You must consult with your primary advisor early in your M.A. program about whether Dual degrees are appropriate and feasible for you. It is recommended that you take at least one course from the other program during the first year of graduate studies and then consult with the other program advisor about making formal application to that program. The sequence of courses for both programs will be individually structured by the student's Ad Hoc Graduate Committee, which will consist of the primary advisor from each program and a third faculty member from either department with a specialization appropriate to the student's interest. The Ad Hoc Committee will meet toward the end of each year and assess the progress of the student, determining the student's continuation in the program. Students may not combine a Plan 1 degree with a second Plan 1 degree.
Students are, however, encouraged to select interdisciplinary thesis topics.
Credits applied toward both degrees may not include thesis hours. The M.A. program in Chinese is designed to offer students maximum general exposure to the long sweep of Chinese literary history while also requiring intensive study of some particular genre or period. Each of the program's faculty members specializes in one or another of these periods and has additional competance in a second period. The program is therefore truly comprehensive in scope. An added extra-curricular bonus for the program is the fact that the Journal of the American Oriental Society and T'ang Studies are edited by members of the faculty.