In 2010, U.S. News and World Report ranked Penn State 47th among all universities in the United States. The university offers an entirely-online master's degree program in geographic information systems. To qualify for admission, students must have a bachelor's degree in any field and two years of work experience, preferably in field related to geographic engineering, such as GIS technology or land surveying. The program takes three years to complete. Students spend the first two years completing required courses in GIS problem-solving, database development, geospatial systems analysis, and project management. During the final year of the program, students complete an independent geographic engineering project and take additional elective classes in areas of interest to them, such as conservation GIS and emergency management.
Pennsylvania State University
201 Old Main
University Park, PA 16802
814-865-5471
psu.edu
Established in 1907, the University of Redlands is a private, nonsectarian institution 60 miles east of Los Angeles with more than 4,300 undergraduate and graduate students. The university's graduate school ranked seventh-place among all master's degree programs in the western United States from U.S. News and World Report in 2010. The college's geographic information systems master's program requires a bachelor's degree in any field, plus two years of experience in a GIS-related field or two university-level GIS courses and a four-month internship in the field. Students complete 42 credits of coursework, typically over at least two years of full-time study. Classes include programming and GIS theory, geodatabases and image data, GIS project analysis and implementation, and GIS software training.
University of Redlands
P.O. Box 3080
Redlands, CA 92373
800-455-5064
redlands.edu
A public college, Mississippi State University has an undergraduate and graduate enrollment of more than 17,800 students at its campus 125 miles from Jackson. The college offers a certificate program in geospatial and remote sensing technology, which is open to both undergraduate and graduate-level students working on degrees in other fields at the university. Alternately, students with bachelor's degrees from other schools may also apply for the certificate program as a stand-alone course of study. Three courses are mandatory for the certificate: remote sensing of the physical environment, principles of GIS and geospatial technologies. In addition, students must complete an additional two courses from advanced GIS, geodatabases, digital spectral analysis and digital signal processing. Students who enroll in the program on a stand-alone basis can complete the curriculum in approximately one year.
Mississippi State University
P.O. Box 6334
Mississippi State, MS 39762
662-325-2224
msstate.edu