Students who wish to complete the M.A. degree over a series of summers on the Middlebury campus must take the following seven courses: Advanced Language Practice (if not exempted); Introduction to Literary Scholarship; one linguistics course; two courses in area studies, including art history, philosophy, music, economics, history, or sociology; one course in methodology, including Methods of Teaching German as a Foreign Language, Methods of Teaching Literature, or Methods of Teaching “Landeskunde;” and one seminar in which the student has to write a Proseminararbeit (15–20 pages).
The remaining five courses may be concentrated in one or two of the following areas: literature, linguistics, or civilization. One of these must be a seminar in which the student writes a Seminararbeit (20–25 pages). The seminar which includes the Seminararbeit may be taken as early as the second summer, and should be taken no later than the third. Students normally write the Proseminararbeit before the Seminararbeit.
The director or associate director may waive Advanced Language Practice on the basis of demonstrated proficiency to allow a student to take another course.
Students planning to complete the M.A. through the program in Mainz or Berlin must take Introduction to Literary Scholarship, a seminar which includes a Proseminararbeit, and a third course during the required preliminary summer in Vermont. It is strongly recommended that the third course be a survey course in literature, history, or philosophy.