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Earth and Planetary Sciences Contiguous Bachelors Masters Pathway

Information and Policies

Introduction

The Earth and Planetary Sciences contiguous five-year Bachelor's/Master's program allows motivated students to complete a B.S. in Earth sciences or environmental sciences, and then an M.S. in Earth sciences in five years with appropriate planning. The program is designed for promising students who have demonstrated aptitude for fundamental course work in the classroom, as well as the capacity, interest, and motivation to conduct independent research through collaborations with a faculty mentor.

Eligibility Requirements

Students enrolled in the Earth sciences B.S. or Environmental sciences B.S. programs who will complete their undergraduate degree within normative time (four years for students who enter the B.S. program as frosh, three years for sophomore transfer students, or two years for junior transfer students) are eligible for the contiguous Bachelor's/Master's program. Interested students from other majors may petition the department for admission to the pathway, provided that they have been participating in research with faculty in Earth and Planetary Sciences and have a coursework foundation that will enable success in the graduate curriculum. A GPA in the major of 3.0 or higher is required, as well as demonstrated research progress and a strong endorsement from a sponsoring faculty adviser. Students must complete their undergraduate degree requirements by the end of the summer quarter prior to enrolling in the M.S. program in the fall.

Application Process

Interested students should attend an information session during their junior year and complete an associated survey to declare their interest in the Bachelor's/Master's program. During the fall quarter of their senior year, students must formally apply to the master's program during the normal admissions cycle and through the standard graduate application process. The application deadline is typically in early January.

Course Requirements

Program Requirements

Students in the Bachelor's/Master's program must take a minimum of 35 credits total of graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses, of which no more than 15 credits may be upper-division undergraduate courses. Of the required graduate-level courses, a minimum of 20 credits must be courses other than supervised research (EART 297) except by special exception of the Graduate Council. All Bachelor's/Master's program students will take the required graduate core series of EART 203, Introductory Teaching Seminar, EART 204, Earth And Planetary Sciences Foundations, and EART 206, Great Papers in the Earth Sciences.

Students in the program must also take one graduate-level “analytical” course and one graduate-level “subject” course. The classes that fulfill these requirements are listed in the EPS Graduate Student Handbook and in the course lists below. Analytical and subject classes may be taken in the senior year; the credits will count toward 180 undergraduate credits and the course can count toward the B.S. degree upper-division elective requirement, but the analytical or subject content will fulfill the M.S. program requirement. However, class credits cannot be double counted in both B.S. and M.S. degrees, so students are still required to complete 35 credits (no more than 15 of which may be upper-division undergraduate) during their M.S. career. In addition, EART 195 cannot count toward the M.S. degree and students cannot earn credit for a graduate course when they have previously taken the cross-listed undergraduate version. In order to fulfill the capstone requirement for the M.S. degree, students must also complete a master's thesis (Plan I).

Subject Courses

EART 207Tectonics

5

EART 208Methods in Paleoclimatology

5

EART 220Ground Water Modeling

5

EART 254The Climate System

5

EART 258Deep Time Paleoclimates

5

EART 262Planetary Interiors

5

EART 263Planetary Surfaces

5

EART 264Planetary Atmospheres

5

EART 270Global Seismology

5

EART 272
/OCEA 272
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

5

AM 275
/EART 275
Magnetohydrodynamics

5

OCEA 213
/EART 213
Biogeochemical Cycles

5

EART 208 currently not offered.

