Master of Arts (MA) Degree

The Bread Loaf MA aims to give students a broad familiarity with the fields of British, American, and world literature. Candidates must hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited college to be eligible for admission.

A Bread Loaf School of English MA is awarded by Middlebury College; Bread Loaf degree holders are Middlebury alumni.

Requirements

To earn the MA, students must successfully complete the equivalent of 10 courses, receiving a grade of B- or better in each; no thesis is required. Though students have 10 years to complete the degree, most take the equivalent of two courses per summer and finish the degree in four to five summers.

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.

The normal summer program of study consists of two courses (two units) in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont, and one course (two units) at Oxford. In New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont each course meets five hours a week. After the first summer, exceptional students may, with permission, take a third course for credit in New Mexico, North Carolina, or Vermont or an additional tutorial (one unit of credit) at Oxford.

Each one-unit course at Bread Loaf receives the equivalent of three semester hours or 4.5 quarter hours of graduate credit.

A maximum of two graduate courses (the equivalent of six semester-hour or nine quarter-hour credits) may be transferred from another institution.

Group Requirements for the MA

The Bread Loaf curriculum is divided into six groups:

(I)     Writing, Pedagogy, and Literacy
(II)    British Literature through the Seventeenth Century
(III)   British Literature since the Seventeenth Century
(IV)   American Literature
(V)    World Literature
(VI)   Theater Arts

Degree candidates are required to take two courses each from Groups II and III, and one course each from Groups IV and V. Upon the student's request, any one of these six group requirements may be waived.