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The Master's Degree is now the most common graduate degree in the United States. In 1960, there were seven times as many Master's Degrees awarded as Doctoral Degrees; in 1988, there were nine times as many Masters's as Doctoral degrees awarded. Sixty per cent of students taking the Graduate Record Examination 1990 indicated that the Master's Degree was their ultimate objective.

Building on the Bachelor's Degree, the Master's Degree prepares researchers, professionals and practitioners. It provides a steppingstone to the Doctoral Degree as well as a capstone for a professional career. It is primarily built on the knowledge gained in undergraduate study, but it may also provide advanced work in a field new to the student. It is the entry level degree for many professions, a fact which is being rapidly extended by American education and business.

The Master's Thesis is a crucial part of the Master's Degree program. It is a written, scholarly presentation of original research that is submitted and defended as partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master's Degree. It may be original in the sense that either previously-unknown information is uncovered and presented or previously-known information is presented in a creatively new way leading to new applications. The prescribed format for the written Thesis is outlined on the following pages.

The Thesis Advisor is a faculty member, with particular expertise in the student's projected area of research, who has primary responsibility for guiding the student through the research. The Thesis Committee is a faculty group of three (3) with expertise in the student's area of research or in areas related to it. The Thesis Advisor is both a member and the Chair of the Thesis Committee. It is the responsibility of the student to seek out a Thesis Advisor and a Thesis Committee, and to submit to them in writing a research proposal. It is the responsibility of the Thesis Committee to grant final approval to the student's research proposal, to oversee the research, to approve the written Master's Thesis and to conduct a final examination of it. This final examination will be, first, a public presentation and defense of the Thesis followed, secondly, by a private defense before the Thesis Committee. The selection of a research topic should be made as early in the program of studies as possible. once approved, the research proposal becomes part of the student's permanent record.