Capstone Project
The capstone project requirement is fulfilled by the submission of three research papers written for at least two of the three fields included as part of a student’s program (or both fields if the student is doing only two). At least two of the papers must have originated in graduate courses in the 200 series. Students nominate a three member faculty committee drawn from each field the student has chosen (for students doing two fields, the third faculty member may be from any field, but must be a core faculty member in Latin American Studies). The committee nominations are subject to the approval of the LAS MA Program Chair.
Note: It is the student’s responsibility to contact each member of the committee as early as possible, so that faculty can indicate if they want revisions in the papers before they are formally submitted to program's office. Please make sure that you give the committee members plenty of time to review your papers, recommend corrections, and make comments.
Additional Requirements:
- Papers must be written under the supervision of three different professors;
- At least two of the three faculty members must be chosen from the LAS MA program's Active Participant Faculty list. A third committee member can be a UCLA ladder faculty member who is not on the Active Participant Faculty list; however, this requires program chair review and pre-approval. Approval is not guaranteed;
- The papers are required to be a minimum of 17-20 pages in length each;
- The papers are to reference at least 15-20 sources, listed in a bibliography;
- The papers have to be submitted via email to idpgrads@international.ucla.edu by the last day of the quarter in which the student is graduating. The papers should be submitted as three separate PDF files in one email;
- The Capstone Approval Form has to be submitted to the staff academic advisor along with the papers. It is preferred that the professors sign the same approval form, but if that's not possible, the professors can put their signatures on separate forms.
- The Program Chair will review the papers to determine satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
- Following the submission deadline, the program, the Registrar’s Office, and the DGE will verify capstone completion. Please allow up to three weeks for processing.
- For information about diploma availability and your final transcript, please refer to the Registrar’s Office webpage.
Students are advised to monitor the progress of these procedures by remaining in touch with their committee members and the staff graduate advisor. Failure to submit completed forms by deadlines may result in the postponement of the graduation to the following academic quarter.
