UC Santa Barbara Geography / Graduates / Student Handbook

The Master's Program

In this chapter:

• Undergraduate Preparation
• Course/Unit Requirements of the MA Degree
• Required Courses
• Master's Committee
• Maximum Time/Normative Time for the MA Degree
• 8th Quarter Justification
• Financial Support as a Master's Student and Standard of Scholarship
• Residency Requirement for the MA Degree
• Masters Degree by Examination
• Petitioning to Skip the MA and go Directly to the PhD Program
• Master's Degree - Forms, Hoops and Bureaucratic Procedures
• Filing Fee

» Undergraduate Preparation

An undergraduate degree in Geography is not required. Applicants with strong academic backgrounds in specific and diverse systematic study areas are strongly encouraged to apply. While a Master's degree is normally required before admission to the PhD program, students applying to the department with an undergraduate degree are encouraged to apply for the MA/PhD program if the PhD is their final degree objective.

No foreign language will be required. However, language proficiency will be strongly recommended for some students, depending on their native language and country of origin, areas of specialization, and dissertation topics.

The Master's program offers two plans: the thesis (Plan I) and the examination (Plan II) alternatives. The thesis will summarize the results of original scholarly research in Geography, shall conform to the style required by the Graduate Division (margins, formatting, paper, pagination, etc.), and must be approved by each member of the Master's Committee. In January 1999, the faculty agreed that the Master's thesis may be equivalent to a paper suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal (either submitted for or accepted for publication). However, first and foremost it must be acceptable to all members of the student's Master's Committee and requires the same review and approval process that all theses do.

» Course/Unit Requirements of the MA Degree

Students in the Master's program are expected to complete the degree requirements in effect at the time they are admitted to the program, though they may elect to follow a subsequent set of requirements.

	Plan I (Thesis)	Plan II (Examination)
A. Total Units Required	34	46
B. 200/500 level Geog. units required*	20**	24**

* exclusive of Geog 201; 200A, B, and C; 500; 597; 598; and 599 - no more than half may be in 596

** The number of systematic or techniques units that any student should take will depend on the student's needs and background, but the total should include some of each.

The program is designed to provide maximum flexibility while assuring a basic level of competence within Geography. Because Geography is traditionally among the broader academic disciplines, coursework in related departments is often appropriate to graduate study within the field.

» Required Courses

1. Geography 201
   Seminar in Geography (required every quarter offered; S/U grading only)
2. Geography 200A, B, and C
   Introduction to Geographic Research, normally taken during 1st year

   Except in unusual circumstances, students must have a thesis proposal accepted by their advising committee by the end of the academic quarter following the end of the quarter in which they enrolled in 200C or they will automatically be transferred to the examination route. After the committee accepts the proposal, a maximum of 3 academic quarters will be allowed to complete the thesis or the student will be transferred to the exam route. For Plan II (examination) students, Geography 200A, B, and C will provide a needed exposure to research methods, and, for Plan I (thesis) students, the courses will provide a firm foundation for thesis research. A secondary goal is the building of improved bibliographic and other research and writing skills. Performance in the course will also help the faculty determine the suitability of the student to the chosen program (Plan I or II).

3. Geography 210A, B, and C
   Analytical Methods in Geography
   1. Students may petition out of 210 A, B, and C if:
   2. They have taken Geog 172.
   3. They have taken the equivalent elsewhere or will take its equivalent from another department on campus.
   4. Their faculty advisor does not feel the student needs the courses.
4. Strongly recommended
   • Geography 276 - Geographic Time Series Analysis
   • Geography 500 - TA Training, required for all Teaching Assistants

To petition out of a department requirement, you need to submit a Petition for Graduate Degree Requirements which justifies/explains your request for exemption, have it endorsed/approved by your Master's Committee chair, and then submit it to the Graduate Advisor for approval.

