Master of Science in Geospatial Analysis

EARN YOUR MSGA AT UMW

Start a career using geospatial technologies by getting your Master of Science in Geospatial Analysis at The University of Mary Washington. The U.S. Department of Labor says geospatial technologies are a high-growth industry sector, with more demand for employees than are trained personnel to fill the positions. The MSGA program is designed to address the growing demand for GIS-trained personnel in today’s working world. UMW’s MSGA program is conveniently located near the largest GIS job market in the U.S.

Job Opportunities

• Cartographer
• Geographer
• Geospatial Engineer
• Analyst
• Specialist
• Applications Developer
• Intelligence Analyst
• Photogrammetric Technician
• Planner
• Forester
• Field Data Collector
• Mapping Specialist
• Political Analyst

Program Features

• Class size limited to 18, ensuring access to staff.
• Designed for recent graduates with a background in GIS and for working professionals who wish to advance their careers
• Access to state-of-the-art computer labs and extensive software: ESRI, ENVI, Terrset, PCI Geomatica, and more.
• Enroll full or part-time
• All courses are taught face to face on the Fredericksburg campus.
• All courses meet once a week, from 6-9:30 p.m.
• 30 credits are required- 6, 4-credit courses, and a 6-credit research project.
• You can click here for full admission criteria.

Course Instruction

The MSGA program emphasizes instruction in theory and practical application. They are related to capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying spatial information. The program provides students with a technical foundation and a geographic knowledge base. The students apply geospatial tools to many real-world problems. The problems are crime analysis, transportation engineering, and urban planning. The student will see emergency preparedness, resource management, facilities management, climate change, and marketing.

The coherent program’s design is to master specific knowledge and skills, such as programming within a geospatial environment, report writing, critical spatial analysis, and solving problems. Completed capstone projects include visualization, sea-level change, conservation, climate and ecosystem modeling, health issues, urbanization and flooding, landscape reconstruction, and more. The MSGA offers a learning and growth opportunity within driving distance of some of the nation’s leading government and corporate geospatial agencies.

Required Core Courses

All courses are MSGA courses (12 credits)

• 510 – Spatial Thinking
• 540 – Modeling and Spatial Statistics
• 555 – Programming for GIS*

Students who have completed an undergraduate GIS programming course may substitute the MSGA courses 580 for 555. If 580 is taken as the core, it cannot also count as an elective.

Elective Courses

All courses are MSGA courses (12 credits)
Select three of the following:

• 520 – GeoDesign and Geovisualization
• 550 – Remote Sensing & Digital Imagery
• 570 – Geospatial Intelligence
• 571 – Special Topics in Geospatial Analysis
• 580 – Web GIS and Programming
• 591 – Individual Study

Capstone

All courses are MSGA courses (6 credits)

• 595 – Independent Research Project

Admission Requirements

• Earned bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university
• Successful applicants typically have a GPA of 3.0 or higher from undergraduate coursework. Students are required to have successfully earned credits in at least two college-level GIS classes and in at least one statistics class; in lieu of completed coursework, students can gain admission by providing documented evidence demonstrating they have worked with a GIS, such as ArcGIS, Grass, MapInfo, IDRISI, Intergraph – or the equivalent software – on a range of projects indicating competence in the topics typically covered in upper-level undergraduate GIS. Students may be considered for provisional admission without having previous GIS coursework or related work experience under the agreement that if they are admitted they must take GISC 200 Introduction to GIS and GISC 351 Spatial Analysis or GEOG 351A Spatial Analysis prior to beginning their graduate-level courses.
• Non-native English speakers will provide evidence of proficiency in English.