How long was your master's thesis?

[nhhistorynut]

I was looking around on here and couldn't find a thread on this. I'm curious just because my program says "between 100-200 pages" but other people have told me theirs was only something like 80 pages. I'm in crunch time now because I want to finish all the writing before my PhD program starts at the end of August (I will technically be dual enrolled this fall because I plan to defend in October and confer in December) and I still have 2 chapters to write (albeit the easiest; one is based on a paper I already wrote so I can borrow a lot from that, and the other is just the conclusion). Anyways, I just wrapped up chapter 3 today and the document put together right now is 90 pages. I'm thinking it'll be around 140-150 when it's done.

So, how long was yours? Just curious

Edited July 14, 2017 by nhhistorynut
typo

[guest56436]

30 pages (~10k words). Kept it short on purpose. I wanted a polished manuscript out of it that I could submit to a journal. Didn't see much point in producing a bloated project that had no significant value afterwards.

[Neist]

I haven't written mine yet, but I'm predicting it to be 50-100, which is pretty par for my program.

It's going to be a little technical (the research it will be based off was very statistical in nature), so maybe it's a rather dense 50-100 pages, but, eh.

[nhhistorynut]

1 hour ago, Comparativist said:

30 pages (~10k words). Kept it short on purpose. I wanted a polished manuscript out of it that I could submit to a journal. Didn't see much point in producing a bloated project that had no significant value afterwards.

Wow that would have been a lot easier lol that's about how long my MA program expected seminar papers to be (well, 20-30)...

That said, I plan to take some of my chapters and rework them a bit and submit for publication, so hopefully I'll get something out of my effort! If nothing else, I figure I'll have experience doing a big project, which will hopefully help me when dissertation time comes.

Edited July 15, 2017 by nhhistorynut

[cowgirlsdontcry]

I'm in English so my master's thesis was 95 pages long + all of the beginning pages and Works Cited pages (so another 15 pages or so). My thesis advisor had said she wouldn't accept less than 60 and no more than 120. One of my readers, who was also my supervising professor says I have at least two publishable papers and perhaps 3. Before I start to work on rewriting for publication I want to sit down with my PhD dissertation advisor and discuss how any publication from that thesis will affect my dissertation since I plan to expand upon the thesis and write on all of McCarthy's works.

Edited July 15, 2017 by cowgirlsdontcry

[guest56436]

2 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

Wow that would have been a lot easier lol that's about how long my MA program expected seminar papers to be (well, 20-30)...

It's not really any easier. In fact, it can be harder because everything has to be very succinct. 

[OHSP]

40k words but that is the requirement where I'm from and I wrote it as a monograph/with an additional 10k words it's now becoming a monograph--also not unusual at my university. 

[ltr317]

I haven't started writing yet, but my advisor said the normal length expected is between 75 and 100 pages at my school.  I looked at the Master's Thesis Repository in the library and found a few MA theses just short of the lower limit and a few way over, with one nearly 200 pages long. 

[Concordia]

19,997 words (including an allowance for two charts).  Requirement was for 16-20k, and they asked for a Word file to double-check that as well as screen for any plagiarism.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Concordia

[rising_star]

My MA thesis was supposed to be about 75 pages (seriously, my MA advisor told me no more than 75 pages for my first draft) but, with revisions and things other committee members wanted, it ended up closer to 100 pages.

[ctg7w6]

130 double spaced pages (except footnotes and bibliography), 3 chapters along with an intro and conclusion. Normal formatting requirements, so word count was 20-25k I believe, can't remember if that included footnotes and bib (but the page count does). School expected around 100 pages, but more was acceptable, and I had a fairly large topic.

Edited first two chapters into a book chapter being published this year. Edited third chapter into journal article that is currently being reviewed. 

[dr. t]

I wrote a 10k word article.

[nhhistorynut]

The variety is really interesting. I'm curious why some programs (like mine and some others) require such substantial projects/lengths and others don't...

[OHSP]

8 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

The variety is really interesting. I'm curious why some programs (like mine and some others) require such substantial projects/lengths and others don't...

At least in Australia masters usually takes 2 years and is 100% dissertation-based, but the variation amongst US degrees is super interesting. 

[KLZ]

Mine ended up being 50,338 words, or 201 double spaced pages. This included my front matter, intro, 4 chapters, conclusion, and bib. 

[AP]

150 pages.

It could have been shorter since I was a worse writer then and used to ramble a lot.