Students in the College may pursue the master of arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies leading to the award of a four-year undergraduate degree in their declared major and a two-year graduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies after five years of studies at the University of Chicago.Undergraduate students pursuing this option are in ''concurrent residence'' beginning in the Autumn Quarter of their fourth year at the University and remain in this status for three contiguous quarters. Upon completion of the BA at the end of the fourth year, the students continue to be registered as graduate students for three contiguous quarters in the second year of the Middle Eastern Studies program. Permission to receive both the BA in a major field and the MA in Middle Eastern Studies is not an automatic perquisite of undergraduate study at Chicago. It is a privilege extended only to those undergraduate students who have demonstrated, in their undergraduate work, a record of uncommon excellence and who are sufficiently advanced in the fulfillment of the undergraduate degree requirements. The academic demands on these students are significant, and applicants are carefully reviewed in the context of both their undergraduate major and the master's degree requirements.