REEI’s master’s degree program is intended to prepare area specialists for nonacademic careers in government and private-sector fields such as research and foreign aid, or in exchange organizations, journalism, and business. The program also prepares future graduates for professional research and makes them more competitive for further graduate study. As the program is interdisciplinary, students are able to explore their main academic field and region of interest with a broader perspective. Most students who apply to the M.A. program have an academic background and interest in the humanities or social sciences.

• Any social science major
• Art History
• Business
• Central Eurasian Studies
• Cybersecurity and Global Policy
• Environmental and Sustainability Studies
• Informatics
• Journalism/Media Studies
• Public Health
• Religious Studies
• Slavic and East European Languages & Cultures

• The flexible nature of the degree allows students to take courses with at least 25% Russian or East European content. This means students can take courses that most closely match their interests.
• Coursework offers opportunities for students to take courses from REEI affiliated faculty members across several disciplines. REEI boasts over 90 affiliated faculty members, who are leaders in their respective fields.
• The interdisciplinary nature of the coursework has been worked into the degree requirements, as students must take at least one social sciences course, one history or geography course, one sociocultural course, and one literature course.
• Students take at least four courses in their own area of concentration. This coursework gives students depth in the academic field and/or region they are most interested in exploring.
• REEI-R 600 (Proseminar in REEI Area Studies) is a required course which introduces students to various fields of study with a focus on Russia and Eastern Europe. The course is structured in a way that is both accessible to students who have gaps in their knowledge and challenges students who already possess depth in their field of interest. The course is only open to graduate students in REEI.
• REEI-R 601 (Interdisciplinary Colloquium in REEI) offers students the opportunity for guidance, mentorship, and peer support as they write their M.A. essay. The course is only open to graduate students in REEI. Students gain experience presenting and writing their own research for academic audiences.

REEI funding opportunities which cover tuition costs include: Robert F. Byrnes Memorial Fellowship, Tucker-Cohen Fellowship, Erne Fellowship for Serbian Studies, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship and graduate assistantships. For more information about these and other funding sources, see: https://reei.indiana.edu/graduate/funding-opportunities/index.html.

REEI alumni have built successful careers in a variety of fields. Based on available alumni data, following their graduation, roughly one third of our alumni continue their graduate studies, another third find employment in the public sector, and another third find employment in the private sector. Job placements from alumni from the past five years have included:

• American Councils
• Federal Government
• Freedom House
• Higher Education and Public-School Systems
• McKinsey & Co
• National Democratic Institute
• National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
• Private Energy Sector
• Public and University Library Systems
• US Military
• Veeva Systems

For work in Russian area studies, proficiency in Russian language equivalent to two years of college study is required.

GRE NOTE: GRE scores are optional.

More information about these requirements can be found on our website: https://reei.indiana.edu/graduate/how-to-apply/index.html.

Coursework needed for admission

Students who intend to specialize in East or Central European, Southeast European, or Central Asian studies do not need previous study in languages of those areas for admission. For work in Russian area studies, proficiency in Russian language equivalent to two years of college study is required. That being said we have, in the past, admitted an occasional student who begins their Russian language studies at the summer Language Workshop (or possibly at another similar program in the U.S. or abroad) the summer prior to beginning our program. Applicants who wish to pursue this option must clearly articulate this in their application to our program.