Combined Geology Degree Requirements

Required 120 credits (a minimum of 36 of which must be from courses numbered 300 or above), including:

I. Essential Studies Requirements (see University ES listing).

Eleven of the university-required 39 Essential Studies credits will be earned through successful completion of GEOL 101 Introduction to Geology, GEOL 102 The Earth Through Time, and their accompanying laboratories (GEOL 101L and GEOL 102L), plus GEOL 420 Geology Capstone; the remaining 28 credits must be earned through successful completion of other Essential Studies courses.

II. Geology Required Core Courses 

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Geology Field Experience credits must be pre-approved by the department and may be satisfied by successfully completing a total of 3 credits including, but not limited to: approved professional field camps, GEOL 491, GEOE 397, and internships.

III. Requirements outside of the College of Engineering and Mines 

IV. Free Electives 

Students must complete a minimum of 12 credits of additional free elective courses which are not otherwise specified.

V. Concentrations

Students must complete 16 credits in a Concentration of their choice. The area of concentration will appear on their transcript. We offer these Concentrations at present:

Concentration in General Geology

Students must complete a minimum of 16 credits of any GEOL and GEOE courses at the 300 level or above; credits earned from the Geology Required Core Courses listed in section I above do not count toward the Concentration.

Concentration in Paleontology

Follow your passion for dinosaurs and fossils by earning this Concentration. Few subjects in the geosciences are as captivating worldwide as fossils, and few geoscience disciplines are as informative to other disciplines as paleontology. Fossils can help reveal the age of rocks, the character of past environments, and the nature of evolution and extinction as natural processes. North Dakota hosts a wealth of remarkable fossils, from Ice Age mammoths to mummified dinosaurs, making our state the perfect place to explore this fascinating discipline. Through completing a series of specialized courses and capitalizing on the interdisciplinary nature of paleontology, you will learn practical skills and gain foundational knowledge about the evolutionary history of life on Earth recorded in the fossil record. The Concentration in Paleontology is designed to prepare students for careers in fossil-related industries (e.g., paleomitigation or museum educators) or, for those seeking to conduct research with museums or in higher education, preparation for graduate school in paleontology.

Concentration in Petroleum Geology

Geology is a critically important discipline in the exploration for and extraction of petroleum. These activities require skills in visualizing and understanding sedimentary rocks, especially those in the subsurface. The range of typical applications is wide and the methods used are diverse. Expertise provided by this Concentration include aspects of sedimentary geology, stratigraphy, structural geology and geophysics. This expertise is highly sought after by industries and government agencies that find and produce the oil that fuels today’s economies. Furthermore, it has become equally important to train replacements for an aging workforce in this important technological area. The Concentration in Petroleum Geology is designed to prepare students for careers as petroleum geologists.  

Students must complete a minimum of 16 credits from the following list:

Concentration in Water Resources

Freshwater is a vital resource for economic growth, global ecosystems and well-being of human lives. Recently water resources are also severely under pressure across the world due to substantial population growth and migration, climate and land-use changes, and anthropogenic pollution. Water security and quality are increasingly also recognized as a critical national security priority. Moreover, water management is becoming increasingly complex and complicated, demanding a thorough and sound understanding of hydrologic and hydrogeologic processes and their vulnerabilities to climate, land-use changes and anthropogenic usages. These interactions require skills in visualizing and understanding water and contaminant transport through subsurface rocks (sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic) and surface waterways. The range of typical applications is wide and the methods used are diverse. Expertise provided by this Concentration includes aspects of hydrogeology, groundwater contamination and remediation, water quality and lab analyses and cold region hydrology. This expertise is highly sought after by industries and government agencies that deal with critical water resources and environmental problems. Furthermore, it has become equally important to train replacements for an aging workforce in this important technological area. The Concentration in Water Resources is designed to prepare students for careers such as hydrogeologist, hydrologist, environmental geologist and environmental engineer.  

Students must complete a minimum of 16 credits from the following list:

Teacher Certification

Students seeking secondary teacher certification in Geology must complete the Department of Teaching and Learning Requirements in Secondary Education. Students seeking certification should follow the curriculum for the B.S. in Geology. The 24 additional hours in science, computer science, statistics, engineering, mathematics, or a world language must include each of the following: at least one course in Biology with lab equaling 4 credits, Atmospheric Sciences, and Astronomy.

Geology majors seeking secondary certification must have an adviser both in the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering and in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Formal admission to Teacher Education is required and is normally sought while the student is enrolled in T&L 250 Introduction to Education (see Department of Teaching and Learning listing).

Admission Requirements

The applicant must meet the School of Graduate Studies’ current minimum general admission requirements as published in the graduate catalog.

1. For admission to the geology M.A. program, applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in geology from an accredited college or university or otherwise demonstrate sufficient coursework, training, or experience in geoscience.
2. Applicants may be admitted under "provisional" or "qualified" status, but to advance to "approved" status, they must have completed 5 to 6 credit hours of geology field course, or its equivalent, along with satisfactory achievement in supporting sciences and mathematics, as determined by the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering's Graduate Admissions Committee.
3. Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
4. Applicants are encouraged to submit their GRE score to support their application, especially if they do not have an undergraduate degree in geology.
5. Applicants must satisfy the School of Graduate Studies' English Language Proficiency requirements as published in the graduate catalog.
6. For a Master of Arts degree, students must complete two or more semesters of calculus while an undergraduate or graduate student.

