Liberal Arts (MLA)

Overview

The Master of Liberal Arts Program is an interdisciplinary graduate program for adults interested in crossing the boundaries of a traditional, career-oriented approach. It is of particular interest to those who want to explore new disciplines in the liberal arts, who wish to supplement their professional education by continued intellectual growth, or who simply wish to satisfy their continuing intellectual curiosity and creativity.

The Master of Liberal Arts program has become popular with educators who desire an alternative to traditional education graduate programs. A number of elementary, middle, and high school educators have used the program to accumulate continuing professional education credits required in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

McDaniel College is a member of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs.

Admissions Requirements

Initial Admission

Candidates required to submit:

application for graduate study with non-refundable fee
official transcript conferring bachelor’s degree (minimum 3.0* GPA) from an accredited institution
three reference forms

*Applicants not meeting this criterion may be admitted to the program on a conditional basis (such applicants may be asked to submit a writing sample). Full acceptance will be reviewed at the completion of nine graduate credits.

Full Acceptance

satisfactory completion of 3 courses (9 credits) in the program, maintaining graduate academic standards
a brief, written rationale–accompanying the self-designed program of study–submitted for the coordinator’s approval prior to the completion of 3 courses (9 credits) in the program

Courses

The M.L.A. program consists of ten, three-credit courses, and a Final Project worth six-credits for a total of 36 credit hours. Although there are required courses, the program’s primary feature is that students are expected to design self-design a Program of Study. This flexibility allows students to pursue courses that best reflect their personal and professional interests. The MLA program has the following requirements.

Required Courses (12 credits)

Self-Designed Program of Study (24 credits)

Students will provide a brief, written rational that justifies their individual Program of Study (require for full admission). Each program must include:

At least one Cultural Heritage course (a course that focuses on the issues relevant to the shaping of culture).
At least one Contemporary Society course (a course that focuses on the current issues evident in modern society).
At least one Creative Process course (a course that requires students to explore their artistic and creative talents).

All Cultural Heritage, Contemporary Society, and Creative Process courses must come from the MLA curriculum.

Any two courses of the Program of Study may come from outside the MLA curriculum (transferred from another McDaniel graduate program or from another accredited graduate institution). A maximum of one independent study course is permitted within the Program of Study (though a second independent student may be arranged with coordinator permission).

Specializations

Students may specialize their course of study in the MLA program. Completion of a specialization will be noted on the final transcript. The fields of specialization are: Environmental Literacy (EL), Fine Arts (FA), Language and Literature (LL), and Social Studies (SS).

For students who wish to complete one of the specialization tracks in the MLA program, four of the elective courses (12 credits) within the Program of Study must come from that specialization and the final project must be completed in that area of specialization.