Masters Program

Because HPS is a doctoral program, applicants interested only in receiving a terminal
M.A. degree will not be accepted. However, this rule does not apply to individuals concurrently enrolled in other doctoral graduate programs of the University who seek to earn a nonresearch HPS master’s degree in order to complement their doctoral studies. Students whose primary enrollment is in HPS will be entitled to receive a master’s degree once they have completed the written and oral examination for Ph.D. candidacy. In addition, in the event that an admitted HPS student decides to leave the program or is subsequently discontinued by the HPS program or the disciplinary department, the student may pursue a research (or thesis) terminal M.A. degree.

The nonresearch HPS M.A. degree requires the completion of 36 credit hours of course
work. Three courses in history of science and three courses in philosophy of science form
the core of this requirement. The student, in consultation with the HPS program director,
selects the remaining courses. To be eligible for HPS credit, these courses must bear in
significant ways on the concerns of history and philosophy of science. Students taking
the nonresearch HPS M.A. concurrently with a Ph.D. in another Notre Dame program may
count up to nine hours of course work toward both degree programs, subject to approval
by the director of HPS and the director of graduate studies in the other program. Reading
knowledge in one foreign language (ordinarily French or German) will be required. A
one-hour oral examination, based on course work, will complete the requirements for
the nonresearch degree. Students taking the terminal HPS research M.A. will prepare
an extended research paper or formal M.A. thesis under the direction of a faculty member,
for which six hours of thesis credit will be awarded. A one-hour oral comprehensive
examination completes the requirements for this research M.A. degree.