USC
University of Southern California
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Graduate Degrees

Master of Arts

The East Asian Studies Center offers an interdisciplinary master’s degree in East Asian Area Studies. The program provides a wide range of language, cultural, social, historical, political and economic courses and faculty expertise; individual courses of study may be designed to meet both continuing academic and professional objectives. Students may concentrate primarily on one country (China, Japan, Korea) or develop region-wide expertise through a combination of course work and the thesis project.

Admission Requirements

Prerequisites
While an applicant for admission will normally have significant experience in East Asian language(s) and area studies as demonstrated through course work completed for the undergraduate degree, programs may be arranged for promising students without prior experience in East Asian studies. There is no formal language requirement for admission.

Criteria
The student should have an undergraduate record satisfactory to the center. Three letters of recommendation from professors familiar with the applicant’s academic performance should be sent to the center director. All applicants are required to take the verbal and quantitative general tests of the Graduate Record Examinations.

Degree Requirements

This degree is under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and the Graduate School section of the catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degree must be courses acceptable to the Graduate School.

Foreign Language Requirement
Students must be able to demonstrate oral and written proficiency in Chinese, Korean or Japanese through the third year level (equivalent to six semesters) before the M.A. program is completed.

Course and Thesis Requirements
Six courses (24 units), four of which must be at the 500 level or above, plus the thesis (4 units) are required. All students must complete: (1) EASC 592; (2) EALC 531, EALC 532 or EALC 533; and (3) one other course from a College of Letters, Arts and Sciences department. The three additional courses (12 units) may be taken from college departments or professional schools. All courses must be approved by the center director or advisor. A maximum of two courses at the 400 level may be counted toward the degree. All students must register for EASC 594ab Master’s Thesis for the thesis project.

Master of Arts/Master of Business Administration

The Marshall School of Business in conjunction with the East Asian Studies Center offers a joint M.A./M.B.A. degree that combines graduate business education with training in the cultures and societies of East Asia. Students enrolled in the joint degree program are required to complete a minimum of 72 units. All students must complete 48 units in the Marshall School of Business. Dual degree students may not count courses taken outside the Marshall School of Business toward the 48 units. In East Asian Area Studies, students have the option of taking five courses and writing a thesis (for a total of 24 units) or taking six courses and passing a comprehensive examination (for a total of 24 units).

Applicants for the joint M.A./M.B.A. are required to follow the admission procedures for the full-time M.B.A. program described here. GRE scores are not required for admission into the joint program.

Required Courses
Required GSBA courses: all required courses in the M.B.A. core program.

Required EASC coursesUnits
EASC 592Proseminar on Issues and Trends in Contemporary East Asia4

and one course from the following list:

Cultural/Historical Foundations of East Asia
AHIS 518Seminar in Chinese Art
AHIS 519Seminar in Japanese Art
EALC 501History of Chinese Literature
EALC 506Selections from Classical Chinese Literature
EALC 515Classical Japanese Poetics
EALC 531Proseminar in Chinese Cultural History
EALC 532Proseminar in Korean Cultural History
EALC 533Proseminar in Japanese Cultural History
EALC 540Japanese Thought: Cultural Topics
EALC 541Seminar: Japan
EALC 543Seminar: Japanese Literature
EALC 551Seminar: China
EALC 553Seminar: Chinese Literature
EALC 610Seminar: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Japan
HIST 535Studies in Japanese History
HIST 536Studies in Chinese History
HIST 540Studies in Modern East Asian History
HIST 630Seminar in Japanese History
HIST 635Seminar in Chinese History

Elective Courses (Thesis Option)
During the second and third years of the program students must complete enough graduate units to bring the total number of units completed in the Marshall School of Business to 48, complete 12 units of East Asian Area Studies elective courses (three courses), and complete a four-unit thesis under the guidance of a faculty committee of three members. The subject will concern East Asia and may focus on business/finance.

Elective Courses (Comprehensive Examination Option)
During the second and third years of the program students must complete enough graduate units to bring the total number of units completed in the Marshall School of Business to 48, complete 16 units of East Asian Area Studies elective courses (four courses) and must pass a comprehensive examination in East Asian Area Studies.

Foreign Language Requirement
Students must be able to demonstrate oral and written proficiency in Chinese, Japanese or Korean language through the third year level (equivalent to six semesters) before the joint M.A./M.B.A. program is completed. Language course work taken to meet this requirement will not count toward the minimum unit or course requirements for completion of the degree program. Therefore, students without sufficient undergraduate language course work, native speaker capability or other prior training, are advised that additional units and course work beyond the minimum 72 units may be required in order to satisfy the foreign language requirement. USC offers beginning, intermediate and advanced Chinese, Japanese and Korean language courses during the academic year (fall/spring) and intensive 10-week language programs during the summer that provide beginning and intermediate level instruction.