RSEA students have significant flexibility in designing their own programs of study to best serve their academic objectives, and have a broad-ranging choice of courses — within the guidelines set by the RSEA Chairman and Committee — under the guidance of their academic advisors, and in consultation with the Program Administrator.

This section provides some general RSEA guidelines on the principles governing course selection and information on specific cases. It also explains how credit is given for Core courses and for individual research seminars, further discusses fulfillment of the RSEA language requirement, and gives those who wish to complete the degree in less than two years details about the conditions under which they may do so.

Courses Available to RSEA Students:

RSEA students may choose their courses from among the many and varied offerings of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (as listed in the FAS Courses of Instruction, available at Registration), as well as those at schools where RSEA cross-registration is approved. The FAS departments which regularly offer courses specifically in East Asian studies include — as well as the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations — Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, History of Art and Architecture, Linguistics, Study of Religion, Sanskrit and Indian Studies, and Sociology, and sometimes Comparative Literature, History of Science, Music, and others. The undergraduate Core Curriculum also includes courses on East Asia, many of which are available to graduate students.

The RSEA office (and webpage) maintains an updated list of specifically East Asian courses offered both within FAS and at other schools, and has copies of current course catalogs for all schools at which RSEA students may cross-register.

Within the framework of the RSEA program, however, students' course selection is not necessarily limited solely to courses on East Asia, and depending on a student's particular interests, he or she may be able to take a number of courses outside the East Asian field, while still satisfying the RSEA course requirements. For example, a student interested in Japanese emigration to South America may wish to study Spanish or Portuguese, a student working on Chinese poetry may be interested to take a seminar on European poetics in the Comparative Literature department, a student of modern Korean economics may need a theoretical course or two in the Economics department. While such courses do not count towards the eight East Asian courses required by the program, they are completely allowable in the context of the RSEA A.M. degree.

Credit for Core Courses:

Many undergraduate Core courses, provided they are not oversubscribed, are also available to graduate students, and often have special section meetings limited to graduate students and/or separate requirements, including more substantial paper(s) and separately graded examinations. With the prior approval of the RSEA Committee, such Core courses in East Asian studies may be counted towards the RSEA basic course requirements. Students should discuss their intentions with their RSEA academic advisor and notify the Program Administrator, as well as make sure the Core course instructor is aware they are taking the course for graduate credit.

Individual Reading and Research:

By petition to the program, RSEA students may receive RSEA credit for individual courses of reading and research taken under the supervision of a faculty advisor. RSEA 300 is designed specifically for this purpose, and may be taken to work on an independent research project, or to write the A.M. thesis where there is no appropriate seminar course currently being offered. In this regard, RSEA 300 is distinct from RSEA 310, which is taken in order to polish a previously written paper or develop some prior research into the A.M. thesis, and for which RSEA course credit is not given. See below, Thesis Guidelines, for further explanation of these two courses as they relate to the A.M. thesis.

RSEA students may also take departmental graduate courses of reading and research (e.g., Anthropology 300, Government 3000, Chinese 300, etc.) under the supervision of a member of the relevant department. If students wish to receive RSEA course credit for such a course, they are required to submit a petition (also available from the RSEA office) outlining the proposed course of study and signed by the supervising faculty member. In order to receive RSEA East Asian course credit for any 300 or 3000 level course (including RSEA 300) students must submit any written work produced in the course — paper and bibliographical materials — to the RSEA Committee for its approval.

Students enrolling in RSEA 300, or in any other 300-level reading and research course, should have a well-defined study program and paper topic, and are required to submit a petition form to the RSEA office for the Committee's approval, outlining their proposed course of research and signed by the faculty member under whose supervision the work is undertaken. If the faculty supervisor is not a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or is otherwise unauthorized to sign the study card for RSEA 300, the RSEA Chairman or a member of the Committee must also sign the petition and may sign the study card for this purpose. Petition forms are available in the RSEA office. The two RSEA-specific 300-level courses are defined as follows:

o Regional Studies—East Asia 300. Reading and Research
Designed to allow students to do reading and research in an approved area of their choice under the supervision of an appropriate faculty advisor.

o Regional Studies—East Asia 310. Thesis Development
Designed to allow students to develop previous research or a previously written paper into the A.M. thesis under the direction of an appropriate faculty advisor.