About

The Master of Arts degree in Geography is designed to provide students with a broad range of academic and professional options. Our program prepares students for either professional opportunities in applied geography and planning, Ph.D. work in geography and related fields, or opportunities teaching geography at all educational levels, including college.

Past graduates have found jobs working in fields such as: geographic information science, climate science, planning for climate resilience, environmental analysis and policy development, transportation planning, urban planning, satellite image analysis, cartography, regional planning and sustainable development, economic development and land resource management.

The degree program offers both thesis and non-thesis options for completion. Non-thesis students can choose one of three concentrations:

• The General concentration provides students with a broad and diverse understanding of geography with the opportunity to customize a program of study related to interests and career goals.
• The Geographic Information Science concentration provides students with direct skills and experience in geocomputation, digital image processing, and the latest professional and theoretical developments in GIScience.
• The Planning concentration promotes a multidisciplinary perspective and provides students with direct skills in sustainable development, planning theory and practice, planning methods and techniques, and planning law and ethics.
• The Climate Change concentration provides students with knowledge of the physical science basis of climate change, its societal impacts, and adaptation and mitigation strategies.

There are two additional options for graduate study in Geography for students interested in gaining proficiency without completing a degree:

• Graduate Minor: requires 9-12 credit hours to complete
• Graduate Certificates in Planning (18 hours of coursework), GIS (12 hours of coursework) and Climate Change (12-13 hours of coursework).

More Information

People

• 

  For Heather Guy ’18, Appalachian ‘ticked all of the boxes’

  As a graduate student from the United Kingdom studying geography at Appalachian, Heather Guy did fieldwork in the remote Andes in Peru and Bolivia — far removed from her prior days spent in front of a computer screen.

• Masters' Matter: Dr. Derek J. Martin And Christopher Ely, Geography

• 

  Breece Robertson ’00, the ‘GIS whiz’ at The Trust for Public Land

  The Trust for Public Land is working to ensure every American can access a park. Breece Robertson ’00 uses her master’s in geography from Appalachian to help realize that vision.

• 

  Faculty Profile: Dr. Derek J. Martin

  Dr. Derek J. Martin has been working with a team of students on a monitoring project on the Watauga River. In this video, he and the students talk about the research and how they have adapted their fieldwork during COVID-19.

Application Essentials

Required Entrance Exam: GRE (score must be no more than 5 years old)

Required number of references to specify in the online form: 3

Supplemental Information: Resume (Required upload for application submission); letter addressing reasons why applicant wishes to enter the program, not to exceed two pages stating reasons why applicant wishes to enter the program (upload on the Additional Information page in the online application)

Basic Conditions for Consideration of Admission: Meeting or exceeding the conditions below does NOT guarantee admission. All applications for a given entry term will be weighed based upon the number of seats available and the quality of the complete application packages. With special permission from the Graduate School, a program may admit a limited number of students with exceptional circumstances who do not meet the graduate school minimums.

Graduate School: 3.0 GPA in the last earned degree and official scores from the appropriate admission test(s), OR 2.5 GPA in the last earned degree and official scores at the 25th percentile level from the appropriate admission test(s).

Admission to Geography: The faculty will give preference to applicants who meet or exceed the following: An undergraduate GPA at or above a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and at least one score on the GRE (V, Q , or A) at or above the 50th percentile.