HELP 2014-2015 University Catalog Geographic and Cartographic Sciences, MS Print-Friendly Page

Banner Code:  SC-MS-GECA

The focus of this program is to prepare students for careers in geography, remote sensing, and GIS and their increasing applications in diverse fields, as well as cartography, visualization, and modeling. This expertise is useful to civil and defense federal agencies, state and local government agencies, private corporations, and educational institutions. Courses concentrate on the techniques of compilation, display, and analysis of spatial data, and applied spatial analysis. Students are also encouraged to select internships as part of their program.

This program of study is offered by the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science in the College of Science.

Research Facilities

The department’s facilities house PC workstations with multiple input and output devices to support the ArcGIS suite of software, IDRISI, ERDAS, and other cartography, GIS, and image-processing software packages. Enriching the program is a network of alumni, students, guest lecturers, and adjunct faculty who work in geography-related organizations in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Specialized instructional space for geographic information science is housed in Exploratory Hall on the Fairfax Campus.

Admission Requirements

Applicants to all graduate programs at George Mason University must meet the admission standards and application requirements for graduate study as specified in the Graduate Admission Policies  section of this catalog. Applicants should have a bachelor’s degree in geography, cartography, or equivalent related degree. Those without an undergraduate degree in geography may be required to take one course in each of the following: physical geography, human geography, and cartography. All applicants must have a course in statistics. Credit from courses taken at other departments and other universities may be applied to the program with prior approval.

To apply, prospective students should complete a Mason graduate application on-line at http://admissions.gmu.edu/grad/. Official transcripts from each college and graduate institution attended, a current resume, and a goals statement will be required.

Applicants will also need three letters of recommendation and an official report of scores obtained on the GRE-GEN. The GRE requirement may be waived if the student holds a master’s degree from an accredited US institution. TOEFL scores are required of all international applicants.