Master of Environmental Studies

Application Deadlines

Fall Admission: June 15
Spring Admission: July 1
Summer Admission: March 1

* All applications materials must be received in our office by the application deadline.

Application

Applications may only be submitted through our online application system. To begin a new online application, click here. An application must contain all of the following in order to be considered complete:

• Completed application
• Current resume
• Non-refundable application fee of $70.00 (Make checks payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania).
• Application essays
• Official transcripts from each post-secondary school attended, sent directly to CGS address at left
• Score reports for at least one standardized test, if applicable
• Two letters of recommendation

Application Essays

Please respond to each of the following questions.  If you are submitting your essays online, please upload them together in one document. Number your essays clearly and begin each essay on a separate page. Responses may be as long or as short as you feel necessary.

1. Have you ever been placed on probation, dismissed or suspended from any college or university for reasons pertaining to academic integrity? If yes, please include any facts that you believe bear on the significance of this circumstance.
2. How did your interest in environmental studies develop?
3. Describe in conceptual terms the curriculum you hope to pursue as an MES student.
4. How do you expect to apply the expertise you would gain in the MES program?

Letters of Recommendation

You must submit two letters of recommendation, but you may submit an optional third recommendation. Letters should come from persons with whom you have had a close professional or academic association, and who know of your desire to study environmental studies at the advanced level. Recommendations may be submitted online or by mail. For online recommendations, please follow the instructions in the Recommendations section of the online application. For paper recommendations, please use the required form for the recommendation letter, which can be downloaded from: www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/graduate/mes/application.php.

Standardized Test Scores

Request that your score report for the GRE test be forwarded to CGS. Use ETS institutional code 2986 when requesting GRE scores. Performance on the Graduate Record Exam is not required for applicants with five or more years of professional experience.

Submit TOEFL scores if English is not your primary language. Use the ETS code (2986) when requesting TOEFL scores. Applicants who have completed post-secondary work in an institution where the instruction was in English do not have to submit TOEFL scores.