Program Overview

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Geography, PhD

The Doctor of Philosophy program in geography is designed to provide students with specialized academic and professional training, enabling them to pursue further specialization or immediate employment. The program offers flexibility to allow for individual needs and interests, enabling students to create a plan of study that fits their personal and professional goals.

Program Description

The program has a sound graduate background for further specialization or for immediate employment. Students engage with distinguished faculty to tackle pressing environmental and societal challenges currently facing the world. The state-of-the-art Spatial Analysis Research Center and Urban Climate Research Center offer students the opportunity to work with exceptional faculty on diverse research projects.

At a Glance

• College/school: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Location: Tempe
• STEM-OPT extension eligible: No

Degree Requirements

• 84 credit hours
• A written comprehensive exam
• An oral comprehensive exam
• A prospectus
• A dissertation
• Required Core (3 credit hours)
  • GCU 585 Geographic Research Design and Proposal Writing (3)
• Electives or Research (43 credit hours)
  • Methods or Statistics Electives (6 credit hours)
  • Skills Electives (6 credit hours)
  • Specialization Electives (9 credit hours)
  • Other Requirements (5 credit hours)
    • GCU 529 Contemporary Geographic Thought (3)
    • GCU 591 or GPH 591 Seminar: Geography Colloquium (1)
    • GCU 591 or GPH 591 Seminar: Geography Colloquium (1)
• Culminating Experience (12 credit hours)
  • GCU or GPH 799 Dissertation (12)

Admission Requirements

• General university admission requirements:
  • All students are required to meet general university admission requirements.
• Additional Application Information
  • An applicant whose native language is not English must provide proof of English proficiency regardless of their current residency.
  • Incoming students must demonstrate or attain competence in cartography and quantitative methods and complete other basic coursework that will enable them to pursue graduate studies in their area of specialization.
  • The personal statement must address four questions:
    1. What specialty in geography does the applicant wish to pursue, and why?
    2. What aspects of the applicant's education will enable them to pursue this specialty?
    3. What additional training does the applicant believe can be obtained at Arizona State University to realize their educational and career goals?
    4. What other information does the applicant feel should be considered in their application for admission?
  • Letters of recommendation must be from three faculty members who can attest to the applicant's academic achievements.

Tuition Information

When it comes to paying for higher education, everyone’s situation is different. Students can learn about ASU tuition and financial aid options to find out which will work best for them.

Application Deadlines

• Fall: December 15 (Final)

Program Learning Outcomes

Program learning outcomes identify what a student will learn or be able to do upon completion of their program. This program’s learning outcomes include the following:

• Write a scholarly literature analysis associated with a geographical research question for their doctoral research.
• Write dissertation proposal that is in a format consistent with guidelines established by the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Award grant.
• Apply appropriate advanced research methodology in geographic research sciences.

Career Opportunities

Professionals with expertise in geographical sciences research, theory, and practice are in high demand across sectors and industries, including institutions of higher education, consulting firms, government agencies, research facilities, and community organizations. Skills in geographical data analysis, mapping, and climate science are valuable to businesses and institutions that rely on research-based approaches to solve complex practical problems.

• Career examples include:
  • Atmospheric, earth, marine, or space sciences professor or instructor
  • Environmental scientist or specialist
  • Geographic information systems technician
  • Geophysical data technician
  • Geoscientist
  • Geospatial information scientist or technologist

Research Areas

Students in the program can build a path of knowledge that reflects their personal interests within the realms of geography. Students benefit from a wide variety of coursework and research opportunities in four broad interdisciplinary themes that span the expertise of the faculty within the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning:

• Computational spatial science
• Earth systems and climate science
• Place, identities, and culture
• Sustainability science and studies

Additional Curriculum Information

Doctoral students entering with a bachelor's degree must complete 84 credit hours: 72 credit hours of coursework and research at ASU, and 12 dissertation credit hours. Doctoral students entering with a master's degree must complete 54 credit hours: 42 credit hours of combined coursework and research at ASU, and 12 dissertation credit hours. Coursework and research hours are selected by the student in consultation with an advisory committee. The program recognizes that other graduate-level courses are offered at ASU; advanced courses are often taught in omnibus courses, courses that have rotating content and whose content is not reflected in their titles. Students may include these courses in their curriculum with approval of the program directors. The Other Requirements course Seminar: Geography Colloquium, is taken twice, once in each of the first two semesters of the program, for one credit hour each. Other courses may be used with approval of academic unit. Up to six credit hours of 400-level coursework may be applied toward the plan of study.