Environmental Science, MS

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The environmental science master’s degree program consists of 36 course hours of graduate study for both thesis and nonthesis. It contains a common core of 15 hours of courses, three hours of either FORS 5317 or STAT 5340 , 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 ENVR 5190 as six hours of the prescribed electives needed to complete the program.

Common Core Courses (15 hours):

ENVR 5302 - Environmental Contaminant Management Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5304 - Advanced Environmental Health and Safety Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5210 - Risk Assessment Credit(s): 2
ENVR 5325 - Environmental Policy and Regulation Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5170 - Graduate Seminar Credit(s): 1
GISC 5351 - Introduction to GIS and Geospatial Analysis Credit(s): 3

Statistics Option

One course from the following:

FORS 5317 - Biometrics Credit(s): 3
or
STAT 5340 - 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.

Nonthesis Option

ENVR 5303 - Remediation/Reclamation of Disturb Land Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5312 - Environmental Hydrology Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5350 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3

Thesis Option

ENVR 5190 - Thesis Credit(s): 1 To 9
Thesis hours: 6
and
One of the following:
ENVR 5303 - Remediation/Reclamation of Disturb Land Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5312 - Environmental Hydrology Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5350 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3

Electives:

Select nine hours from the following:

AGRI 5344 - Soil-Plant Relationships Credit(s): 3
BIOL 5364 - Aquatic Vascular Plants (lecture) Credit(s): 3
BIOL 5367 - Advanced Terrestrial Plant Ecology (lecture) Credit(s): 3
BIOL 5327 - Microbial Ecology (lecture) Credit(s): 3
BIOL 5442 - Advanced Ichthyology Credit(s): 4
BIOL 5484 - Advanced Limnology (lecture) Credit(s): 4
BIOL 5412 - Scanning Electron Microscopy (lecture) Credit(s): 4
BIOL 5383 - Aquatic Ecology (lecture) Credit(s): 3
CHEM 5321 - Advanced Analytical Chemistry Credit(s): 3
CHEM 5326 - Topics in Analytical Chemistry Credit(s): 3
CHEM 5372 - Advanced Environmental Chemistry I Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5303 - Remediation/Reclamation of Disturb Land Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5307 - Water Resources Management Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5314 - Wetland Delineation and Functional Assessment Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5350 - Air Quality Assessment Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5160 - Internship Credit(s): 1 To 3
ENVR 5371 - Topics in Environmental Science Credit(s): 3
ENVR 5175 - Advanced Graduate Studies Credit(s): 1 To 3
FORS 5210 - Research Methods in Natural Resources Credit(s): 2
FORS 5321 - Landscape Ecology Credit(s): 3
FORS 5323 - Plant Water Relations Credit(s): 3
FORS 5335 - Forest Soils Credit(s): 0 or 3
FORS 5345 - Forest and Range Ecological Concepts Credit(s): 3
GISC 5300 - GIS Programming Credit(s): 3
GISC 5352 - Introduction to Digital Remote Sensing Credit(s): 3
GISC 5353 - GIS and Geospatial Applications Credit(s): 3
GEOL 5308 - Clastic Depositional Systems Credit(s): 3
GEOL 5320 - Geochemistry Credit(s): 3
GEOL 5349 - Applied Hydrogeology Credit(s): 3
GEOL 5350 - Cave and Karst Systems Credit(s): 3
GEOL 5359 - 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 the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and provide scores from the GRE examination.