All of these distance courses are taught by professors with geospatial specialties and thus examples are often drawn from this field. By taking a 3-credit Internship graduate course with a corporation, agency or non-profit organization during the summer, a student may readily complete the coursework master’s degree in a single year after their undergraduate degree.

To save course credit tuition dollars for the student, the Application for Admission to the Four Plus One Program is submitted to the SIE/MSIS Graduate Coordinator rather than to the graduate school. If a student is accepted and the performance criteria below are met, acceptance into the Four Plus One Program indicates a commitment by the SIE/MSIS faculty (1) to accept the student’s graduate courses completed while an undergraduate student within their graduate program of study and (2) to support the student’s application for formal admission to the graduate school after completion of the undergraduate degree.

To apply for admission to the Four Plus One Program before or during the junior year, an applicant should expect to have an overall minimum undergraduate grade point average of 3.25, must have completed the University of Maine General Education Requirement in Math and must have three letters of recommendation from current or previous university instructors.

Double Counting of Courses: Provisionally admitted Four Plus One students with an undergraduate grade point average of 3.25 or better may take up to 9 credits of graduate-level courses toward the masters degree that may also count towards the bachelors degree (joint credits) but they must also be part of the Master’s Program of Study. For purposes of this policy, graduate-level courses means courses at the 500-599 level.

All Four Plus One Program students must take the GRE exam prior to completing their senior year but support by the faculty in continuation through and formal admission to the graduate program will be based primarily on performance in the graduate courses and overall grade point average upon graduation from the undergraduate program. The formal application for admission to the graduate program through the graduate school can occur anytime during or after the senior year of the undergraduate program. Below a 3.0 accumulated undergraduate grade point average should be assumed cause for withholding support for the student by the MSIS faculty for formal acceptance into the graduate program.