Range Science - Master of Science

A GPA of 3.0 or higher is required for admission. GRE exam is not required. Prerequisite for admission as a regular graduate student in the department is the completion of a curriculum substantially equivalent to that required of undergraduate students. Therefore, deficiency courses may be required after admission to the program, as determined by the admissions committee and the student’s graduate committee and advisor.

Graduate Program with the Thesis (Research) Option

• Coursework
  • A minimum of 30 credits of graduate work is required to graduate.
  • At least 15 credits must be in courses numbered 500 or above.
  • At least 15 credits must be from the Range Science program.
  • Not more than 6 nor fewer than 4 thesis credits (RGSC 599 Master's Thesis) may be counted toward the requirements for a master’s degree.
  • Two semesters of RGSC 515 Graduate Seminar (Seminar) are required. One may be taken from another department with the permission of the student’s graduate committee.
  • At least one advanced statistics course or equivalent is required, as determined by the student’s graduate committee.
• Thesis
  • The thesis research project must be approved by the student’s graduate committee.
  • Every effort should be made to publish the thesis as a scientific journal article or Experiment Station publication.

Graduate Program with the Non-Thesis Option

• Coursework
  • A minimum of 32 credits of graduate work is required to graduate.
  • At least 15 credits must be in courses numbered 500 or above.
  • At least 15 credits must be from the Range Science program.
  • RGSC 599 Master's Thesis (Thesis) may not be taken.
  • Two credits of RGSC 598 Special Research Program (subtitled Non-Thesis Report) are required for the written report.
  • Two semesters of RGSC 515 Graduate Seminar (Seminar) are required. One may be taken from another department with the permission of the student’s graduate committee.
• Written Report
  • The report will be on a topic approved by the student’s graduate committee.
  • Research for the report may involve field work and data gathering but should also be strongly library- and literature-based.
  • The report should be of graduate quality and content and should follow graduate school thesis format or the format of an acceptable scholarly journal. Final approval and acceptance of the report will be provided by the student’s graduate committee.
  • Every effort should be made to publish the report in an appropriate outlet (journal article, Experiment Station bulletin or report, Extension bulletin, etc.)
  • Copies of the report will be bound and placed in the university and departmental libraries.

MAP Requirements

• The Graduate School allows qualified junior or senior students to substitute its graduate courses for required or elective courses in an undergraduate degree program and then subsequently count those same course as fulfilling graduate requirements in a related graduate program.
• Undergraduate students may apply for acceptance to the accelerated master’s program after completing 60 semester hours of undergraduate coursework of which a minimum of 25 semester credit hours must be completed at NMSU.
• students may take 12 credits from the following courses.
• The grade point average must be at a minimum of 3.0.
• Students must receive a grade of B or higher in this coursework to be counted for graduate credit.