FIVE-YEAR COOPERATIVE DEGREE

The Center for Latin American Studies has established Five-year Cooperative Degree Programs with 15 colleges and universities:

The cooperative agreements with these select colleges and universities allow Georgetown to reward exceptional undergraduate students who demonstrate a strong commitment to the study of Latin America with access to an accelerated M.A. program. Specifically, the program offers these students the opportunity to earn an M.A. from Georgetown's Latin American Studies program in one year and a summer, rather than in the normal three or four semesters.

In general, admission to the Georgetown Five-year Cooperative Degree Program is based on established guidelines for the Georgetown Latin American Studies M.A. program. Applicants must have successfully completed at least six semesters of lower-division Spanish or Portuguese, or completed the equivalent of Advanced II in either language. Native speakers of Spanish or Portuguese must meet Georgetown University's standards for English. In addition, successful applicants will normally be Latin American Studies majors who have achieved a minimum 3.5 overall undergraduate GPA on a 4.0 scale. Applicants to the Five-Year Cooperative Degree Program are not required to take the GRE.

Students declare an interest in the Cooperative degree program during their junior year, and apply during the senior year in the normal Georgetown M.A. application cycle, hitting either the January 15 or May 1 deadline. Applications received by the January 15 deadline will be considered for scholarship assistance. While conditional admission may be offered in March or April of the year in which the student applies, final admission is contingent upon the successful completion of all undergraduate degree requirements for the B.A. with a satisfactory GPA.

Through the cooperative degree program, Georgetown University accepts two courses (six credits) taken at the undergraduate institution towards the degree requirements for the Georgetown M.A. in Latin American Studies. These approved, upper-level Latin American Studies courses are determined in consultation with the Latin American Studies advisor at the undergraduate institution. In addition, participating students normally spend the summer following their junior or senior year taking two courses (six credit hours) through the Georgetown Center for Latin American Studies' eight-week summer program in Santiago, Chile. In this manner, students may have completed four courses (12 credit hours) toward their Georgetown M.A. prior to enrolling n the Latin American Studies program.

Once enrolled at Georgetown, students will take four courses per semester (Fall and Spring) in order to complete their course requirements by the end of their first academic year. A special session of the Comprehensive Examination will be offered the following August for those M.A. candidates who have completed all coursework toward the M.A. degree by the end of the Summer semester.

Please contact clas@georgetown.edu with any questions.