Program Overview: The Master’s Degree program in Geography (M.A. or M.S.) prepares students for a range of professional positions in government and private industry, or for doctoral study. Areas of specialization within the 14 faculty-member department include environmental geography (environment and society, resource management, environmental justice), physical geography (biogeography, geomorphology, climatology, meteorology), globalization and development (economic geography, gender, population/migration), human geography (historical, urban, political, cultural ecology), and the geographic techniques (cartography, remote sensing, GISc). Research facilities housed in the department include the Center for Geovisualization, Remote Sensing Laboratory, Scalia Laboratory for Atmospheric Analysis, Long-Term Social and Ecological Research Laboratory, and Carl Ross Geomorphology Research Laboratory.

The department welcomes applications from students with undergraduate degrees in geography or other disciplines. Applicants must submit complete undergraduate transcripts, GRE scores (encouraged rather than required for international applicants), a statement of purpose (goals and interests), and three letters of recommendation. International students whose native language is not English must also submit TOEFL scores, preferably the internet-based test (iBT) with a spoken English component. U.S. permanent residents wishing to be considered for a graduate assistantship (e.g., TA, RA) must submit all application materials by February 15; international applicants should do so by February 1. Assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis and with an expectation that they will be renewed for a second year with adequate progress toward the degree. The minimum undergraduate GPA for unconditional admission to the program and financial aid is 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Geography graduate students (M.A. or M.S.) complete the thesis or non-thesis degree program. Both programs require 40 hours of graduate study, which must include Research and Writing (GEOG 5000), two seminars, and a geographical technique course. GEOG 5030, 5040, 5910, ELIP courses, audited courses, and courses taken for credit/no credit do not count toward the 40 hours, but a maximum of two relevant courses (three for non-thesis) can be counted from cognate disciplines. For the thesis option, 12 of the 40 hours consist of thesis research hours (GEOG 6950). Thesis students should select their thesis advisor plus two additional committee members early in their program, and will defend their thesis proposal before this committee no later than the fifth week of their third semester. Students in the non-thesis option must pass comprehensive written exams on three areas of concentration in lieu of writing and successfully defending a thesis. At least one of these areas of concentration must be in a geographical technique (e.g., GISc, remote sensing), and another from a systematic geographic subfield (e.g., biogeography, population/migration, historical geography).

For further information about the application process and the nature of the department select the Graduate Programs link on the department’s webpage at http://www.ohio.edu/geography/.

Admissions Policy: No requirements beyond University admission requirements.

Change Policy: No selective or limited admission requirements.

Transfer Policy: No requirements beyond University admission requirements.

Opportunities: The Master’s Degree program in Geography prepares students for a range of professional positions in governmental agencies (local, state, federal), nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector, or for doctoral study.