Admission to Lehigh University’s M.A. Program in English
To receive full consideration, applicants should observe the following schedule:
Application forms with all required supporting documents should be uploaded to the admissions portal by January 1. Offers of admission will be sent to applicants by March 15. Offers of financial aid will be sent by April 1. The deadline for accepting offers of financial aid is April 15.
We plan to admit approximately 8-10 M.A. students for Fall 2022. Applications received after January 1 will be considered for an alternate list to be used in case of late occurring vacancies. No application for financial aid will be accepted after January 1.
Students who wish to enter the M.A. program should have an undergraduate English major or significant coursework in literature. Applicants are expected to have performed capably in all their baccalaureate work and to have earned at least a 3.5 average in their undergraduate English courses.
Students who have begun graduate work at other institutions may be admitted to the M.A. program at Lehigh. Any transfer of credit must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies in English and the Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. No more than six credits of graduate work completed elsewhere--credits that do not fulfill requirements of any other degree--may be applied to the M.A. program at Lehigh.
The application for graduate admission is available online. Applicants will submit the following:
- the completed application form, available here
- a statement of purpose
- an official transcript or transcripts, for all college-level coursework
- three letters of recommendation from instructors familiar with the applicant's undergraduate work in English
- a writing sample of at most 15 pages of non-fiction prose, preferably a paper submitted for a previous assignment.
Admission to Lehigh University’s Ph.D. Program in English
To receive full consideration, applicants should observe the following schedule:
Application forms with all required supporting documents should be uploaded to the graduate admissions portal by January 1. Offers of admission will be sent to applicants by March 15. Offers of financial aid will be sent by April 1. The deadline for accepting offers of financial aid is April 15.
We plan to admit approximately 3-5 Ph.D. students for Fall 2022. Applications received after January 1 will be considered for an alternate list to be used in case of late occurring vacancies. No application for financial aid will be accepted after January 1.
The department admits to its doctoral program only students of proven competence and scholarly promise who hold a master’s degree. An average of 3.5 in course work presented for the M.A. in English and strong endorsements from the student's graduate instructors are minimum requirements for acceptance. We encourage applicants who have completed master's degrees in areas other than English to consult with the Director of Graduate Studies, who may advise that they apply to our M.A. program in order to gain a solid foundation in the discipline.
Admission to the doctoral program neither constitutes nor ensures admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. The candidate must apply to the University Graduate and Research Committee for admission to candidacy after successfully completing the Ph.D. exam.
Other regulations governing admission may be found in the graduate school section of Lehigh University’s catalog or The Graduate Student Handbook.
The application for graduate admission is available online. Applicants will submit the following:
- the completed application form available here
- a statement of purpose
- an official transcript or transcripts, for all undergraduate and graduate coursework
- three letters of recommendation from instructors familiar with the applicant's graduate work in English
- a writing sample of at most 15-20 pages of non-fiction prose, preferably work written at the graduate level (e.g., a research paper or a chapter of the master’s thesis)
- Ph.D. applicants must also provide a brief statement of their foreign language training