Nov 25, 2024  
2021-2022 University of Wyoming Catalog 
    
2021-2022 University of Wyoming Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Water Resources, M.A.


Academic departments across the university cooperate to provide master of arts or master of science degree programs that contain multidisciplinary training in water resources. The master’s degree offered through these affiliations is awarded as a major with each of the sponsoring department’s graduate programs. The water resources interdisciplinary major will be acknowledged on the graduate transcript and thereby certify to potential employers that the candidate has completed an in-depth multidisciplinary course program in the broad area of water resources.

The educational underpinnings of this program include the following:

  • The purpose of the program is to provide multidisciplinary education and to impart a multidisciplinary perspective to candidates.
  • Training is to be consistent with the rigor of professional water resources demands.
  • The interdisciplinary major program is flexible so as to meet the candidates’ individual professional objectives.

Primary responsibility for student guidance and graduate program formulation resides with the sponsoring department and sponsoring major professor.

Please refer to latest updated information on the Web site listed above.

Upon acceptance to the program, the sponsoring department must assign a member of the Water Resources Curriculum Committee to the candidate’s graduate committee. The Water Resources Curriculum Committee’s representatives on the candidate’s graduate committee shall aid in formulating deficiency requirements, course program design, academic performance criteria, and research objectives throughout the candidate’s tenure in the program.

Program Specific Admission Requirements

  • University application and fee;
  • Application fee is valid for three years;
  • Official documentation indicating bachelor’s degree earned (not necessary if UW is the most recent institution attended);
  • Potential candidates are encouraged to apply for admission to this program by contacting the participating department and by specifying at the initiation that they desire admission to the water resources interdisciplinary major. Their credentials will be evaluated by the sponsoring department and the department recommends admission of the individual into the program to the UW Admissions office.

Program Specific Degree Requirements


The academic program of study undertaken by the candidate must be designed to en¬hance the student’s background and expertise through formal graduate level coursework in the areas of: (1) technical hydrology, (2) natural resources economics and/or law, and (3) water quality. To insure a minimum multidisciplinary character, the course program must contain nine hours of coursework with at least 3 hours from each of the aforementioned areas and at least 6 of those credit hours must be from outside the student’s sponsoring department, along with a 1 credit hour seminar on water resources organized through the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. Only Plan A master’s degree programs, which require the writing of a thesis in the water resources area, are acceptable for the water resources degree option.

Hydrology (3 Hours)


One-Hour Seminar in Water Issues


Each student in the water resources interdisciplinary major program will be required to complete this course once during their graduate program. As part of the requirements for the seminar: (a) students will be required to present a seminar on a current water resource issue in Wyoming and to develop an executive summary of their issue to distribute to class participants. Each student is also required to participate in a discussion group following each seminar which stresses the interdisciplinary nature of the issue; (b) during the course of a student’s graduate program, he/she will be required to present one seminar for the seminar series (preferably on some aspect of their thesis research). This presentation does not have to occur during the semester that the student is officially signed up for seminar credit.