How to Apply

The Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures and Media (AMCM) program is now accepting applications for the 2024–2025 academic year. This will be a small, highly selective graduate program, and we expect to offer multiple-year funding packages to all admitted students. Funding will consist of a combination of graduate fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships.    

Please note that only applications from students seeking the PhD degree will be considered, although applicants are not required to have taken graduate coursework before entering the program. All admitted students are expected to begin their course of study in fall semester 2024.

Although we hope to expand our program during the coming years, at present we are only considering applicants who wish to pursue graduate work in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, or Urdu (or another South Asian language in which our graduate faculty have expertise).

All application materials must be submitted electronically through the online application system. We strongly encourage all applicants to make sure that recommendation letters are also uploaded directly. If, however, there is a particular problem with doing so, recommendation letters may be emailed (by the recommenders) to the department: amesgrad@umn.edu. All other documents must be directly uploaded by the applicants. Please do not submit any paper documents.                

All applications must be completed by Monday, December 4, 2023 for fall 2024. Recommendation letters that are emailed to the department must arrive no later than Monday, December 4, 2023.
 

 

Admission

As noted above, applications will be accepted for the PhD degree only. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited US institution (or its foreign equivalent) is required for admission. Students entering with an MA in a related field will have the appropriate number of credits and courses applied to their program of study (as determined by the Director of Graduate Studies). Applicants are expected to have a strong academic record from a relevant humanities or social science discipline and at least three years of college-level study in the proposed language of concentration or a demonstration of comparable linguistic proficiency.

Because this program offers wide-ranging courses of study and several languages of concentration, the Graduate Admissions Committee will carefully judge each applicant's preparation in terms of communication skills, knowledge of subject matter, experience, and background in the proposed language of concentration. In general, admissions decisions are based on three criteria:

  • The quality of the applicant's previous work and training, as evidenced in the written materials submitted to us
  • The relation between the applicant's stated interests and the particular strengths of our faculty
  • The ways in which the applicant's work would bring strength and diversity to our program

We limit the number of admitted students to ensure a close working relationship between graduate students and program faculty. We expect two to four students to enter the program in any given year. Admission will therefore be highly competitive, and not all applicants with strong academic records can be accepted.

A decision for admission notice will be emailed to you once your application is carefully reviewed by the department’s admission committee and your transcripts and any credentials (test reports, diploma copies, etc.) are authenticated by Graduate School officials. You can expect a decision by late March or early April.