The RSEA master's degree course is a flexible program designed to accommodate a wide range of interests and needs for graduate training in the languages and societies of the nations of East Asia that share the traditional Chinese cultural heritage. Although most students in RSEA concentrate their efforts on either China or Japan, there is significant and growing interest in Korea and Vietnam. From time to time, students wishing to concentrate on an Inner Asian culture are admitted as well. Similar variety characterizes the disciplinary and chronological foci of RSEA students. The economics, politics, and societies of contemporary and near-contemporary East Asia command the attention of a majority of the students, but a good many are primarily interested in historical and other phenomena of one or another traditional period of Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese civilization, while others pursue the study of literature, fine arts, religion, music, thought, and other aspects of East Asian cultures.

The typical applicant to RSEA has an undergraduate background in the study of East Asia and/or previous experience in East Asia itself. Most also have at least begun the study of an East Asian language. Such background and training are taken into consideration, but neither language nor other prior study is a prerequisite for admission to the program.

The requirements for the A.M. degree are (1) a minimum of one year, and normally two years, in residence; (2) demonstration of competence in one East Asian language at the level of a completed third-year course; (3) completion of at least eight RSEA-approved half-courses in East Asian studies; (4) submission of a research seminar paper, in lieu of a master's thesis, in which the student demonstrates the ability to make substantial use of materials written in an East Asian language.

For most students, the RSEA program entails two full years in residence. However, those with substantial prior background are sometimes able to complete the requirements in a single year or in the course of a third semester. It is possible, too, to spend a year or more away from Harvard as an independent Travelling Scholar, before returning to finish the program. Through a long established agreement with the Harvard Law School, students are permitted to interrupt their studies there for one year in order to earn a master's degree in the RSEA program.

A student's program of study may include whatever courses seem to him or her, and to the faculty advisor, to be best suited to the particular purposes of that individual. These courses may be selected not only from among the many and diverse offerings of departments within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences but, by cross-registration, a student also may take appropriate courses at other Harvard Schools including the Law School, the Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government. Cross-registration arrangements similarly exist with M.I.T. and with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

In keeping with the variety of their academic interests, the career paths chosen by graduating RSEA students also are diverse. As many as a third each year go on into one or another Ph.D. program, many of them at Harvard. An increasing number find employment in business or finance, either in East Asia or the U.S or seek positions in government or international agencies. Journalism or other careers in writing or publishing attract some, as do opportunities in museums. Occasionally, students pursue careers in secondary school teaching or work for a non-profit organization. The program regularly attracts students from the Japanese and Korean Foreign Ministries and other governmental departments and, from time to time, from like agencies in Singapore and other countries. These naturally return to their established careers abroad, while other foreign students normally go back to seek positions in their native lands.