Like many other departments across universities, our department voted to eliminate the GRE exam from our admissions requirements. Eric Weiskott, our department’s PhD director, and I assembled a list of dozens of peer institutions also dropping the exam, and the overwhelming trend convinced our department that eliminating the exam would keep us in line with other universities.
Curricular Changes: Graduate/Undergraduate Seminars, Digital Humanities, and Alt-Ac Opportunities
Beginning in AY 2017/18, we piloted a program of combined graduate/undergraduate seminars. These have largely been a success. Last year, we conducted an internal review of these courses, including surveying all current MA and PhD students about their experience with these hybrid seminars. Students and faculty report appreciating the flexibility these courses offer, although variation among kinds of seminars offered requires more nimble advising. The Graduate Curriculum Committee, in response to feedback from MAs and PhDs, is exploring ways to offer instruction in public humanities and digital humanities and to offer more ‘alt-ac’ career guidance. In the past few years, we have regularly offered a new graduate writing workshop, Carlo Rotella’s “Experimental Writing for Scholars,” which provides alternative venues for graduate student writing. Last year, in collaboration with the History Department, we have instituted a new Graduate Certificate in the Digital Humanities. The new Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities offers a coordinated curriculum that is feasible for graduate candidates to complete alongside existing degree requirements. The program combines interdisciplinary methodological training with discipline-specific coursework to provide students with training and institutional recognition of their accomplishments in this fast-growing field. The program offers M.A. and Ph.D. students the opportunity to diversify their skill-sets and produce projects such as digital archives, data visualizations, online exhibits, and scholarly websites. This project-based approach puts a premium on collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. Introductory and Capstone classes were offered this year by our colleagues in the library, Bee Lehrman and Stephen Sturgeon, and we also listed a number of department-specific courses fulfilling the departmental requirement (2-3 each semester this year). These courses proved very popular. Certificate holders will enhance their employment prospects in both traditional academia as well as in publishing, government, museums, libraries, archives, and other alt-ac fields. The Certificate also proved attractive to new admits.
Writing Program
At the center of the MA program is the opportunity to serve as a TF, supported by our robust writing program and a required spring pedagogy course (ENGL8825: Composition Theory and the Teaching of Writing). TFships are a major attraction for applicants and account for a significant portion of the writing program director’s workload each year. Traditionally, the writing program director alternates teaching ENGL8825 with a colleague qualified in writing
studies. New hires in our department in Composition and Rhetoric, including Jessica Puasek and Vincent Portillo, make this an exciting time for evaluation and reinvigoration of the writing program. Two years ago, we streamlined the TF/TA evaluation process, making it less onerous for faculty and thus producing more consistent and equitable evaluations of applicants. We are happy with the new protocols for soliciting feedback and deliberating over individual applicants. A
challenge is that TF/TA assignments must be finalized before fall grades are due. Support for First Generation and Non-traditional Graduate Students
In collaboration with the History Department, two years ago we applied for and were awarded an ILA Innovations in Graduate Education grant, renewable for up to three years, to fund a graduate-led working group designed to support graduate candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, including (the overlapping categories of) economically disadvantaged students; racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; and first-generation college graduates. The MA program
director serves as unofficial adviser for the group.
BA/MA Program
In response to feedback from our first cohort of BA/MA students, four of whom graduated last May, the department conducted an internal review of the joint program. The BA/MA requires such a demanding workload that we voted not to recruit for the program, and instead to ensure that any interested candidates are given a full picture of the workload and financial obligations involved. We amended the program to incorporate rising BA/MAs more fully into the MA cohort, including them in orientation and the summer reading group, as well as assigning them graduate-level advisers in addition to their undergraduate advisers. This year, there were no
BA/MA applicants or admits, but we continue to believe that for the right student, the program holds value.
Challenges to our MA Students: Early Start Date, Funding. The University’s decision in 2015 to move to an academic calendar that begins before Labor Day has significant negative financial, logistical, and pedagogical ramifications for our MAs, who are typically moving to Boston from out of town. Because all other area colleges and universities
begin after Labor Day, few leases in Boston/Brookline/Cambridge begin before 1 September. It has become part of the MA program director’s job to arrange for emergency housing for any MAs who need it in the first week of classes. This is not ideal, because it involves imposing upon the kindness of our colleagues and raises issues of equity and accessibility, for example in the case of a graduate candidate with a disability who requires special accommodations, or a
graduate candidate who does not feel comfortable rooming with someone of a different gender. Moreover, the housing situation can be a distraction from crucial August and early September events: university orientation; department orientation; our ‘summer reading seminar,’ a cohort-building one-time meeting held on the first Friday of classes; and the start of classes. Returning to the pre-2015 academic calendar would solve the problem. Or the University could provide
free emergency housing for a few days at the start of the academic year. Because our funding package is less than that of many of our peer terminal MA programs, our
admissions yield is lower than it might otherwise be. Each year, multiple applicants email to explain that the only component preventing them from accepting our offer was the incomplete funding package. The standard $12,000 tuition scholarship both years, plus up to $13,000 for teaching in the second year, adds up to a benefit/salary of $37,000 at current rates; but tuition for the 30-credit degree will cost $56,520 over two years at AY 2022/23 rates (up from $53,040 at
AY 2020/21 rates; $51,000 at AY 2019/20 rates; and $48,720 at AY 2018/19 rates). To catch up to peer institutions, we should offer tuition scholarships of at least $15,000 and consider raising the pay for TFships and TAships. We find that these financial challenges translate into issues of access, equity, and justice in our community. Historically, given our status as a partially-funded program, we have had inconsistent success in attracting AHANA applicants and low-income applicants. Each year,
AHANA students and low-income/first-generation students are underrepresented among all applicants.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
Like many other departments across universities, our department voted to eliminate the GRE exam from our admissions requirements. Eric Weiskott, our department’s PhD director, and I assembled a list of dozens of peer institutions also dropping the exam, and the overwhelming trend convinced our department that eliminating the exam would keep us in line with other universities.