» Master's Committee

The Master's Committee consists of at least three UC ladder faculty members. Two members of the committee must be ladder faculty from the Geography Department (or who hold Affiliated appointments with the Geography Department), one of who will be appointed as chair or co-chair. Additional members may be added beyond the three required when appropriate. The committee requires the approval of the Graduate Advisor, the Department Chair, and the Graduate Dean. The thesis requires the signatures of all members of the committee, as nominated on Master's Form I (see sample). Ladder faculty who retire when a student's thesis is still being written may continue to serve on and chair the committee in question without any further approval or re-approval being needed. In instances where the faculty member retires before the Master's Committee is nominated, the retired faculty may serve as a second or third member without special approval from Graduate Division. Graduate Council approval is required when the faculty member who has retired is being nominated to serve as chair of a Master's Committee. Emeriti faculties who continue with the University as "research professors" enjoy the same committee privileges and may chair committees without special approval.

» Maximum Time/Normative Time for the MA Degree

The normative time for completion of the Master's degree in the Department of Geography is 7 quarters. The maximum time allowed for Master's degree candidates in all fields to complete their degree requirements is 4 years (Academic Senate Regulation 300(A)). The University's 4-year degree deadline for a Master's degree is distinct from an individual academic department's average or normative time for completion of a Master's degree. Normative time is the number of years considered to be reasonable for completion of a particular program by a full-time student who enters the program without academic deficiencies. The Department will enforce these rules and approve exceptions only under unusual circumstances.

If you exceed the 4-year maximum before completion of the requirements for the Master's degree, you must petition the Graduate Council for a degree deadline extension. The Graduate Council is concerned that degrees be granted only to students who are current in the scholarship of their fields and who have kept abreast of the literature and research in the discipline. The nature of the petition depends on the length of time by which the degree deadline has been exceeded. If the degree deadline has been exceeded by less than two years, a Graduate Student Petition requesting the extension, endorsed and signed by the Graduate Advisor, must be submitted. Approval of such petitions will typically be routine. If the deadline has been exceeded by more than two years, a Graduate Student Petition requesting the extension, endorsed and signed by the Graduate Advisor, must be submitted and must be accompanied by a memo documenting and certifying currency in the field, signed by all members of the thesis committee. The Graduate Council has identified continuous registration, teaching or research apprenticeships, or contact with current literature and research in the field as examples of currency. If additional information is needed, the Graduate Division will contact the Graduate Advisor. Approval of such petitions may be considered by the Chair of Graduate Council, or referred for inclusion on the Graduate Council agenda as necessary. Petitions are available from the Graduate Division, (see sample) or can be downloaded at http://graddiv.ucsb.edu/pubs/

» 8th Quarter Justification

Beginning Fall 1995, all Master's students who have not finished by the 8th quarter will be required to file a justification with the department, signed by their thesis advisor, which includes a timetable for completion of the thesis. If a justification is not filed and approved, the student will be switched to the examination route, and will then be given the exam during the 9th quarter.

» Financial Support as a Master's Student and Standard of Scholarship

Financial support for Master's students on departmental funds (e.g., Teaching Assistantships, Fellowships) beyond four quarters is contingent upon progress and performance. For any student enrolled in the Geography M.A. or PhD program, a GPA of less than 3.3 or a grade of C+ or less in geography may cause departmental financial support to be withdrawn.

» Residency Requirement for the MA Degree

Students in a Master's program must spend a minimum of three quarters in full-time residence at UCSB.

» Master's Degree by Examination

For students electing Plan II, the final examination will consist of three parts and will assess the candidate's general knowledge of geography, as well as testing the candidate's mastery of one or more specialty areas and/or areas of technical expertise. Students should prepare themselves and their examination committee for the examination, beginning at least three months before the expected date of the examination. The final examination will be conducted by the student's advisor and examination committee, and the scope and structure of the exam shall be determined by the advisor, the committee, and the student. If the student fails to pass the examination, he/she may try once more without penalty, taking the retest during the quarter following his/her failure or at the next available opportunity, whichever is later. Please note that Plan II Master's students are ineligible for the PhD program.

