Would I be able to take courses outside of my Masters program?

Question

This is a question for any grad students or faculty that would like to clue me in on how the whole grad school thing works. I'll be graduating in a year with a double major in French lit and English with minors in graphic design and psychology. My immediate plans are to go to France and teach for a year, come back, and do a masters degree in French. During my masters, I was thinking of taking graphic design courses so that I would essentially have a major in design. I don't know if the university would allow me to take courses in design when they pay my tuition (I would be teaching French classes for a stipend). Do you think this would be an issue?

Answer 1

Your master's program will have specific requirements and probably not any electives like you had in undergrad. For the most part, the electives will be specifically in the area of study. You'll get to pick which of several French lit. courses you take for example.

What you want to do is take a course or two for personal enrichment from another department. It's generally not a problem as long as you get permission of your adviser and permission of the department you're taking the course in.

It won't count in your master's degree requirements, but in your case it doesn't appear that would matter to you.

I'm doing that this very semester with an out of area course to decide if I like that program enough to try their MA. It's not inside my MBA program at all. You'd have to be qualified for admission to that program to do it.

It's most likely though that you will have to pay for it yourself and it will effect your course load. You won't be allowed to overload into it.

Answer 2

While I do not know the specifics of your institution, the rules here surrounding course load are as follows:
1. No graduate student may take courses outside their field of study without permission from their advisor.
2. No graduate student may take courses below the 400 level and have it covered by their tuition waiver.
3. No graduate student may cover more than 18 credits per year on their tuition waiver.
Now, if you are working for a straight stipend and are not recieveing a tuition waiver, then these guidlines may not be useful at all, however your best bet is to find an advisor that is willing to work with you on achieving your goals. If you cannot find one that is willing to allow you to spread out your studies beyond the scope of French, perhaps explore an Interdisciplinary degree with concentrations in your areas of interest.

Answer 3

It varies from college to college, but generally no, Master's programs typically are fairly stringent on what courses you have to take, and rarely do you get to take courses outside of your major. Some colleges offer one or more optional courses of which of which you can take any course to fill in those credits, but often that requires prior approval you can take them. And once again, not all Master's courses have these "optional" course for you to take.

If you like, what you can always do is take some courses outside of your program at another college or university. I likely won't be transferable, but at least you'll get to take courses that you want.