GIS Academic Programs & Courses
At the undergraduate level, Kent State offers the BA with a concentration in GIS, and a minor in GIS. At the graduate level we offer a Master of GIS, a Postgraduate Certificate in GIS, a MA with a concentration in GIS, and a PhD where students can specialize and undertake original research.
THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
The BA
The BA in Geography, with a GIS concentration, requires a total of 44 hours of designated geography coursework, as well as the university requirements (for a total of 121 hours). Required courses are: World Geography, the Geography of US and Canada, Physical Geography and Lab, Mapping Our World, Statistical Methods in Geography, one regional geography course, and 21 hours of geography electives, 12 hours of which must be GIS designated courses.
The minor in GIS
The geographic information science minor is designed to give students a well-rounded education in this rapidly developing area. The management and use of a wide variety of spatially-referenced data and software applications will give students the necessary tools to be successful in government, business and administrative settings.
Course requirements for geographic information science minor (2016-17 AY):
| GEOG | 49070 | Geographic Information Science | 3 credits | ||
| GEOG | 49080 | Advanced Geographic Information Science | 3 credits | ||
| Choose from the following (3 classes): | 9-10 credits | ||||
| GEOG | 49072 | Geographic Information Science and Health (3) | |||
| GEOG | 49075 | Geographic Information Science: Urban and Economic Applications (3) | |||
| GEOG | 49076 | Spatial Programming (3) | |||
| GEOG | 49078 | Geographic Information Science and Environmental Hazards (3) | |||
| GEOG | 49085 | Web and Mobile Geographic Information Science (3) | |||
| GEOG GEOG |
49162 49163 |
Cartography and Geovisualization (3) and Cartography and Geovisualization Laboratory (1) |
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| GEOG | 49195 | Special Topics in Geographic Information Science (1-3) | |||
| GEOG | 49230 | Remote Sensing (3) | |||
| MINIMUM TOTAL | 16 | ||||
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM
We now offer an Online Master in GIS and a Postgraduate Certificate in GIS.
Most of the 40000 level courses above are also available at the Masters level and PhD level. At the Masters level, students may concentrate in GIS by taking 2 or more advanced GIS-tagged courses. In addition, Masters students must write a thesis.
At the PhD level students may also enroll in Independent Research and design a program more tailored to their needs. PhD students must also write a dissertation which is considered original research.