Students must be registered the quarter they take their Master's examination, or they will have to use filing fee status. Registration as a graduate student in the Spring Quarter maintains graduate status until the beginning of the next Fall Quarter. A student who registered in Spring may, therefore, take examinations during Summer without additional fees.

Provide each member of the committee with a copy of your undergraduate and graduate level courses completed or in progress here or elsewhere and a list of the key books and periodical articles which you have already read, grouped into the three areas that you propose for your exam.

The examination will cover your two areas of emphasis (2 systematic areas or 1 systematic and 1 technical area), plus a general examination. A person interested in remote sensing of vegetation may use vegetation geography and remote sensing as the two primary areas and have a general examination in general physical geography. On the human side, a person may be interested in behavioral geography and computer cartography and would take a general examination in general human geography.

The content of these examinations will be based upon course work taken to date (including that taken elsewhere and as an undergraduate if it is relevant), the readings done to date, plus additional readings allocated by the members of your examination committee (no later than ten weeks before you propose taking the examination).

The examinations are usually written over a three-day period. A number may be open-book exams and could be given to you the weekend before. If open-book exams are to be used, you will be notified well in advance of the examination. If closed-book exams are used, they are normally three hours in length. Again, however, this is at the discretion of the individual faculty member who administers the particular examination.

In a committee composed of Loaiciga, Roberts, and Michaelsen, for example, Loaiciga may administer the exam dealing with hydrology. Roberts may administer the remote sensing exam and be responsible for most of the questions. Michaelsen may collect questions for and administer the general physical geography exam. Faculty consults widely and often in preparing the examinations, and it is common for each of them to prepare questions in each of the areas. The format of the written exams, and the way faculty interact, make it important for you to document what your background is and what additional readings you may need to do, so that all parties are of like mind well in advance of the examination.

It will be the explicit responsibility of the chair of your examination committee to ensure that an appropriate balance is maintained between coursework and readings and the examination questions which are asked of you. The burden of documentation and, essentially, of management, however, is yours. It can work most efficiently when you are most organized and keep the faculty members well informed of where you are in the process. Past examination questions are maintained in a department file to enable you to see the types (and relative difficulty) of questions asked. Inspection of these questions will show you that we seek to see how you reorganize and use your existing knowledge when confronted with relatively unfamiliar or downright new situations. The questions are demanding, and not all students pass the written examinations with flying colors the first time around. Actual experience to date is that one-third get through the first time, another third must retake the exam, and the remaining third have parts which need further work either by written or oral examination, or by focused analyses and written responses over a period of weeks or sometimes months. Since the faculty tries to match the student and the exam weakness in a way that best acknowledges the circumstances, the precise nature of additional requirements after the first exam is failed is at the discretion of your committee. To date, nearly all students have passed the exams the second time around, and we see no reason for that record to change drastically. Except in unusual circumstances, the student will be given a written evaluation of the exam within two weeks and, in all cases, no longer than six weeks of finishing the exam.

It is expected that all committee members will grade all questions, although a member may skip questions well outside his/her expertise. Each member will assign one of the following grades to each question: Excellent; Satisfactory; Unsatisfactory

If one or more committee members grades a question as Unsatisfactory, it must be rewritten according to feedback from the committee. An Unsatisfactory section may be rewritten once, in the same quarter or the quarter immediately following the receipt of the written evaluation.

We expect the whole process to work well and with substantial agreement among all parties, and that it will be responsibly administered and equitable for all students taking the exam. Your access to previous questions, your chairperson's unambiguous responsibility to ensure an appropriate balance between areas, and the appropriate level for questions is your and our best assurance of equity in these matters. In the event that you have concerns, which your committee find less persuasive than you do, you may present your concerns to the Chair or the Graduate Committee for review.

» Petitioning to Skip the MA and go Directly to the PhD Program

At a faculty meeting on 5/18/99, the faculty agreed to allow qualified students in the MA/PhD program to skip the MA and go directly into the PhD program. Students must have been enrolled for at least 3 regular academic quarters. The petition requires the approval of the student's committee. Attached to the petition should be:

• A letter of justification from the committee chair
• PhD Form I, which officially nominates the PhD Committee
• A PhD proposal

The petition requires the approval of the Graduate Committee (see sample). Those students who wash out after taking their written and orals will be converted to the MA II (exam) route.

