Admissions and Procedures

Students must have a Bachelors degree from an accredited institution with a recommended minimum GPA of 3.0 in order to be admitted to the Graduate Certificate Program.  Appropriate work experience may also be taken into consideration in making decisions about admission. 

Applicants to the program are required to submit a statement of interest, three letters of recommendation, and apply for admission to the School of Graduate Studies, declaring the Graduate Certificate Program in Geographic Information Science as their program of study.  Admission decisions are made by the Department of Geography Graduate Committee.

Applications to the Graduate Certificate Program in Geographic Information Science must be submitted online to the School of Graduate Studies via the following web page: http://www.iupui.edu/~resgrad/grad/apply.htm

For additional questions about admission, please contact the Geography Department at IUPUI (geogdept@iupui.edu) (Tel: 317-274-8877).

Curriculum (15 cr minimum)

Required Courses (9 cr)

G535 Introduction to Remote Sensing and Air Photo Interpretation (3 cr)
G538 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (3 cr)
G639 Seminar in Applied Geographic Information Science (3 cr)

Electives - Select 2 of the following 4 courses (6 credits)

G537 Computer Cartography and Graphics (3 cr)
G536 Advanced Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing (3 cr)
G539 Advanced Geographic Information Systems (3 cr)
G588 Spatial Statistics (3 cr)

Students may petition the Graduate Director to substitute courses depending upon prior course work and experience. For example, many students are now taking introductory GIS courses at the undergraduate level and would not be asked to repeat the course at the graduate level. However, a total of 15 graduate credit hours must be earned in order to receive the certificate.

Minimum Overall GPA

Students must earn an overall grade point average in graduate courses of 3.0 or higher to be awarded the certificate. The minimum grade that will be accepted in any single course is B-.

Transfer Credits

A maximum of 8 credit hours can be transferred into the Graduate Certificate Program.  This includes graduate courses taken at IUPUI or other institutions that parallel courses in the Certificate Program.  Appropriate work experience may also allow a student to be exempted from an introductory course, but 15 credit hours of graduate level courses must be completed in order to earn the certificate.  Course waivers, substitutions, and approval of other course for credit toward the Graduate Certificate must be approved by the Geography Graduate Committee.  Undergraduate courses cannot be applied toward the Graduate Certificate.

Maximum Time for Completion

Maximum time for completion is four years with no significant breaks (i.e. more than two semesters) between courses (this field and its underlying technology changes too rapidly for longer breaks).