The completion of a minimum of thirty course credits is required of all students pursuing a Master's Degree in Religion.
M.A. Students are required to take ten courses that comprise these thirty credits:
- All students are required to take "Theory and Method in the Study of Religion" (16:840:501).
- A combined maximum of two graduate-level courses may be taken in other Rutgers departments (or other universities, e.g., pdf through the Princeton-Rutgers Exchange) (129 KB) , subject to the approval of the Graduate Director.*
- 400-level courses taught by full-time department faculty may be counted toward graduate credit, provided that additional work is performed (e.g., additional readings and a 25-page term paper).
- Subject to the approval of the Graduate Director, a maximum of two upgraded 300-level undergraduate courses may be taken for credit toward the M.A.
- Only one independent study course is normally allowed.
- All students are required to complete either:
a) A 6-credit thesis (840:701, 840:702) taken during the last two semesters and for which students must apply to the Thesis Proposal Committee thirteen months before completion of the M.A. (for full-time students on the 2-year program, this will mean the second semester of study). Please refer to the M.A. with Thesis Timeline.
OR
b) A 3-credit capstone project (840:703) taken in the last semester of study. The capstone project requires close consultation with the adviser, but no formal application to a committee. Please refer to the M.A. with Capstone Timeline.
*To encourage language training, which is especially important for those who want to pursue a Ph.D., relevant language coursework at the 300-level or higher may count towards the M.A. degree. Language course credits require the approval of the graduate director in consultation with the student's thesis supervisor, and students need to consult with their thesis supervisors to determine what language(s) to study and at what level.
Our faculty members work with texts written in Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Pali, Persian, and Sanskrit as well as other classical and vernacular languages, and can direct independent readings in these languages. Languages regularly taught at Rutgers include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian, and Sanskrit.
