I have a friend looking into grad school, wants a Masters in Sociology. None of the schools she’s interested in offer terminal Masters. To give more context, she’s at UC-Riverside, working on an Ethnic Studies degree.
San Francisco State University offers a terminal M.A. degree in Ethnic Studies.
Most research universities no longer accept students into terminal masters degrees in academic fields… the expectation is that students apply directly to PhD programs, and they get the masters degree along the way. One could apply to a PhD program, stay through the masters degree, and then withdraw.
In California, terminal MA and MS degrees are mainly found within the CSU (California State University) system.
Thanx h_b. 
Is it considered dishonest to enter a Ph.d program, knowing you only want a MA?
There is a difference between a well-designed master’s program that ends with a capstone project of some type or with a full written master’s thesis, and a PhD program where the MA is handed out partway through just because you got to a certain point (most often after taking doctoral prelim exams). If you know for certain, that all you want is the MA, my advice would be to look got the first type of program. It will be better focused on your needs.
Some people do like to whine that planning to leave a PhD track program after the MA is dishonest. But truly, none of these programs guarantee that admissions will mean that you do end up with a PhD. All of them are happy to give students who they don’t consider are quite up-to-snuff the boot at various points in the process, and any number of students decide to exit on their own for their own reasons. Even if you really did want a PhD, you might get sent home a lot sooner than that (and maybe without even a full MA in your hand). So, if the program you really want only offers the MA as a kind of prize for getting to the halfway point in the PhD process, then don’t feel one bit guilty about applying to the PhD program. And who knows, maybe you will decide to keep on all the way to the very end and collect the PhD as well.
Yeah, when Googling “ABD” got that sense that doctorates are feats of perseverance not scholarship. Barb only needs the MA for her purposes. (College academic advisor)
Anyone want to help me help my other friends? Check out my threads.
Barb (and your other friends) should be speaking with people who have the job that she is (they are) interested in, and find out where those people got their degrees. Sometimes the place where the degree is earned is more important than the specific subject matter, and sometimes the opposite is true. She should find out if the programs are offered only on-site, or if they also are offered in an online format. An online program would give her more flexibility for living/working wherever she needs/wants to. Barb also needs to know that entry points into higher ed administration often are those jobs as admissions office staff and residence life staff that people get at their alma maters right out of college (many times as a promotion from being a student employee in that office). They work in those positions for a while, and then pick up some kind of masters related to higher ed administration. Many schools of education offer masters programs along that line, so Barb should be checking out the offerings of the various schools of education in her state rather than just the Famous Name Universities. It isn’t unusual for the best school of education in a given state to be located at a university that is otherwise considered second or third tier for that state.
In one of your other threads you ask “Why doesn’t X offer a terminal MA?” No one in that forum is going to be able to answer that question, because the decision to offer any given degree program is made by the administration of the institution where it is offered. And frankly, their reasoning doesn’t matter at all for your purposes. What matters is whether the degree is offered. If it is, YAY!! If it isn’t, just move on.
Thanks mom. Yeah, I was asking people to be Kreskin.