The Master of Letters program is limited to highly qualified candidates who already hold an M.A. in English. The M.Litt. program builds in a concentrated, specialized way on the broader base of the Master of Arts in English. Students choose a field of concentration in which most or all of their course work is to be done. A field of concentration may be a period such as the Renaissance, a genre such as the novel, or a field of study such as American poetry.
The M.Litt. requires the completion of ten courses, each worth one unit of graduate study (one unit is the equivalent of three semester-hour or 4.5 quarter-hour credits). Of those courses, seven must be in the area of concentration and three may be electives. Students may opt to include Independent Reading Projects as part of their program, but an IRP is not required for the degree. A maximum of two graduate courses (the equivalent of six semester-hour or nine quarter-hour credits) may be transferred from another institution.
The degree is normally earned in four or five summers at the Bread Loaf School of English. Students may attend any of Bread Loaf's four campuses, but at least one summer must be spent in residence at the School of English in Vermont. Each summer students in the program will enroll in two courses (or the equivalent).
All students are accepted provisionally for the first summer. During that summer, students will draw up a program of study in consultation with the associate director. Readmission is based on the successful completion of the first summer's work and an approved program of study. (Rarely is a candidate for the degree denied readmission, but students will not be allowed to register for a second year of courses until the program of study has been approved.)
No thesis is required, but in the final summer any student pursuing a literary track must pass a comprehensive written and oral examination which covers the field of concentration and is based on texts and issues the student has defined as central to the program of study. Writing students ordinarily present a portfolio of creative or pedagogical work, and theater students (who do not opt for a literary track) produce an appropriate dramatic project; in both cases, this work may be carried out in conjunction with an Independent Reading Project.