Thesis option

Students take a total of 30 semester credit hours (ten courses), including 6 hours of PHIL 5950 . At least 18 hours (six courses) must be taken in the Department of Philosophy and Religion; 6 hours (two courses) may be taken outside of the department. Outside course work is optional, not required. 

In consultation with their major professor, students will enroll in 6 hours of PHIL 5950  while preparing a Master’s Thesis.

Non-thesis option

Students take a total of 30 semester credit hours (10 courses). At least 24 hours (8 courses) must be taken in the Department of Philosophy and Religion; 6 hours (two courses) may be taken outside of the department. Outside course work is optional, not required. The Comprehensive Exam is conducted during the final semester of the student’s course work.

Comprehensive exam

Comprehensive Examination

Satisfying the Toulouse Graduate School Requirement for Qualifying Examination and Admission to Candidacy.

The purpose of the comprehensive exam is for the non-thesis MA student in philosophy to develop a background in philosophical topics and environmental philosophy.

Consistent with the Toulouse Graduate School Requirement for Qualifying Examination and Admission to Candidacy this comprehensive exam will require the student to demonstrate competency in these two areas of philosophy.

Students are eligible for the comprehensive exam beginning in the final semester of course work. Exams will be administered by the end of the spring semester. Exams can be administered by the end of the fall semester with the consent of the Director of Graduate Studies.

Students are required to take one MA Comprehensive Examination consisting of two essays. There is a suggested readings list for the exam. The comprehensive exam questions will be based on the reading list and recently offered courses. Sample questions are posted at the department web site. The Comprehensive Exam Committee will be responsible for soliciting exam questions from faculty and for assembling the set of questions from which the student will study. The student is strongly encouraged to enroll in a special problems course devoted to preparation for the exam.

At the time of the exam, the Comprehensive Exam Committee will select six questions from the study list, three from philosophical topics and three from environmental philosophy. The student will then choose two of these questions to answer (one from philosophical topics and one from environmental philosophy) with an essay of roughly 2,000 words for each question (two essay answers in total). The exam will be four hours long, administered in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, written on an internet disabled computer.

All three members of the Comprehensive Exam Committee will read the essays, marking them Pass or Fail. Should at least two members judge an essay or the essays to be failing, the Committee may permit the student to retake those sections once. Such permission is at the discretion of the Committee; should the Committee not grant it, or should a student fail a second time, the student will be removed from the program for unsatisfactory progress.

Pass-through option

Available only to students pursing a PhD in Philosophy at UNT. Students take a total of 30 semester credit hours (ten courses). At least 24 hours (eight courses) must be taken in the Department of Philosophy and Religion; 6 hours (two courses) may be taken outside of the department. Outside course work is optional, not required. After completing 27 hours of course work, students will enroll in 3 hours of PHIL 5900 Special Problems  as a capstone course. The capstone course is only open to students taking the pass-through MA option.