Students Entering with Advanced Degrees

The department encourages applications from students who hold advanced degrees who wish to pursue a doctorate at Chicago. Students who have prior graduate work may use as many as five graduate courses completed at other universities to count towards fulfillment of the department’s course requirement. Graduate courses previously completed within our department will count on a one-to-one basis towards the fulfilment of the department’s course requirement. Students may not use an MA thesis written elsewhere as a substitute for the MA thesis here. The only exception is that MA theses written at the University of Chicago, where one of the faculty advisors is in the Department, are acceptable, if so certified by a second advisor from the Department. Students may use a prior MA thesis as the basis for the MA thesis with the consent of faculty advisors. It is best to not assume that because the MA thesis was accepted elsewhere that it will be accepted here. Most students find that substantial work is required to have the prior MA thesis meet Department standards; many find it easier to simply pick a new topic on which to write the MA thesis.