Maryland Alliance Graduate Student Development Calendar
http://www.umbc.edu/promise/calendar

GES GRADUATE PROGRAM
(1) The application deadline for Fall 2011 admission to our graduate program is February 1, 2011. Applications can be completed online through the Graduate School's web page: http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/admissions/apply.html

(2) Current students who will be seniors in the Fall can apply for the new Accelerated M.S. program. Here are some key points about the program:

• Designed for current undergraduates who would like to begin their graduate education while completing the Bachelor’s degree in their senior year

• Students can complete up to three graduate courses in their senior year while paying tuition at the undergraduate rate

• Application and degree requirements are the same as for the regular graduate degree; GRE scores for students applying for the Accelerated M.S. can be submitted through Feb. 1st.

• Three letters of recommendation required, no more than two from GES faculty

• Students who wish to pursue this option need to be close enough to completion of Bachelor’s degree requirements that they can accommodate up to three graduate courses in their last two semesters above and beyond courses needed to complete the Bachelor’s degree

The Department of Geography and Environmental Systems is at the interface between natural science, social science, public policy, engineering and information technology, with faculty who have background and collaborative relationships in both research and teaching related to all of these areas.  The Department offers graduate programs leading to the M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree. Both non-thesis and thesis M.S. options are available.

The Department also offers qualified UMBC undergraduates an accelerated Bachelors/Masters program culminating in the M.S. degree in Geography and Environmental Systems.

The program has three foci, reflecting the expertise and reearch interests of our faculty. All three have a common set of core courses; the remainder of each students' academic program will be selected in consultation with faculty mentors.

(1) Environmental Systems, including water resources and earth-surface processes, ecosystem science, and atmospheric processes;

(2) Human Geography, with an emphasis on coupled human-natural systems including the impacts of human activities on the environment, the socioeconomic consequences of environmental degradation, and environmental policy;

(3) Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing, focusing on training students in the application of geospatial analysis to improve understanding of changing spatial patterns in the natural and human environment.

For those seeking professional training that will allow them to serve as managers and analysts in the geospatial technology industry, you may also wish to consider pursuing the new Master in Professional Studies (MPS) in Geographic Information Systems, to be offered at the Shady Grove campus in Rockville, MD. The MPS program focuses on the combination of GIS, computer science, database management, and applications development. The web site for this program is: http://www.umbc.edu/shadygrove/mpsgisgrad.html.

UMBC hosts:
• the field headquarters of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, an NSF and U.S. Forest Service-supported Urban Long-Term Ecological Research Site;

• the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) and Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center (GEST), both of which are components of a NASA/UMBC consortium focusing on earth systems science and the application of remote sensing technology to monitoring of the earth’s atmosphere and surface;

• the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), focusing on the environmental, social and economic consequences of landscape transformation associated with urban and suburban development;

• the U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Center for the MD-DE-DC region, which is located in the campus Research Park with a staff of 60+ personnel;

• the NSF-funded IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education, Research and Training) program on Water in the Urban Environment. Students interested in our Ph.D. program and in the general themes of the IGERT program are eligible to apply for IGERT traineeships. The concentration of environment-related research activity on campus provides a rich and diverse set of opportunities for prospective graduate students entering our program.