Contents

   
Foreword and background
How to use the Guide
Description of Programs and Departments

At the 1992 AAG/CSG business meeting in San Diego, the CSG membership requested that the Specialty Group Board explore the possibility of compiling a Guide to Graduate Programs in Climatology. Its intended purpose was to provide specific information to help undergraduate students choose an appropriate graduate program in climatology. Selecting a graduate program can be particularly difficult for undergraduate students at small institutions, where there may not be a faculty member with research interests in climatology to provide assistance in this choice.
 

An ad hoc committee, consisting of myself, David Legates (University of Oklahoma), Marilyn Raphael (UCLA) and Julie Winkler (Michigan State) was formed to determine the format for the entries in this Guide, which were solicited by email through CLIMLIST and through the AAG Newsletter. The First Edition was made available in March 1994, both in hard copy and electronically, via ftp and gopher servers.
 

This is the Second Edition of the Guide, which includes some institutions not included in the 1994 document but also is missing some departments which elected not to submit an entry.
 

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the current Guide advisory committee, Brian Hanson (Delaware), Marilyn Raphael (UCLA), and Clint Rowe (Nebraska), Johannes Feddema (UCLA) and David Robinson (Rutgers) for assistance in making the Guide available on the internet, and the authors of the individual program entries. In most cases, the program descriptions were reproduced as submitted, with the exception of some minor editorial changes for uniformity and clarity.
  

John Arnfield

The Ohio State University

September 16, 1997
   
   

This information source was developed by the Climate Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers to help you select a graduate program to pursue further your interest in climatology and closely-related areas.

If you have recently or are soon to graduate with a B.A. or B.S., your contact with climatology has probably been quite general to this point. You have most likely taken one or a few courses in the area, and have been exposed to the broad scope of the discipline. You may have enough experience to begin to identify sub-areas (like paleoclimatology, urban climates, tropical climates, etc) that interest you more than others. That is good. You should try to use this Guide to find a graduate program which offers advanced work in your selected areas. On the other hand, you may not yet know the particular areas within climatology on which you want to focus. If this is the case, you may use this Guide to familiarize yourself with the options that are available in different departments. This may help you to recognize a latent interest area which you might pursue for graduate work.
 

If you already have a Master's degree, it is likely that you have already focused on some particular subarea of climatology; this is probably the area in which you undertook research if your Master's degree had a research component. However, you might be thinking about moving to another department in which to get a new perspective on your chosen field, or even considering changing topical areas for a doctoral degree. Again, this Guide should help.
 

Why does your choice of graduate program matter? Quite simply, because graduate programs specialize and it is important that you match your interests within climatology to the specialty areas of the department you choose. At the undergraduate level, your exposure to climatology was probably quite general. At the Master's degree level, you begin to specialize and your choice of department should reflect the areas on which you have chosen to focus. If your interests are as yet undefined, the decision will be a less critical but you must still be careful about your choice. At the Ph.D. level, more specialization is expected. Admission committees are generally looking specifically for statements in your application file that identify your chosen focus area, and expect that this area will match the interests of the faculty in their department.
 

So, how do you identify the specialty areas of the departments listed in this Guide? First, the section "CLIMATOLOGY PROGRAM DESCRIPTION" will usually list the focus areas of the department. These will often be quite broad (e.g., "tropical climates", "water budget", "synoptic climatology", "climate change"). You should be able to get a more detailed picture of a department's specializations by looking at the "CLIMATE FACULTY" section, which will list research areas for each faculty member in the program. Even more specific indications of individual faculty member's interests will be apparent if you consult the "SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS, THESES AND DISSERTATIONS" section. This will tell you on what topics faculty have published. In addition, thesis and dissertation topics will show you what other graduate students have studied in this program. Finally, "SELECTED RECENT RESEARCH GRANTS" will indicate what research topics the faculty have obtained funding to support. These grant lists indicate future research directions in the department, while publication, dissertation and thesis titles provide information about past areas of interest, although these are often the same or similar.
 

Be careful about attaching too much significance to the courses listed in the "CLIMATOLOGY COURSES" section. These may or may not be a particularly good indication of the research interests of the faculty - and that is what matters in defining the focus areas of the department.
 

These parts of this Guide will give you assistance in making the most important decision you need to make in choosing an institution for graduate work - matching your interests with those of the graduate program. This objective is more important than all other aspects of your decision. It is more important that the location of the institution, the number of faculty, the fees and funding levels, and even the courses offered. Use these other factors to decide among otherwise equally appropriate programs but don't use them as your primary criteria.
 

The remaining sections of the Guide provide additional useful information. "GENERAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION" will describe the overall degree program in which the climatology specialization is embedded. For example, it may describe the entrance requirements of the program and the core courses that all graduate students in the department must complete. The section "RESEARCH AND TEACHING FACILITIES" will provide you with information on the basic infrastructure of the department. "FUNDING SOURCES" will provide information on any teaching or research assistantships and fellowships that are available. Securing such funding is often a critical issue in attending graduate school. Make sure that you understand all application procedures and deadlines for funding - they may differ from those for admission to the program. Finally, look carefully at the "CONTACT INFORMATION" section. If there are aspects of the program which you do not understand or which are not covered in the Guide, you should contact the person or persons listed here. Note carefully how the contact person may vary depending on whether you are seeking the answer to a specific climate program question, a question on the department as a whole or whether you wish to request application forms or submit credentials for assessment by the Graduate School of the institution.
  

I wish you all success in searching for a graduate program that will permit you to pursue your interests in climatology. It is a fascinating and diverse field with many challenges and many opportunities. To get the best out of graduate study, however, you must successfully match your interests with those of the department you attend. This Guide is an attempt to help you do this.

updated!  Louisiana State University

updated!  Indiana University

updated!  University of Georgia

updated!  Ball State University

updated!  University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

University of Arizona
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Delaware

Indiana State University
Kent State University
Louisiana State University
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Mississippi State University
University of Nebraska
Ohio State University
Rutgers University
University of South Carolina
University of Western Ontario