Master of Arts in Liberal Studies - MALS
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Course Offerings
Students in the MALS program utilize the graduate courses offered by the different departments at NCSU as well as MALS seminars (MLS 501), which are graduate-level interdisciplinary three-credit-hour courses. Students are required to take a minimum of two MALS seminars before they graduate. Each semester, two or three different MALS seminars are offered on a range of topics by outstanding NCSU faculty. New MALS seminars are continually being developed and popular ones repeated. MALS seminars have no prerequisites, are limited to 15 students, and are interdisciplinary.
Students also take courses from other departments at NCSU. Students should be aware that some courses have specific prerequisites that are indicated in the catalog description. Graduate course offerings at NCSU can be viewed online by going to the Graduate Catalog and then selecting the specific department whose offerings you wish to view. Keep in mind that independent study is also available as a way of earning academic credit. Independent study is done by finding an NCSU faculty member who will supervise your work on a particular topic or project. Examples of independent study include
- extensive reading on a topic not available through an existing course
- receiving academic credit for some project or activity that has educational value for you
The faculty supervisor will normally require some written work as part of the independent study.
While enrolled in the program, students may take courses from other universities and have the credit counted toward the NCSU MALS degree, though it is important to check with the faculty adviser before doing this. It is especially easy to include courses from UNC-CH and Duke, where courses can be taken at a cost equivalent to NCSU courses. If this interests you, you will need to find information about possible courses at other campuses and whether you will be able to enroll in that course (e.g., Duke MALS seminars are limited to Duke MALS students). If the course you wish to take is at Duke or Chapel Hill, you can register by using the inter-institutional registration form available at the NCSU Registration and Records office.
The MALS program allows a student to include one or two 400-level undergraduate courses in the concentration in cases when there is no graduate level equivalent course.
