The department offers a program leading to the Master of Arts degree in German Studies. Courses train students in literary and cultural studies as well as in applied linguistics and second-language acquisition methodologies in both German and English. There are several tracks available for the M.A. in German Studies: 1) Literature and Culture, 2) Literature, Culture, and Pedagogy, 3) Literature, Culture, and Pedagogy with Secondary Teaching Certification, 4) Literature and Culture, and Translation Studies, and 5) joint professional degrees with a concentration in Journalism, Business Management, Marketing, Management Information Systems, and Collaborative Governance.

Students working toward the Master of Arts degree must complete a minimum of 33 units of graduate work, including at least 30 units in courses offered by the Department of German Studies. GER 508 is required of all master's candidates; GER 579 is required of all graduate teaching assistants in their first semester of teaching. M.A. Thesis Option: Students may be permitted to write a thesis upon application to and consultation with the departmental Graduate Committee. No more than 3 units may be earned for writing the thesis; thesis students enroll in GER 910.

Students must pass both a written and an oral comprehensive examination. At least twenty minutes of the M.A. Oral Examination will be conducted in German, and the candidate’s German proficiency at expressing academic arguments is considered one component of the examination. Prior to this examination, in the spring of their first year, students who do not speak German as their first language will be required to demonstrate at least B2/advanced intermediate proficiency in reading skills and listening skills in German through a recognized proficiency examination, such as the Goethe Zertifikat, TestDaF or ACTFL proficiency tests.