German (BA)
Program Description
The department’s undergraduate program offers a broad range of courses in the language, cultures, and literatures of German-speaking countries. The department offers a major in German, a joint major in German and Linguistics, a joint major in German and Global Liberal Studies, and a minor in German Language.
Along with its German language program, the department offers interdisciplinary courses taught in English that address issues of German culture, history, philosophy, art, and literature for students not yet proficient in the German language.
The department sponsors a monthly lunch series, tutoring, and the activities of the German club Goethes Tisch, as well as a series of annual awards in recognition of outstanding achievement by undergraduate students in the study of German language and literature. Deutsches Haus, the German cultural center at NYU, provides a varied program of films, concerts, lectures, and exhibitions.
The Department of German places high priority on fostering personal contact between faculty and students, maintains small class sizes (15 or fewer students, on average), and offers comfortable spaces for socializing, studying, and holding informal meetings. Advanced courses and some basic language courses are taught by full-time faculty members, all of whom are also involved in student advising.
Honors Program in German
Majors in German can be admitted to the program on the basis of superior work after at least two semesters of study in German at the advanced level. The minimum eligibility requirements are cumulative and major GPAs of 3.65. Both the director of undergraduate studies and the director of the honors program review all applications, which are due no later than spring of junior year and must include an unmarked copy of a paper submitted for a German major course.
In their senior year, students accepted to the honors program complete a two-course, 8-credit sequence, consisting of GERM-UA 999 Senior Honors Seminar in the fall semester and GERM-UA 500 Honors Thesis in the spring semester.
The Senior Honors Seminar is a small workshop with a primary focus on research, methodology, and academic writing. Students also learn strategies for grant writing and presentation. Honors majors define a thesis topic, develop a bibliography, read broadly in their area, and begin their research and writing. A substantial portion of the research, usually including a rough draft of one-third to one-half of the thesis, should be completed by semester’s end.
During the spring semester of their senior year, students enroll in GERM-UA 500 Honors Thesis. In close consultation with the thesis adviser, students work on completing research, a final draft, and revisions of the thesis. Students also choose a second reader, typically another faculty member from the department. In cases of an interdisciplinary thesis, the second reader may be from another department.
The finished thesis must be a work of scholarship and/or criticism in the field of German studies and should be between 40 and 60 double-spaced pages in length. If it is written in English, the student must also write an abstract of five to seven pages in German. There will also be an oral presentation of the senior thesis with the student’s two readers. In consultation with the second reader, the student’s adviser determines whether or not to recommend them for honors. A grade of at least A-minus is required for the award of honors in German. Students receiving a lower grade will simply be awarded 8 credits of coursework towards the major.
Admissions
New York University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions supports the application process for all undergraduate programs at NYU. For additional information about undergraduate admissions, including application requirements, see How to Apply.