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Language Skills in the Workforce
The BA/MA program offered by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures allows students to increase their chances of pursuing an exciting career in French or Spanish. If you are an exceptional, non-teacher education student, you now have the opportunity to be in the first program in Illinois that enables students to complete a B.A. and an M.A. in French or Spanish in only five years of study.
The M.A. in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures will significantly enhance your ability to find a job that requires your language skills. It will increase your possibilities of acceptance into a Ph.D. program in some of the best graduate schools in the United States.
Previous graduates are pursuing social service, government, and business careers in French and Spanish. Others have attended prestigious graduate schools, such as the University of Wisconsin, the University of Chicago, and the University of Virginia.
The B.A./M.A. will help you to reduce your undergraduate expenses. If you have completed enough course work before the second semester of your senior year, you will be eligible for a graduate assistantship. A graduate assistantship pays your tuition and provides an appx. $800 monthly salary. In return, you will teach a class or work in the language laboratory. In the fifth year of study, all B.A./M.A. students may apply for a graduate assistantship.
The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures will take into consideration its best students with a 3.5 G.P.A. or higher to apply for the B.A./M.A. program during their sophomore year. Students accepted into the program will take nine hours of graduate study in their senior year and 18 hours during their fifth year of study. Upon completion of the program, you will have taken a major step towards a fulfilling career.