University of Florida

Factsheet for Agroecology Concentration at the University of Florida

 

  • The degree requires 30 hours of coursework and can be completed either entirely by Distance Education (DE) or on-campus at the University of Florida.
  • Upon successful admission to either the Agronomy or Soil & Water Science department, an advisory committee (Supervisory Committee) will be formed. The Supervisory Committee will be comprised of three faculty members with at least one being from the Agronomy Department and one from the Soil and Water Science Department. Working with the Supervisory Committee, a plan of study will be developed.
  • Completion of the Agroecology concentration of courses will lead to a non-thesis M.S. degree in either Agronomy or Soil and Water Science.
  • There is no financial assistance available from the University of Florida to pursue the program.
  • Distance education students are registered in self-funded sections of distance education courses.
  • The current estimated tuition for DE courses for the academic year 2012-2013 is $ 524/credit hour with an additional student fee of approximately $80/credit hour.
  • For non-Florida residents, the program will be more expensive if taken as a resident student rather than as a DE student.  Resident students will be required to pay out-of-state tuition which is currently $1249/credit hour.

Please follow the link for detailed fee structure information:  http://www.fa.ufl.edu/ufs/cashiers/2011/fee-tier-ay2011-20118.asp.

  • Tuition is reviewed by the University of Florida every summer semester for the upcoming academic year; hence an increase in tuition fee should be expected (tuition increases are expected to be approximately 15% per year).
  • In special circumstances, a thesis degree in Agroecology can be pursued. However, a research thesis degree will require identification of a hosting faculty member and an expanded Supervisory Committee. If a thesis option is selected, the Supervisory Committee approves all course work.  There is no guarantee of funding or assistantship with the thesis option.
  • Individuals interested in pursuing a Ph.D. beyond an M.S. degree are encouraged to consider the non-thesis option carefully.  Typically, institutions prefer a thesis M.S. for admission to a Ph.D. program.
  • Distance education students should become familiar with the requirements of the program regarding internet access and computer requirements. Please see the checklist below:

Technology Checklist:

  • Personal computer or laptop with sufficient hard drive space to store course materials (including videos of lectures, Power Point presentations, reading materials, etc.)
  • Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
  • Software: MS office Suite (incl. Word, Excel, and Power Point), Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Professional (for pdf files), and a web browser
  • Flash Player (free plug-in to view digital recordings); Windows media player
  • High-speed internet access (e.g., broadband, DSL, satellite modem, cable modem)
  • Web camera
  • External microphone (e.g., headset with build-in microphone)


rows of crops