Public Administration/Applied Geography and Geospatial Sciences, MPA/MA
Master of Public Administration Program Director: Todd Ely, PhD
Introduction
The Dual Master of Public Administration/Master of Arts in Applied Geography and Geospatial Sciences degree offers students interested in working in the government or nonprofit sectors an opportunity to combine fundamental management and leadership training with highly sought-after skills in geospatial sciences, including geographic information systems, remote sensing, computer cartography, and spatial statistics. This degree may be particularly appealing for students interested in working in areas such as environmental management, disasters and hazards mitigation and emergency management, urban affairs, and public health. The structure of the degree allows students to complete both programs in less time and for less money.
Admission
Students interested in pursuing the dual-degree program must apply to and be admitted to each of the programs. Students admitted to one program may choose to apply to the other program at a later date. Learn more about how to apply to the Master of Public Administration portion of the dual degree.
Program Delivery
• Courses are offered on campus, online, and in remote and hybrid formats.
Program Requirements
- Students are required to take 19 courses, or 57 semester hours, to complete the dual degree.
- Students without pre-service experience in the government or nonprofit sectors will also be required to take a 3-credit internship course, bringing the total number of semester hours to 60.
- Students must earn a minimum B- grade in each required course applied to satisfy degree requirements and must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
- No more than 6 semester hours of Independent Study may be applied toward the degree.
- For more detailed information about course sequencing and requirements, contact your advisor.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Required Core Courses | ||
| GEOG 5050 | Applied Spatial Statistics | 3 |
| GEOG 6300 | Foundations Seminar in Human-Environmental Interaction | 3 |
| PUAD 5001 | Introduction to Public Administration and Public Service | 3 |
| PUAD 5002 | Organizational Management and Behavior | 3 |
| PUAD 5003 | Research and Analytic Methods | 3 |
| PUAD 5004 | Economics and Public Finance | 3 |
| or PUAD 5503 | Public Budgeting and Finance | |
| PUAD 5005 | The Policy Process and Democracy | 3 |
| PUAD 5006 | Public Service Leadership and Ethics | 3 |
| PUAD 5008 | Evidence-Based Decision-Making | 3 |
| Required Geospatial Science and Methods Elective Courses | 12 | |
Select four of the courses below. | ||
| Database Systems | ||
| Geospatial Data Development | ||
| GIS Analysis | ||
| GIS Relational Database Systems | ||
| Risk Assessment | ||
| Toxicology | ||
| Environmental Epidemiology | ||
| Remote Sensing I: Introduction to Environmental Remote Sensing | ||
| Remote Sensing II: Advanced Remote Sensing | ||
| Cartography | ||
| GIS Applications for the Urban Environment | ||
| Environmental Modeling with Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Open Source Software for Geospatial Applications | ||
| GIS Programming and Automation | ||
| Deploying GIS Functionality on the Web | ||
| GIS Applications in the Health Sciences | ||
| Required Geography Elective Courses | 9 | |
Select three Geography elective courses. 1 | ||
| Required Public Administration Elective Courses | 6 | |
Select two Public Administration elective courses. 1 | ||
| Internship | 3 | |
| Internship 2 | ||
| Capstone | 3 | |
| MPA Capstone Seminar | ||
or GEOG 6800 | Community-Based Research Practicum | |
| Total Hours | 60 | |
- 1
Including at least one graduate-level Human Geography elective and at least one graduate-level Physical Geography elective, and two graduate-level Public Administration electives.
- 2
Unless this requirement is waived by the program director because the student has more than one year of professional work experience in government or nonprofit organizations.