The Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) degree program is a one-year professional degree program that provides an opportunity to focus or broaden a student's background in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences The individualized nature of our program means that we can support students with a range of career goals. The program is suitable for students who are interested in furthering their studies in EAS, sometimes because they became interested in the field late in their undergraduate career and need to develop more depth in the discipline, or to strengthen their computational/analytical skills. It also can allow students with a strong existing EAS background to explore an interdisciplinary project or participate in an immersive research project that goes beyond what is typically possible during the undergraduate experience. The M.Eng. Program differs from a Master of Science (MS) in the timeline and potential funding sources. MS degrees typically take two years, and students can sometimes also be funded on research grants or teaching assistantships. M.Eng. degrees are for one year and are funded by the student.
The geological science program is designed to give students broad training in the basic sciences as well as field, theoretical, and practical experience through research in their specialty. The program has particular strengths in geophysics, geochemistry and petrology, structural geology, sedimentology, marine ecology, and energy resources. However, the exceptional flexibility of Cornell's graduate program provides ample opportunity for students to work across disciplinary areas. For example, arrangements exist for study of marine ecology, water resources, and various branches of applied geological science. Faculty members in other fields or divisions offer interdisciplinary courses including planetology and extraterrestrial geology, paleobotany, ecology and systematics, biogeochemistry, limnology, soil genesis, soil mineralogy, soil and rock mechanics, remote sensing, environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology, fluid dynamics, elasticity, geotechnical and earthquake engineering, regional planning, hydraulics and hydrology, and materials science and engineering.
