Master of Science in Environmental Sciences - Environmental Biology

The mission of the environmental sciences graduate program is to cultivate students perspectives of environmental issues and provide students with refined knowledge of environmental issues at the local, regional and global scale. The program will increase the student's technical competence in addressing and analyzing these issues, their origins, ramifications and resolutions. The environmental sciences graduate program at SIUE is designed to enhance and promote professional education and career opportunities in a wide area of interests. Faculty from several departments in the College of Arts and Sciences provide mentoring, direction and instruction. Practicing professionals also lend their expertise to this program. A close relationship is maintained with industries and environmental agencies so that both students and faculty members can incorporate real-world issues in their studies and research. The program offers challenging environmental research opportunities, which may be related to the campus, home, municipality, business and industry, state or federal government, consulting firms, and various advocacy groups. The department has access to a variety of instrumentation, such as an atomic absorption spectrometer, an Inductively-Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer, computer access to Geographical Information System, several gas and liquid chromatographs, a mass spectrometer, nanoparticle analyzer, carbon-nitrogen-sulfur analyzer, a variety of sampling equipment (automated water samplers, low and high volume air samplers, several soil and sediment coring devices) and a thermal cycler for real-time PCRs. In addition, the program has several field sites for long-term environmental monitoring studies, including recently developed experimental filter strips and restored Oak Savannah Prairie.

Submission of all postsecondary academic transcripts
Admission to this program requires a positive recommendation from the Environmental Sciences Admission Committee. The program requires all prospective students to submit a letter stating their academic and professional goals.
The GRE is required for those students whose undergraduate GPA is below 3.0 (4.0 scale).
Additionally, for those students whose GPA is below 2.75 (4.0 scale), two letters of recommendation are required.
Applicants with less than a 2.5 GPA will ordinarily not be admitted. Students entering any of the areas of emphasis must have a baccalaureate degree in an appropriate academic major. Computer literacy is strongly encouraged.

Proof of English Proficiency, minimum requirements are TOEFL (79), IELTS (6.5) or equivalent