Admissions

Demonstrated reading knowledge of French and German is required of all students. Competence in at least one is expected for admission; any deficiencies must be made good before admission to the second year of study. The Department also requires a GRE score and, for students whose native language is not English, a TOEFL score. Foreign students can arrange to take these tests through the American Embassy in their respective countries.

All applicants for the Ph.D. program are considered for Graduate School financial aid as part of the admissions procedure. No financial aid is available for the Masters program. The Department has no fellowship funds of its own, but post-doctoral fellowships in Semitics (Kohut Fellowship) and Egyptology may be available through the Department.

Candidates should state in their applications the field within the Department in which they wish to concentrate. Prospective students are encouraged whenever possible to visit the Department in order to discuss their interests directly with the appropriate faculty.

Degree Requirements

The Department aims to train scholars in the cultures of various Near Eastern peoples through study and interpretation of their languages and literatures, their history, and archaeological analysis of their cultures. Concentrations are provided in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Assyriology (Akkadian and Sumerian), Egyptology, and Graeco-Arabic Studies, and may occasionally be arranged in other fields.

A program leading to scholarly proficiency in one of the concentrations named above will be planned at the beginning of the student's course of study. This will normally consist of three years of course work and the subsequent writing of a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

For the Master's degree, two years of course work and a thesis are required, for the M.Phil. degree three years of course work and successful completion of a comprehensive examination. For more information on the requirements for the MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees, consult the Departmental listings in the Bulletin of the Yale Graduate School.

http://www.yale.edu/printer/bulletin/htmlfiles/grad/degree-granting-departments-and-programs.html