Registration
Fall Registration will start at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, April 25th.
Summer Registration will start at 9:30 AM on Thursday, May 4th.
Be advised that all holds must be cleared before registration.
STUDENT ADVISEMENT HOLDS
- Returning Students - All returning students will have advisement holds. Your Advising Fellow will be in touch with you about how to lift the hold.
- New students - these holds will only be removed once each student has filled in the MALS Student Questionnaire and attended a group advisement session. Please fill out the questionnaire as soon as possible and register for a group advising session to ensure that the hold is lifted before registration.
In order for a class to count for the degree, students must be graded on a A-F scale. The only exception is MALS 79000, the Thesis/Capstone Project which is graded on a Pass/Fail basis
All students are required to be in status each term. This means that students must either be registered or be on an approved Leave of Absence.
KEY DATES
See the Academic Calendar for the Fall 2023 calendar.
MALS 70000 - Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies
The Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies course is required for all MALS students. The course is a topics class. Faculty who teach it choose a subject of study – usually related to their own research interests – and explore that topic through a range of disciplinary lenses. The class is designed to help students understand interdisciplinary work, develop their written, oral, and analytic skills, and create a cohort experience. We encourage students to take this class in their first or second semester in the program.
MALS Core Courses
Students who entered the program this Fall, should be taking their second core course if it is offered. If you do not take the core courses when they are offered, you may miss them in case they are not offered next year, and this may delay the completion of your degree down the line. In some cases, MALS core courses will be cross-listed with other programs. Students who would like to have these courses satisfy the core course requirement for their chosen concentration must register for the MALS course number.
Satisfactory Progress Holds
Students must be in good standing to register. Students who have a Satisfactory Progress hold should have received an email to this effect from the Registrar’s office earlier this semester. Please contact Professor Elizabeth Macaulay to resolve the hold. The MALS department can resolve ONLY academic holds; for other holds, contact the corresponding GC offices.
Registering for MALS 79000 (Thesis Research or Capstone Project), 3 credits
In order to register for MALS 79000 through CUNYFirst, students need to obtain written confirmation from the faculty who will serve as adviser and forward the confirmation in an email to Kathy Koutsis (kkoutsis@gc.cuny.edu), who will then issue a course override. Any professor who has an appointment to the Graduate Center can serve as a thesis advisor (not just faculty within MALS).
MALS 79000 is a 3-credit course and is different from the Thesis Workshop class, which is also three credits.
Thesis Writing Course, MALS 72000, (3 credits)
If you would like to sign up for the thesis writing course, permission of the department is required. To express your interest in taking this course, please fill in this form for Fall 2023. This is a 3-credit course and it is not a substitute for MALS 79000.
Maintenance of Matriculation
Students who have completed the 30 credits for the degree, but need an additional semester to complete the thesis, should register for “Maintenance of Matriculation”.
Permissions
If you find that a course offered by another department is closed or has restrictions, you can get in touch with the instructor for permission to enroll. Once you’ve got the instructor’s permission, you'll arrange for it to be posted to CUNYfirst by emailing the Assistant Program Officer of the department offering the course. Please include your EMPL ID in your correspondence. Here’s a link to the doctoral programs.
For MALS courses, please ask the instructor to post the permission to enroll in CUNYfirst.
Registering for English and Comparative Literature Courses
Please note that the English and Comparative Literature departments offer a 2-credit option for all of their courses. This option is only available to students enrolled in Ph.D. programs; MALS students should choose the 3- or 4-credit option when registering for English courses. ALL Comparative Literature courses, except for CL 89100/89200/79500, are offered for 2 or 4 credits. MALS students should choose the 3- or 4-credit option when registering for Comparative Literature courses.
When registering for variable credit courses, the registration will be processed automatically for the lowest credit value available. You may change this credit value by clicking on the credit number in the registration screen.
Federal Aid Information
A few key points: Students must be registered for at least 6 credits to receive federal aid (Perkins, work study, Stafford and Graduate PLUS). The amount of federal aid a student is eligible for is based on the number of credits the student registers for, a standardized cost of living amount, and the student’s financial need. If a student drops from 9 to 6 credits, their aid eligibility decreases by the cost of those three credits. If a student drops from 6 to 3 credits, all of their federal aid would be cancelled.
If a student completely withdraws from all classes prior to the 60% point of the policy on our website comes into effect. The 60% point is also when students who completely withdraw are entitled to keep their loans. Any student who completely withdraws from their classes will give up any remaining work study eligibility.
For detailed information, visit Master's Scholarships and Financial Aid.