Students missing any of the above requirements may be admitted under provisional or qualified status, but all admission requirements must be completed, without graduate credit, within one year after beginning graduate work.

Initial decisions for admission and financial aid are made about March 1 for the fall semester and about September 1 for the spring semester.

To encourage undergraduate geology students to extend their studies to include a graduate degree, the College of Engineering and Mines has a combined program that permits students to earn both a bachelor's (B.S.) and a master's (M.A.) degree in geology. This program allows students to designate two three-credit graduate courses to count for both degrees.  The selected courses must have graduate course standing and be designated when a student requests admission to the program.

Students may be admitted to the Combined Degree program if they have:

1. Completed 95 credit hours towards the bachelor's degree.
2. Completed 30 credit hours of coursework and 8 credit hours of upper division coursework in the geological sciences, including the equivalent of physical and historical geology.
3. Maintained an overall GPA of at least 3.0 in all geological sciences they took.
4. Completed an application to the UND School of Graduate Studies and been accepted for admission.

Once admitted to the Combined Degree Program, undergraduate students are eligible to take 500-level courses for graduate credit. Students must complete the petition titled, "Graduate Credit as an Undergraduate Student" prior to registering for the courses. Such courses could be included in the 30 credit hours for the degree and could appear in the program of study.

Students in the Combined Degree Program will be admitted to the School of Graduate Studies on completion of 125 credit hours for the bachelor's degree.

The time normally needed to complete the Combined Degree Program is 1 year, plus an additional summer after admission to the Graduate School.

Degree Requirements

Students seeking the Master of Arts degree at the University of North Dakota must satisfy all general requirements set forth by the School of Graduate Studies as well as the following particular requirements set forth by the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering.

1. Students must complete a program of study that includes a minimum of 30 credit hours, including the credits granted for the thesis and the research leading to the thesis.
2. At least 15 credit hours must be for classes at or above the 500-level.
3. A maximum of 7 credit hours required for the degree may be transferred from another institution.
4. A minimum of 6 credit hours (undergraduate or graduate) must come from each subject area listed below:
   1. mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry
   2. sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology, geomorphology
   3. structural geology, geophysics, hydrogeology
5. Up to 12 credit hours of 300-400 level coursework in geology may be taken for graduate credit.

The time normally needed to complete the requirements for the master’s degree in geology is about two years of full-time work. Students with graduate teaching or research assistantships may need more time.

Admission Requirements

The applicant must meet the School of Graduate Studies’ current minimum general admission requirement as published in the graduate catalog.

1. For admission to the Geology M.S. program, applicants should have earned an undergraduate degree in Geology from an accredited college or university or another relevant discipline. If an applying student has a Bachelor's degree in a non-science discipline or is otherwise uncertain that their accomplishments meet these requirements, they can demonstrate their competency and preparedness for graduate school in Geology through other means, such as demonstration of equivalent and relevant knowledge gained through field experience and/or industry employment.
2. Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 2.75 or higher.
3. Applicants are encouraged to submit their GRE score to support their application, especially if they do not have an undergraduate degree in Geology.
4. Applicants must satisfy the School of Graduate Studies' English Language Proficiency requirements as published in the graduate catalog.
5. For a Master of Science degree, students must have completed at least one semester of calculus while an undergraduate. Applicants are also generally expected to have completed at least one year of preparation in chemistry and one course in physics during their undergraduate preparation.

Students missing any of the above requirements may be admitted under provisional or qualified status, but all admission requirements at the undergraduate level must be completed, without graduate credit, within one year after beginning graduate work.

Initial decisions for admission and financial aid are made about March 1 for the fall semester and about September 1 for the spring semester.

Combined Admission

To encourage undergraduate Geology students to extend their studies to include a graduate degree, the College of Engineering and Mines has a Combined Program that permits students to earn both a Bachelor's (B.S.) and a Master's (M.S.) degree in Geology. This program allows students to designate two three-credit graduate courses to count for both degrees. The selected courses must have graduate course standing and be designated when a student requests admission to the program.

Students may be admitted to the Combined Degree Program if they have:

1. Completed 95 credit hours towards the Bachelor's degree.
2. Completed 30 credit hours of coursework and 8 credit hours of upper division coursework in the geological sciences, including the equivalents of physical geology and historical geology.
3. Maintained an overall GPA of at least 3.0 in all geological sciences they took.
4. Completed an application to the UND Graduate School and been accepted for admission.

Students in the Combined Degree Program will be admitted to the School of Graduate Studies upon completion the Bachelor's degree.

The time normally needed to complete the Combined Degree Program is 1 year, plus an additional summer after admission to the Graduate School.

Degree Requirements

Students seeking the Master of Science degree at the University of North Dakota must satisfy all general requirements set forth by the School of Graduate Studies, as well as the following particular requirements set forth by the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering:

1. Students must complete a program of study that includes a minimum of 30 credit hours, including 4 to 6 credits specifically earned through taking GEOL 998 Thesis.
2. At least 20 of the 30 credit hours must be earned from courses taken within the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering.
3. At least 15 credit hours must be from classes at or above the 500-level.
4. A maximum of 7 of the credit hours required for the degree may be transferred from another institution.
5. Up to 12 credit hours of 300 and/or 400 level coursework in Geology may be taken for graduate credit.

The time normally needed to complete the requirements for the Master’s degree in Geology is about two years of full-time work. Students with graduate teaching assistantships may need more time.