» Master's Degree - Forms, Hoops and Bureaucratic Procedures

Many of these forms can be found at: http://graddiv.ucsb.edu/pubs/

Plan I - Thesis Route
Steps 1-3 should be completed by the student:

1. Check unit/course requirements
   Check your transcript to make sure that you have fulfilled all course and unit requirements for the degree; that you don't have any Incompletes, NG, or NR grades on your record; and that you have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. Don't wait until the day you file your thesis to do this!
2. File Master's Form I - "Nomination of Thesis Committee for Master's Degree Candidates" (see sample)
   Ideally, this form should be filed no later than the beginning of the quarter in which you plan to graduate. Form I requires the approval of the department Graduate Advisor, the Department Chair, and the Graduate Dean. Type (or print legibly) the names and titles of the committee members on the form. If you wish to change a member or members of your committee after Form I has been filed and approved, you need to submit Committee Form I-A - Changes in Thesis or Dissertation Committee (see sample).
3. File your Master's Thesis with the Graduate Division (2 copies on 100% cotton bond paper) and the Department (1 copy, which does not have to be bound or on 100% cotton)
   The thesis approval/signature page must include the signatures of all members of your committee as listed on Master's Form I. See "UCSB Guide to Filing Theses and Dissertations". While it is not required that you give a copy of your thesis to your committee members, it is customary.

After Steps 1-3 have been completed by the student, the Graduate Program Assistant will ask the chair of the committee to complete Form C1 (see sample). Form C1 indicates that all requirements have been met, that there are no Incompletes/NR/NGs on the record, and that the thesis has been approved and filed, and it makes a recommendation on admission to the PhD program. Then the Graduate Advisor or Department Chair authorizes the Graduate Division to award the degree on Form C2 (see sample). The Department WILL NOT authorize the Graduate Division to award the degree until Steps 1-3 have all been completed.

Plan II - Examination Route
The Master's degree by examination is a terminal degree. Continuation into the PhD program is not permitted.

Steps 1-2 should be completed by the student:

1. Check that unit/course requirements have been met
   Check your transcript to make sure that you have fulfilled all course and unit requirements for the degree; that you don't have any Incompletes, NG, or NR grades on your record; and that you have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. Don't wait until the day you are planning to leave to do this!
2. File Form B - "Nomination of Examination Committee for the Degree of Master of Arts" (see sample)
   This form should be filed in the department as soon as you know who will be on your committee; at the very latest, this form should be filed at the beginning of the quarter in which you plan to take the exam and always before you take the exam.

After Steps 1 & 2 have been completed and you have successfully passed the final examination, the Graduate Program Assistant will ask the examination committee chair to complete Form D1 (see sample), indicating that the degree should be awarded and that all requirements have been met. Then the Graduate Advisor or Department Chair authorizes the Graduate Division to award the degree on Form D2 (see sample).

» Filing Fee

All graduating students must be in a fee relationship with the university; that is, either registered or on an official filing fee leave of absence with the Graduate Division. The filing fee is a reduced fee paid instead of full registration fees for the quarter during which a student is completing the last requirements for a degree, and it is equal to half of the "registration fee" or roughly $150. Paying the filing fee terminates graduate status; therefore, it may be used only by PhD students and terminal Master's degree students (those NOT planning to continue into the PhD program). Students should not pay the filing fee until they have completed all requirements for the degree. If you are registered during the quarter in which you plan to complete and graduate, then you do NOT have to pay a filing fee when you file your thesis or dissertation because you are already in a fee relationship with the university. If you finish during the Summer and you were enrolled during the previous Spring Quarter, you do not have to pay the filing fee because your enrollment status technically lasts until the day before the next regular academic quarter begins (i.e., the day before Fall Quarter begins).