Geographic Information Systems

The Advanced Certificate Program in Geographic Information Systems was established in 2001 to meet the demand for people with expertise in GIS. The GIS Certificate program is a 15-credit post-baccalaureate professional program that offers advanced training in Geographic Information Science (GIS). Students are required to take five graduate-level GIS classes including GTECH 70900 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, GTECH 73200 - Advanced GeoInformatics , and three other GTECH or related courses. Students are strongly urged to include GTECH 71000 - Concepts and Theories in GeoInformatics in their list of courses. Those interested in GIS development are encouraged to take two programming-oriented classes (GTECH 73100 - GeoComputation I and GTECH 73300 - GeoComputation II ). Students planning a career in GIS applications are encouraged to choose from the wide range of applications courses listed under GTECH 785xx prefix. Students interested in remote sensing may take the sequence of GTECH 71200 - Remote Sensing of Environment through GTECH 71300 - Digital Image Processing and LiDAR Remote Sensing courses and those interested in cartography and geovisualization may take GTECH 72100 - Introduction to Cartographic Design and Geovisualization and GTECH 72200 - Advanced Topics in GeoVisualization. Courses taken to fulfill the requirements of the GIS certificate program may also count towards fulfillment of the Geography MA degree. This happens automatically for GIS certificate students who concurrently enroll as MA students. For students who enroll in the GIS certificate program prior to enrolling in the MA program, the student must request the transfer of credits. The GIS Certificate program does not accept transfer credits to satisfy the minimum 15 credits required for the program. As the GIS certificate program is a non-degree program, GIS certificate students are considered “non-matriculated.” Enrollment in the GIS certificate program does not guarantee eligibility for financial aid or for a student visa. For more information contact the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis).