Office of the Registrar

Graduate School

Programs are available for the following advanced degrees: master of arts, master of fine arts, master of public health, master of science, master of medical science, master of arts in teaching, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of medicine.

Degree Requirements

Listed below, in brief, are general degree requirements of the Graduate School. For specific degree requirements, consult the latest edition of the Bulletin of the University .

Specific departmental requirements for degree programs are listed in the Divisions, Departments, Centers, Programs, and Institutes section of the Bulletin of the University. More detailed information may also be obtained directly from the appropriate departments. Students should understand that the mechanical fulfillment of stated basic requirements will not by itself earn any advanced degree; the faculty of the program concerned must also be satisfied as to the intellectual merit and scholarly potential of the candidate.

Both the general requirements of the Graduate School and the specific requirements of the individual programs must be met.

Grade Requirements

A minimum grade of either Satisfactory or C in a 1000 or 2000 level course carries credit toward all advanced degrees. Individual departments may, subject to the approval of the Graduate Council, set higher grade requirements.

Advanced degree candidates may be required to register in courses primarily for undergraduates (numbered 1-999); these courses do not carry advanced degree credit. On occasion, however, and with approval of the student's department and the Dean, a student may register for such a course with extra work for advanced degree credit. This course then has the same standing as a 1000 level course and an E is noted on the transcript. This provision for extra work does not apply to courses of the level of 1-999 taken for graduate credit by students in the Master of Medical Science or School of Medicine programs.

Special Graduate Study

If, after at least one year of full-time graduate study at Brown, a student wishes to pursue scholarly work which cannot be accommodated within an existing Ph.D. program, the student may apply for permission to enroll as a doctoral student in special study. This entails drafting a self-designed plan of study, submitting a petition to the Graduate Council for approval and fulfilling the general requirements of the Graduate School for the Ph.D. at Brown.

Only current graduate students or recent graduates of one of the regular graduate programs may apply for special graduate study.

For more information, see Faculty Rules and Regulations, Part 2, Section 5, VIII, or contact the secretary of the Graduate Council.

Second Master's Degree

A candidate for the Ph.D. may earn a master's degree in a field related or complementary to the Ph.D. in addition to the master's degree in the same field as the Ph.D. Degree requirements for both master's degrees must be separately met, and the advisors from both degree programs must approve. No tuition is charged beyond that charged for the Ph.D. program (see "Advanced Degree Programs"). Application forms for the second master's degree program are available from the Graduate School.

Doctoral students who transfer credit for a master's degree earned elsewhere are limited to earning only one master's degree at Brown.

Exchange Scholar Program

Brown University participates in an Exchange Scholar Program that enables advanced graduate students to study for one or two semesters in the graduate schools of one of the other participating institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Yale University. Courses taken and research conducted with particular faculty members at one of the institutions above will be registered on the academic record and official transcript at Brown. Students are eligible to be Exchange Scholars only after completing an academic year of study in a doctoral degree program at Brown. Participating students will be registered as Exchange Scholars with Brown and will hold special nondegree status at the host institution.

Additional Graduate School Information