Home > Graduate > Applicants

DEAR PROSPECTIVE APPLICANT,

We are pleased that you are interested in graduate studies in Romance Languages and Literatures. I hope our web site and its links provide you with a good basic introduction to our department. The electronic application for admission is available each year starting in late August on the website of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The deadline for application in 2010-11 is January 2, 2010. It is important that you submit all of the required documents by that date.

While you are visiting our site, please examine carefully Higher Degrees in Romance Languages and Literatures as well as the pages relating specifically to the program that you are considering. These pages will probably answer many of your questions about our graduate program. The Registrar lists the current year's course course offerings in detail.

A few things to note: ordinarily, although our Ph.D. program incorporates a Master's degree, new applicants will be considered for the full doctoral program only. The Graduate School has become increasingly more able to provide its students with the resources necessary to complete advanced degree programs. Currently, the standard financial aid package includes:

Tuition, fees, stipend for years 1 and 2
Tuition, fees, teaching salary equal to stipend in years 3 and 4
Tuition, fees, stipend for completion year
Summer funding following years 1 through 4

Sources of additional funding include summer awards for language study, travel for dissertation research, loans, exchange programs, and competitive fellowships within and outside the University. (All students are awarded full final year funding when they are ready to finish the dissertation.) All students in good standing are afforded the opportunity to teach beginning in the third year of graduate studies.

If you have questions about a specific literature, you may write to the appropriate Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Christie McDonald in French; Professor Francesco Erspamer in Italian; Professor Joaquim-Francisco Coelho in Portuguese; and Professor Luis Girón Negrón in Spanish. You are welcome to call or email me with general or policy-related questions.

I very much look forward to being in touch with you.

Sincerely,

Frannie Lindsay
Graduate Coordinator
Phone: 617-495-2525

Last updated on September 17, 2009