Degree Requirements

​The program is offered by the faculty of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students undertake 36 credit hours over a two-year period.  These 36 hours include required core classes (9 credit hours), a required service learning studio (6 credit hours), and required geospatial science coursework (12 credit hours). Students can elect to undertake either of two tracks: the first “coursework” track involves a further 9 hours of elective courses, whereas the second “thesis” track involves 9 hours of electives, and preparation of a written thesis (3 credits).


Students at CU Denver must follow the graduation guidelines specified in the catalog from the year in which they were admitted.  The following link contains an archive of the course catalogs from previous years: www.ucdenver.edu/registrar/catalogs/archived

MA Non-Thesis Checklist

MA Thesis Checklist


Graduate School Requirements for Graduation

There are graduate school deadlines for each of the following requirements. The CLAS schedule of deadlines for the current semester can be downloaded here or picked up at the CLAS Dean's Office.

Note: The University of Colorado Denver places a seven year limit on all work to be applied toward the MS degree. If you exceed this limit under extenuated circumstances, please see the Director of Graduate Studies.​​​