Master of Science in Cartography and GIS
Graduate students in our Master of Science programs are expected to acquire a broad foundation in geography in addition to specialization in one or more thematic areas. Students who earn the MS degree are prepared for teaching in some small colleges, and for applied geography posts or cartographic positions in government agencies, planning organizations, environmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private industry.
Students interested in learning to apply GIS techniques in a non-academic setting should consider our GIS certificate program. Click for a comparison between the two programs.
Degree plan notes:
Credits
- Minimum 24 credits
- 16 credits must be taken as a UW-Madison grad student
- Coursework may include up to 6 credits of Geog 990
Maintain GPA = 3.0
Breadth Requirements (Prior to Entry)–
- one course in Quantitative Methods
- two mathematics courses
- two intermediate or advanced Geography courses
- Note: Students who have not taken courses in all or some of these areas prior to applying for the program may still be admitted but will be expected to complete any missing coursework during their residence here.
- Note: These courses can count for both Breadth Requirements AND Course Requirements but are typically not seminars.
Course Requirements:
- Geog 765 + Geog 766
These courses introduce graduate students to research in the field of geography. The 765 course stresses conceptual contexts, while the 766 course emphasizes research design. - Geog 370 (Introduction to Cartography)
- Geog 377 (Introduction to GIS)
- Geog 378 (Geocomputing)
- Two courses (6-8 credits) from
- Geog 371 (History of Cartography)
- Geog 570 (Problems in Cartography)
- Geo 572 (Graphic Design in Cartography)
- Geog 575 (Animated and Web-based Mapping)
- Geog 577 (Environmental Modeling with GIS)
- Geog 578 (GIS Applications)
- Geog 970 (GIScience Seminar)
Thesis requirements
- Proposal is typically completed in Geog 766 in 2nd semester
- Thesis of modest length ( ~ 50 pages of text).
- The scope of the thesis should be sufficiently limited so that research and data analysis can be completed in the summer and third semester, followed by the submission of the final draft and defense in the fourth semester. The thesis must be defended orally before a thesis committee.
Advisor and Committee
- Your Advisor, who is also the chair (or co-chair) of your Committee must be graduate faculty in Geography (or affiliated with Geography).
- Your Committee must have a minimum of 3 members, two of whom must be graduate faculty (or former grad faculty up to one year after resignation/retirement).