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This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Master of Arts in East Asian Studies

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Graduate Programs in East Asian Studies

University requirements for the master's degree are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

The M.A. program in East Asian Studies is designed both for students who plan to complete a Ph.D. but who have not yet decided on the particular discipline in which they prefer to work, and for students who wish to gain a strong background in East Asian Studies in connection with a career in nonacademic fields such as business, law, education, journalism, or government service. Students interested in pursuing professional careers are encouraged to plan for additional training through internships or graduate professional programs, in conjunction with obtaining an M.A. in East Asian Studies

The master's degree program allows a great deal of flexibility in combining language training, interdisciplinary area studies, and a disciplinary concentration. The director of the center assigns preliminary faculty advisers to all students. Members of the staff and faculty are available for academic and career planning. The M.A. program is normally completed in two academic years, but students can shorten this time by receiving credit for prior language work or by attending summer sessions. Students are urged to complete the degree requirements within one year if their background makes it possible.

Applicants must submit scores for the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination. Foreign applicants are also required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Applications for admission and financial aid should be made online; see http://gradadmissions.stanford.edu.

The requirements for the M.A. in East Asian Studies are as follows:

Language Requirement—Students must complete the equivalent of Stanford's first three years of language training in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Students entering the program without any language preparation should complete first- and second-year Chinese, Japanese, or Korean within the first year of residence at Stanford. This necessitates completing a summer language program. Language courses taken at Stanford must be for letter grades.

The language requirement may be satisfied in part or in full by placing into an appropriate Stanford language class through the language proficiency exam given by the Language Center. Students who fulfill this minimum three-year language requirement before completing other requirements are encouraged to continue language study, or take courses in which Chinese or Japanese are used, for as long as they are in the program. Language courses above the third-year level may be applied to the Area Studies requirement discussed below.

Students in the M.A. program are eligible to apply for the Inter-University language programs in Beijing and Yokohama. Work completed in one of these programs may be counted toward the M.A. degree's language requirement.

Area Studies Requirement—Students must complete the 1-unit core course, EASTASN 330, and an additional nine courses numbered 100 or above related to East Asia. Chinese and Japanese language courses numbered 100-199 are considered to be at the third-year level and do not count toward the courses required for the degree. The nine courses must be 3 or more units, taken for a letter grade. At least 23 units must be designated primarily for graduate students, typically at the 200-300 levels.

An integral part of the program is training in research and a demonstration of research ability in a discipline. Three courses, one of which must be a seminar, colloquium, or advanced course in which a research paper on China, Korea, or Japan is written, must be within a single department. The six additional area courses may be taken in departments of the student's choosing. Some theory-oriented or methodological courses may be used to meet part of these requirements provided they are demonstrably useful for understanding East Asian problems. Credit toward the area studies requirement is not given for courses taken before entering the M.A. program. Students in this program may, however, take courses for exchange credit at the University of California, Berkeley, with the approval of their adviser and the Office of the Registrar.

M.A. Thesis Requirement—A master's thesis, representing a substantial piece of original research, should be filed with the center's program office as part of the graduation requirements. With the adviser's approval, the master's thesis requirement may be satisfied by expanding a research paper written for an advanced course.

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