Analytical Courses

EART 225Statistics and Data Analysis in the Geosciences

5

EART 229Isotopic Methods in Environmental Science

5

EART 265Order of Magnitude Estimation

5

EART 266Geologic Signal Processing and Inverse Theory

5

AM 100Mathematical Methods for Engineers

5

AM 147Computational Methods and Applications

5

AM 211Foundations of Applied Mathematics

5

AM 215Stochastic Modeling in Biology

5

ASTR 260Instrumentation for Astronomy

5

CHEM 122Principles of Instrumental Analysis

5

BIOE 286
/CSP 241
Experimental Design and Data Analysis

5

ENVS 215AGeographic Information Systems and Environmental Applications

5

ENVS 215LExercises in Geographic Information Systems

2

MATH 106Systems of Ordinary Differential Equations

5

MATH 107Partial Differential Equations

5

OCEA 215Predicting the Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate

5

OCEA 260
/EART 260
Introductory Data Analysis in the Ocean and Earth Sciences

5

PHYS 116AMathematical Methods in Physics

5

PHYS 116DMathematical Methods in Physics

5

PHYS 116CMathematical Methods in Physics

5

PHYS 160Practical Electronics

5

PHYS 242Computational Physics

5

STAT 132Classical and Bayesian Inference

5

STAT 206Applied Bayesian Statistics

5

STAT 226Spatial Statistics

5

Any math methods course at a level higher than multivariable calculus also counts as an analytical course. Common Applied Math, Math, and Physics choices are included in the above course list.

Planners

Below are 5- and 3-year planners for students in the Bachelor's/Master's program who enter UC Santa Cruz as frosh and as junior transfer students.

Five-Year Planner for Students Entering the Earth Sciences B.S. as Frosh

Year Fall Winter Spring
1st (frosh) CHEM 1A MATH 11A or MATH 19A MATH 11B or MATH 19B
EART 5 & EART 5L CHEM 1B & CHEM 1M CHEM 1C & CHEM 1N
     
2nd (soph) EART 110A* EART 110B & EART 110M* PHYS 6B & PHYS 6M
PHYS 6A & PHYS 6L Advanced math/coding EART 110C & EART 110N
     
3rd (junior) EART elective EART elective EART elective
    EART elective
     
4th (senior) EART 199 EART 199 EART 195
and/or
EART elective EART elective EART 189A*
     
 5th (master's) EART 203 EART 206   
EART 204 Subject or Analytical
Class†† 
Subject or Analytical
Class†† 
EART 297 EART 297 EART 297

*Students who wish to complete their capstone with EART 189A and EART 189B should be aware that the following courses are prerequisites: EART 109 and EART 109L, EART 110A, and EART 110B and EART 110M. Students must also complete EART 189B in summer to fulfill the summer field capstone. In addition to the specific courses shown in these planners, a student must complete courses satisfying the CC, ER, IM, SR, and TA general education requirements.

†Students expecting to write a senior thesis for their comprehensive requirement are required to contact the department at least three quarters before graduation to identify the intended project and faculty adviser. Senior theses usually require at least two or three quarters for completion.

†† In consultation with their research adviser and faculty graduate representative, the student will select at least one “subject” course focusing on specific Earth and planetary sciences content and one “analytical” course that builds quantitative analytical skills (from a list in the EPS Graduate Handbook) and also included above.

Three-Year Planner for Students Entering the Earth Sciences B.S. as Junior Transfers

This planner assumes that students have completed all lower-division requirements, other than PHYS 6A and PHYS 6L, PHYS 6B and PHYS 6M, and advanced math/coding.

Year Fall Winter Spring
1st (junior) Advanced math/coding PHYS 6A & PHYS 6L PHYS 6B & PHYS 6M
EART 110A EART 110B & EART 110M EART 110C & EART 110N
  EART elective EART elective
2nd (senior) EART elective   EART elective
EART elective EART elective EART 189A
and/or
EART 199 EART 199 EART 195
 3rd (master's)   EART 206  
EART 203 Subject or
Analytical Class††
Subject or
Analytical Class††
EART 204 EART 297 EART 297

*Students who wish to complete their capstone with EART 189A and EART 189B should be aware that the following courses are prerequisites: EART 109 and EART 109L, EART 110A, and EART 110B and EART 110M. Students must also complete EART 189B in summer to fulfill the summer field capstone.

†Students expecting to write a senior thesis for their comprehensive requirement are required to contact the department at least three quarters before graduation to identify the intended project and faculty adviser. Senior theses usually require at least two or three quarters for completion.

†† In consultation with their research advisor and faculty graduate representative, the student will select at least one “subject” course focusing on specific Earth and planetary sciences content and one “analytical” course that builds quantitative analytical skills (from a list in the EPS Graduate Handbook) and also included above.