Medieval Studies
Medieval Studies

Distinguished Majors Program

The Distinguished Majors Program (DMP) offers students the opportunity to graduate with distinction by pursuing in-depth research involving analysis of issues and topics related to their major and culminating in the writing of a thesis. To qualify, students must follow the procedure found below 

Admission into the DMP occurs in the Spring semester of the student's third year. Applicants must have declared the MSP major. Applicants must have a GPA of 3.4 or above in both their major GPA and general GPA. Applications should include the following in their application addressed to the director:

  1. A statement of interest explaining the student's desire to enter the program and his/her/their general area of research interest, mentioning which faculty member the student might approach as advisor;
  2. A writing sample (ex: a strong paper written for a course);
  3. One confidential letter of recommendation from an MSP faculty member sent to the Director of Medieval Studies or sealed and submitted by the student with the other application materials;
  4. A copy of the student's most recent transcript.

Upon admission into the program, the following steps must be taken:

  1. Students are responsible for obtaining the agreement of one MSP affiliated faculty member who will serve as their thesis advisor and the approval of the Director of MSP.
  2. Students must enroll in MSP 4998 (in the Fall) and MSP 4999 (in the Spring), which together comprise a six-hour sequence of tutorial work meant to guide students to completing a thesis.

MSP 4998 (3 credits) is offered during the Fall semester and consists of gathering sources and research materials as well as submitting an outline and thesis statement along with a literature review.
MSP 4999 (3 credits) is offered during the Spring semester and focuses on drafting, revising, and finalizing the thesis.
Note that these two courses do not count towards the distribution requirement of the student's degree.

  1. Students are encouraged to use primary language sources in researching their thesis.
  2. The minimum length of the thesis is 11,000-13,000 words (approximately 40-50 pages).
  3. The faculty advisor and the MSP Director determine the degree of distinction earned by the DMP student.

Students must satisfy the following requirements for the Distinguished Major:

  1. Satisfy all the distribution rules for the MSP major
  2. Complete a Senior Thesis deemed of high quality by the thesis advisor and director.

Additional Information 

For more information, please contact Deborah McGrady, Department of French Languages & Literature, 359 New Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, PO Box 400130, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4130.