Ph.D. in Geography

The Graduate School of Geography has awarded more doctorate degrees than any other geography program in the United States. We invite applications for admittance to our program from students interested in pursuing a PhD degree. Students are not accepted for master’s studies only, although many choose to earn that degree en route to the doctorate, and the M.A. is also available to those who leave the program early. The graduate curriculum provides an opportunity for students to pursue studies across the full array of geography: human geography (space-society), human-environment geography (nature-society), Earth System Science, Geographic Information Science/Remote Sensing, Urban and Economic geography. Students are encouraged to explore faculty and research interests across these geographies in combination with work in complementary fields and disciplines within and outside of Clark. While only students seeking a doctoral degree are admitted to the Graduate School of Geography, two types of M.A. degrees are available: pre-doctoral and non-doctoral. Pre-Doctoral M.A. An M.A. degree can be awarded to doctoral candidates who do not already have a master's in geography after the following requirements: completion of 8 semesters of courses; completion of required course work; completion of doctoral exam; approval of the dissertation proposal. Students must opt for pre-doctoral MA at time of ABD status. Non-Doctoral M.A. Normally no later than at the end of the first semester of the second year of residence, after a review process, students may opt or may be advised to shift to a non-doctoral (terminal) M.A. degree, under which circumstances they would normally substitute thesis-writing credits for formal course credits. This thesis is a research paper or short article (15-30 pages), demonstrating an ability to define a problem, as well as serving as evidence of research competence.