Admissions to the French Studies, MFS have been suspended as of summer 2022 and will be discontinued as of fall 2024. If you have any questions, please contact the department.
The Master of French Studies (MFS) is a professional degree earned in the Professional French Masters Program (PFMP). The PFMP is separate from the graduate program in French and Francophone literature. It is an interdisciplinary program combining advanced graduate-level course work in French language and Francophone culture with concentration-area course work in one of six professional concentration areas: French and business, French and education, French and international education, French and European Union affairs, French and international development, and French and media/arts/cultural production. The PFMP prepares graduate students for careers in business, government, nonprofit organizations, media, advertising, and the arts. All PFMP students do a professional internship in their field in a French-speaking country, and present a professional portfolio at the end of their studies.
Admissions to the French Studies, MFS have been suspended as of summer 2022 and will be discontinued as of fall 2024. If you have any questions, please contact the department.
Students apply to the Master of French Studies through one of the named options:
Graduate School Resources
Resources to help you afford graduate study might include assistantships, fellowships, traineeships, and financial aid. Further funding information is available from the Graduate School. Be sure to check with your program for individual policies and restrictions related to funding.
Program Resources
Students working toward the MFS degree are enrolled in the Professional French Master's Program. Professional French Master's Program students may apply for financial aid and are automatically considered for a number of small private scholarships. They often work part-time, and professional internships sometimes come with small stipends. PFMP students are not eligible for teaching or research assistantships that cover tuition. However, all PFMP students pay the same per-credit tuition.
Minimum Graduate School Requirements
Review the Graduate School minimum academic progress and degree requirements, in addition to the program requirements listed below.
Major Requirements
CURRICULAR REQUIREMENTS
| Minimum Credit Requirement | 30 credits |
| Minimum Residence Credit Requirement | 16 credits |
| Minimum Graduate Coursework Requirement | Half of the degree coursework (15 of 30 total credits) must be completed in graduate-level coursework; courses with the Graduate Level Coursework attribute are identified and searchable in the university's Course Guide (https://registrar.wisc.edu/course-guide/). |
| Overall Graduate GPA Requirement | 3.00 GPA required. |
| Other Grade Requirements | B or better in FRENCH 615. |
| Assessments and Examinations | Internship, oral examination, and professional portfolio. |
| Language Requirements | See Named Options for policy information. |
Required COURSES
Select a Named Option for courses required.
Named Options
A named option is a formally documented sub-major within an academic major program. Named options appear on the transcript with degree conferral. Students pursuing the Master of French Studies must select one of the following named options:
Graduate School Resources
Take advantage of the Graduate School's professional development resources to build skills, thrive academically, and launch your career.
- Speak, read, listen and write in French at a level sufficient to work successfully among native French speakers in the student's concentration area.
- Identify, select and retrieve primary and secondary sources in research projects, using techniques expected by professionals working in the student's concentration area.
- Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the relationship between practices and perspectives in the cultures of the world's major French-speaking regions.
- Articulate, critique, and elaborate the major professional approaches and best practices in the student's concentration area.
- Demonstrate understanding of the student's concentration area in its historical and cultural context.
- Successfully apply major professional approaches and best practices to professional projects in a French-speaking organizational setting outside the United States, in the student's concentration area.
- Use the most appropriate methodologies for success when beginning or returning to work in the student's concentration area.