Requirements
« Viewing all majors and minors
- African American Studies
- American Studies
- Area Studies
- Art
- Asian Studies
- Biology
- Business
- Chemistry
- Cinema Studies
- Classical Studies
- Communication
- Computer Science
- Digital Media Design
- Economics
- Education
- English
- Environmental Studies
- Finance
- French
- German
- History
- Honors Seminar
- Independent Scholar
- International Relations
- Islamic World Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Legal Studies
- Mathematics
- Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- Modern Languages and Literatures
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- Psychology
- Religion
- Social Justice
- Sociology and Anthropology
- Spanish
- Theater
- Urban Studies
- Women's and Gender Studies
-
Graduate Programs
- Master of Liberal Studies
- Master of Arts in Teaching
-
Dual-Degree Programs
- Engineering
- International Studies
- Law
- Pharmacy
-
Other Areas of Study
- Ethics Center
- First-Year Studies
-
Pre-Professional Programs
- Health (medicine, dentistry, veterinary, nursing, pharmacy, optometry, physical therapy, and public health)
- Law
Master’s in Liberal Studies
Requirements for Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies
The candidate must successfully complete at least 8 Lake Forest College courses for graduate credit. Since each of these courses carries 4 semester hours of credit, the MLS degree represents a total of 32 semester hours of graduate credit.
-
Of these 8 courses, at least 3 must be MLS interdisciplinary seminars and/or colloquia. The remaining 5 courses are electives and may be chosen from the following options:
- additional MLS seminars;
- advanced undergraduate courses in which the graduate students will be expected to do extra work. In certain cases, students may choose to concentrate electives in a discipline;
- independent study, one form of which is a master’s thesis.
An overall average of B or higher is required to complete the MLS degree.
MLS students are not required to take any minimum number of courses a year to remain in the program. Part-time students are welcomed and most students take only one course a semester. Students may also choose to complete the MLS degree in one year, or a year and a half, through a special accelerated program which usually requires completion of a thesis or final project.
Coursework given a grade of incomplete by the instructor must be cleared within one year; after that, the grade will be recorded permanently as NC (No Credit), which will not affect the student’s grade point average.
Transfer Credit
Once a student is admitted to candidacy, the MLS Committee may approve the transfer of graduate courses from an accredited university. Only courses in which the student has earned a grade of B or higher and that fit into the liberal arts definition of the MLS program can be considered for acceptance in transfer. Normally, the Committee will accept in transfer no more than the equivalent of 2 Lake Forest College graduate courses.
