Environmental Science, M.S.

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The environmental science master’s degree program consists of 36 course hours of graduate study for both thesis and non-thesis. It contains a common core of 15 hours of courses, three hours of either FOR 517 or STA 520 , nine hours of prescibed electives and nine hours from other graduate programs, including agriculture, biology, chemistry, environmental science, forestry, geographic information systems and geology. The thesis option uses ENV 590 as six hours of the prescribed electives needed to complete the program.

Common Core Courses (15 hours):

ENV 502 - Environmental Contaminant Management Credit(s): 3
ENV 504 - Advanced Environmental Health and Safety Credit(s): 3
ENV 510 - Risk Assessment Credit(s): 2
ENV 525 - Environmental Policy and Regulation Credit(s): 3
ENV 570 - Graduate Seminar Credit(s): 1
GIS 551 - Introduction to GIS and Geospatial Analysis Credit(s): 3

Statistics Option

One course from the following:

FOR 517 - Biometrics Credit(s): 3
or
STA 520 - Statistical Analysis I Credit(s): 3

Additional Reqirements

The additional requirements include nine hours of prescibed electives and nine hours of general electives from other graduate programs.

Non-Thesis Option

ENV 503 - Remediation and Reclamation of Disturbed Land Credit(s): 3
ENV 512 - Environmental Hydrology Credit(s): 3
ENV 550 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3

Thesis Option

ENV 590 - Thesis Credit(s): 1-9
Thesis hours: 6
and
One of the following:
ENV 503 - Remediation and Reclamation of Disturbed Land Credit(s): 3
ENV 512 - Environmental Hydrology Credit(s): 3
ENV 550 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3

Electives:

Select nine hours from the following:

AGN 508 - Soil-Plant Relationships Credit(s): 3
BIO 502 - Aquatic Vascular Plants Credit(s): 3
BIO 503 - Plant Ecology Credit(s): 3
BIO 508 - Microbial Ecology Credit(s): 3
BIO 522 - Plant Geography Credit(s): 3
BIO 538 - Advanced Ichthyology Credit(s): 3
BIO 550 - Advanced Limnology Credit(s): 4
BIO 556 - Scanning Electron Microscopy Credit(s): 4
BIO 560 - Aquatic Ecology Credit(s): 3
CHE 521 - Advanced Analytical Chemistry Credit(s): 3
CHE 526 - Topics in Analytical Chemistry Credit(s): 3
CHE 572 - Advanced Environmental Chemistry I Credit(s): 3
ENV 503 - Remediation and Reclamation of Disturbed Land Credit(s): 3
ENV 507 - Water Resources Management Credit(s): 3
ENV 514 - Wetland Delineation and Functional Assessment Credit(s): 3
ENV 550 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3
ENV 560 - Internship Credit(s): 1-3
ENV 571 - Topics in Environmental Science Credit(s): 3
ENV 575 - Advanced Graduate Studies Credit(s): 1-3
FOR 510 - Research Methods In Forestry Credit(s): 2
FOR 521 - Landscape Ecology Credit(s): 3
FOR 523 - Plant Water Relations Credit(s): 3
FOR 535 - Forest Soils Credit(s): 0 or 3
FOR 545 - Forest and Range Ecology Concepts Credit(s): 3
GIS 500 - GIS Programming Credit(s): 3
GIS 552 - Introduction to Digital Remote Sensing Credit(s): 3
GIS 553 - GIS and Geospatial Applications Credit(s): 3
GIS 555 - Aerial Photo Interpretation Credit(s): 3
GIS 649 - Digital Image Processing Credit(s): 3
GOL 508 - Clastic Depositional Systems Credit(s): 3
GOL 520 - Geochemistry Credit(s): 3
GOL 549 - Applied Hydrogeology Credit(s): 3
GOL 550 - Cave and Karst Systems Credit(s): 3
GOL 551 - Hydrogeology Field Techniques Credit(s): 3
GOL 559 - Contaminant Hydrology Credit(s): 3

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the graduate program in environmental science, a student must have completed a bachelor’s degree, preferably in a science-related area with a minimum of six hours of biology (one laboratory course minimum), eight hours of chemistry, and college algebra or higher mathematics. Students without all of the prerequisites may be considered for admission on a provisional basis until the deficiencies are corrected. Students without an undergraduate degree in environmental science may be required to take one to three undergraduate background courses. In addition, students must meet the other general admission requirements of Research and Graduate Studies and provide scores from the GRE examination.