General Information

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Admissions Information

Admissions Requirements

1. Must have completed, or currently enrolled at the time of application, the following main EEB courses:

•  ECOL 302, Ecology, 4 units
•  ECOL 335, Evolutionary Ecology, 4 units
•  ECOL 320, Genetics, 4 units
•  Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

2) Must have a Major Advisor identified.  The Major Advisor must be a core faculty member of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

3) Must have a 3.3 GPA at the time of application and at the time of entrance as a graduate student.

 

 

Standardized Tests

N/A

 

Funding Opportunities

During the fourth year, the student is still considered an undergraduate and is eligible for any funding opportunities for undergraduates.

During the fifth year, the student will be considered a graduate student is eligible for any funding available to master students.

When students are accepted into the master's program, they are are not offered financial support by the department.  Teaching assistantships are offered to master's students when available.  Research assistantships are offered at the discretion of the faculty member.

 

Admissions Deadlines

Applications should be submitted during the student's third (junior) year.  Application deadline is December 1 (each year).  Late applications may be considered on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact the EEB Graduate Coordinator for more information and to obtain the Application Authorization Code for the application in GradApp.

 

International Conditional Admission

International applicants will not be considered for conditional admission by this program.

Other Information

The GRE Institution Code for The University of Arizona is 4832

Completion Requirements

Minimum Credit Units

30 

Core Coursework Requirements

Students must complete at least 30 units for a MS degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  At least 15 of the 30 units must be graded units and at least 24 must be non-thesis units.  All master students are required to complete at least 1 thesis unit (ECOL 910) in order to earn a thesis MS degree. It is expected that course work will consist of ECOL home courses.  

Required Courses
ECOL 910 - Thesis, 1-6 units.  At least one unit must be completed, but no more than 6 units can be included on an official Plan of Study. 
Students must fill the remaining 24 - 29 units from the Elective Courses listed below.

Per the Graduate College's requirements for the official Plan of Study, a minimum grade of C for each course is required (assuming the student's overall GPA remains 3.0 or higher, per Graduate College requirements).  

 

Elective Coursework

Strongly recommended courses:
ECOL 600A - Fundamentals in Evolution, 3 units
ECOL 600B - Fundamentals in Ecology, 3 units

Other Elective Courses:

ECOL 506R - Conservation Biology, 3 units
ECOL 526 - Population Genetics, 3 units
ECOL 553 - Functional and Evolutionary Genomics, 4 units
ECOL 572 - Systematic Botany, 4 units
ECOL 573 - Topics in Behavioral Ecology, 3 units
ECOL 575 - Freshwater and Marine Algae, 4 units
ECOL 578 - Global Change, 3 units
ECOL 580 - Mathematical Models in Biology, 3 units
ECOL 582 - Ichthyology, 4 units
ECOL 583 - Herpetology, 4 units
ECOL 584 - Ornithology, 4 units
ECOL 585 - Mammalogy, 4 units
ECOL 586 - Biological Scaling, 2-3 units
ECOl 587R/587L - Animal Behavior Lecture/Lab, 3 units/1 unit
ECOL 596A - Evolutionary Ecology, 2 units
ECOL 596B - Population Biology, 1 unit
ECOL 596I - Biology of Introduced and Invasive Species, 2 units
ECOL 596J - Plant Population Ecology, 2-3 units
ECOL 596W - Special Topics in Ecology and Evolution A, 1-3 units
ECOL 596X - Special Topics in Ecology and Evolution B, 1-3 units
ECOL 900 - Research, 1-8 units

Additional courses within EEB are eligible to meet the coursework requirement upon approval of the major faculty advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.  Cross-listed courses and transfer credits will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

 

Additional Requirements

• Major advisor must a core Ecology and Evolutionary Biology tenure/tenure-track/tenure-equivalent faculty member.
• At least three faculty members are required for a Master's Committee.  At least two of the three must be core faculty members of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
• At least once each year, beginning in the second year, students must meet with his/her Master's Committee.

 

Student Handbook

Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for students who are pursuing this program of study.

 

Additional Information

This is an Accelerated Master's Program (AMP).

The Graduate College offers exceptional undergraduate students in selected majors the opportunity to earn both a bachelor's degree and master's degree in as few as 5 years. The Accelerated Master's Program is for the top undergraduates in participating majors who plan to continue in a graduate program in the same, or closely related, UA discipline.

Programs will select from among a qualified pool, based on the following criteria. Individual programs may have more stringent or additional requirements:

• Completion of a minimum of 75 undergraduate credit hours will be required at the time of application; a minimum of 90 undergraduate credit hours will be required at the time of entry into the AMP. If the student's GPA falls below 3.30 at the time s/he has completed 90 units, the student will not be admitted into the program. Courses taken for audit may not be included in the total number of units counted for eligibility or admission.
• Completion of at least 12 earned units of undergraduate course work in the major at the UA.
• Units still graded Incomplete, units graded Pass/Fail or units taken as audit will not count toward the requirement of the 12 undergraduate units in the major.
• Completion or near completion of general education requirements.
• Submission of a graduate application and payment of a graduate application fee.
• Demonstration of the maturity necessary for success in an accelerated, highly competitive program.
• Expectation to complete the undergraduate degree within four years. The undergraduate degree requirements must be completed before the student is eligible to have the Master's degree awarded.
• Interested students should verify departmental requirements as they may have additional or more stringent requirements than the Graduate College minimum requirements.

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