Master’s in Liberal Studies
A candidate must successfully complete at least eight Lake Forest College courses for graduate credit. Since each of these courses carries four semester hours of credit, the MLS degree represents a total of 32 semester hours of graduate credit.
Of these eight courses, at least three must be MLS interdisciplinary seminars. The remaining five 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 or programmatic area;
- 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, usually requiring 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 the program, 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 two Lake Forest College graduate courses.