Curricular Changes: Graduate/Undergraduate Seminars, Digital Humanities, and Alt-Ac Opportunities
Beginning in AY 2017/18, we piloted a program of combined graduate/undergraduate seminars. These have largely been a success. Last year, we conducted an internal review of these courses, including surveying all current MA and PhD students about their experience with these hybrid seminars. Students and faculty report appreciating the flexibility these courses offer, although variation among kinds of seminars offered requires more nimble advising. The Graduate Curriculum Committee, in response to feedback from MAs and PhDs, is exploring ways to offer instruction in public humanities and digital humanities and to offer more ‘alt-ac’ career guidance. In the past few years, we have regularly offered a new graduate writing workshop, Carlo Rotella’s “Experimental Writing for Scholars,” which provides alternative venues for graduate student writing. Last year, in collaboration with the History Department, we have instituted a new Graduate Certificate in the Digital Humanities. The new Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities offers a coordinated curriculum that is feasible for graduate candidates to complete alongside existing degree requirements. The program combines interdisciplinary methodological training with discipline-specific coursework to provide students with training and institutional recognition of their accomplishments in this fast-growing field. The program offers M.A. and Ph.D. students the opportunity to diversify their skill-sets and produce projects such as digital archives, data visualizations, online exhibits, and scholarly websites. This project-based approach puts a premium on collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. Introductory and Capstone classes were offered this year by our colleagues in the library, Bee Lehrman and Stephen Sturgeon, and we also listed a number of department-specific courses fulfilling the departmental requirement (2-3 each semester this year). These courses proved very popular. Certificate holders will enhance their employment prospects in both traditional academia as well as in publishing, government, museums, libraries, archives, and other alt-ac fields. The Certificate also proved attractive to new admits.
Writing Program
At the center of the MA program is the opportunity to serve as a TF, supported by our robust writing program and a required spring pedagogy course (ENGL8825: Composition Theory and the Teaching of Writing). TFships are a major attraction for applicants and account for a significant portion of the writing program director’s workload each year. Traditionally, the writing program director alternates teaching ENGL8825 with a colleague qualified in writing
studies. New hires in our department in Composition and Rhetoric, including Jessica Puasek and Vincent Portillo, make this an exciting time for evaluation and reinvigoration of the writing program. Two years ago, we streamlined the TF/TA evaluation process, making it less onerous for faculty and thus producing more consistent and equitable evaluations of applicants. We are happy with the new protocols for soliciting feedback and deliberating over individual applicants. A
challenge is that TF/TA assignments must be finalized before fall grades are due. Support for First Generation and Non-traditional Graduate Students
In collaboration with the History Department, two years ago we applied for and were awarded an ILA Innovations in Graduate Education grant, renewable for up to three years, to fund a graduate-led working group designed to support graduate candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, including (the overlapping categories of) economically disadvantaged students; racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; and first-generation college graduates. The MA program
director serves as unofficial adviser for the group.
BA/MA Program
In response to feedback from our first cohort of BA/MA students, four of whom graduated last May, the department conducted an internal review of the joint program. The BA/MA requires such a demanding workload that we voted not to recruit for the program, and instead to ensure that any interested candidates are given a full picture of the workload and financial obligations involved. We amended the program to incorporate rising BA/MAs more fully into the MA cohort, including them in orientation and the summer reading group, as well as assigning them graduate-level advisers in addition to their undergraduate advisers. This year, there were no
BA/MA applicants or admits, but we continue to believe that for the right student, the program holds value.
Challenges to our MA Students: Early Start Date, Funding. The University’s decision in 2015 to move to an academic calendar that begins before Labor Day has significant negative financial, logistical, and pedagogical ramifications for our MAs, who are typically moving to Boston from out of town. Because all other area colleges and universities
begin after Labor Day, few leases in Boston/Brookline/Cambridge begin before 1 September. It has become part of the MA program director’s job to arrange for emergency housing for any MAs who need it in the first week of classes. This is not ideal, because it involves imposing upon the kindness of our colleagues and raises issues of equity and accessibility, for example in the case of a graduate candidate with a disability who requires special accommodations, or a
graduate candidate who does not feel comfortable rooming with someone of a different gender. Moreover, the housing situation can be a distraction from crucial August and early September events: university orientation; department orientation; our ‘summer reading seminar,’ a cohort-building one-time meeting held on the first Friday of classes; and the start of classes. Returning to the pre-2015 academic calendar would solve the problem. Or the University could provide
free emergency housing for a few days at the start of the academic year. Because our funding package is less than that of many of our peer terminal MA programs, our
admissions yield is lower than it might otherwise be. Each year, multiple applicants email to explain that the only component preventing them from accepting our offer was the incomplete funding package. The standard $12,000 tuition scholarship both years, plus up to $13,000 for teaching in the second year, adds up to a benefit/salary of $37,000 at current rates; but tuition for the 30-credit degree will cost $56,520 over two years at AY 2022/23 rates (up from $53,040 at
AY 2020/21 rates; $51,000 at AY 2019/20 rates; and $48,720 at AY 2018/19 rates). To catch up to peer institutions, we should offer tuition scholarships of at least $15,000 and consider raising the pay for TFships and TAships. We find that these financial challenges translate into issues of access, equity, and justice in our community. Historically, given our status as a partially-funded program, we have had inconsistent success in attracting AHANA applicants and low-income applicants. Each year,
AHANA students and low-income/first-generation students are underrepresented among all applicants.
Attachments (if available)