Admission to the M.S. (Forestry) Degree Program (Updated February 2011)
1. Basic Requirements
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Undergraduate GPA: 3.00 or above
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GRE: 1000 or above (combined verbal & quantitative score)
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Undergraduate degree in forestry or a related natural resource discipline recommended
2. Application Deadlines:
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The Graduate School posts on its web pages the deadlines for applications for admission.
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However, the application deadline for individuals applying for Research or Teaching Assistantships funded by the Department of Forestry is usually 1 February (for assistantships beginning in the same calendar year’s fall semester). Application deadlines for assistantships funded by grants and contracts of individual faculty members are variable. Please contact the Forestry Graduate Program’s Director of Graduate Studies and/or the relevant individual faculty member to learn the specific deadline for your application.
3. Application Procedure
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The following items must be submitted to the Graduate School (please do not submit these items to the Forestry Graduate Program or its Director of Graduate Studies):
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Official GRE scores. These must be transmitted directly to the Graduate School by the Educational Testing Service. If you submit them yourself, they may not be accepted as official.
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Official transcripts of all previous post-secondary education. These must be transmitted directly to the Graduate School by the previous educational institution(s). If you submit them yourself, they may not be accepted as official.
For questions about how to submit application materials to the Graduate School, please contact the admissions officer for the MS FORE program.
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The following items must be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies of the Forestry Graduate Program (please do not submit these items to the Graduate School):
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A signed and dated cover letter from you that:
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describes your academic and professional goals & interests.
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identifies the faculty member who agrees to serve as your major professor (i.e. Thesis Director if Plan A; Program Director if Plan B).
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states whether or not you are applying for an assistantship.
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Your résumé
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Three (3) signed and dated letters of recommendation. These letters must be on letterhead stationery, and they must be transmitted by the recommenders directly to the Director of Graduate Studies. If you submit them yourself, they may not be accepted as official. Academic recommendations are best, but a letter from an employer may be useful if a relevant job helped prepare you for graduate study.
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It may hasten a decision regarding your application if you send copies of transcripts and GRE scores to the Director of Graduate Studies of the Forestry Graduate Program. However, be sure also to arrange for official GRE scores and transcripts to be sent directly to the Graduate School by the relevant organizations, because copies handled by you and sent to the Director of Graduate Studies may not be accepted by the Graduate School as official.
Please use the following address for submission of hard copy materials:
Dr. David B. Wagner, Director of Graduate Studies
Forestry Graduate Program
209A Thomas Poe Cooper Forestry Building
Department of Forestry
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40546-0073
Documents may be submitted by email to the Director of Graduate Studies, as follows:
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Your cover letter: Send a pdf file that shows your signature.
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Your résumé: Send a pdf file.
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Each recommendation letter: The letter itself should be a pdf file and must show the letterhead stationery and signature of the recommender. The transmittal email must originate directly from the recommender.
4. Admission Decisions
Normally, decisions are made as soon as possible after an application is complete. However, if an applicant for fall semester admission also applies for an assistantship funded by the Department of Forestry, the decision is normally made in March of the calendar year of admission. If an applicant applies for an assistantship funded by a grant or contract of an individual faculty member, the decision date depends on the funding agency’s timelines.
An applicant may be admitted to the M.S. (Forestry) degree program without condition or conditionally. Conditional admission means that the student must fulfill one or more specific requirements to continue in the degree program.
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A student who is admitted conditionally due to low GPA and/or low GRE scores must receive no grade lower than B until after the semester when s/he completes nine (9) cumulative graduate credits. In completing this requirement, graduate credits do not count if they were earned prior to the semester of admission to the M.S. (Forestry) degree program at the University of Kentucky.
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A student who is admitted conditionally for other reasons (e.g., lack of an undergraduate forestry degree) must fulfill in a timely manner all requirements stipulated at the time of conditional admission.