Q: Do I have to be accepted by an advisor to be admitted to this program?
A: No. We are a non-thesis (non-research) degree program so you are not required to have an individual advisor. Drs. Dietz and Inouye are available for advising, as are other faculty members associated with CONS. There is also a lot of peer advising among students, who help with questions about elective courses, professors, and internships.

Q: What are the advantages of this small program compared to the larger ones available at some other universities?
A: This program is kept small on purpose, so we can teach our core courses with a maximum of about 15 students (particularly the problem-solving course). You will get to know the professors and your fellow students very well. CONS students also interact a lot with each other recreationally (weekend field trips, parties, group studying, etc.). We also keep the program small so that we can provide financial support to most of our students.

Q: I'm very interested in doing and learning about research. Is this the right program for me?
A: Probably not. The university does have other outstanding graduate programs that are designed to provide training in research, including Departments of Biology and Entomology, and graduate programs in Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (BEES), and Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science (MEES).

Q: I'm planning to go on to a Ph.D. after getting my M.S. Is there any disadvantage to this plan compared to going straight for a Ph.D?
A: In a Ph.D. program your coursework will be focused on developing research skills. It's unlikely that you would have the opportunity to develop the breadth that we require of CONS students. About 10% of our graduates go on to Ph.D. programs (Biology, Resource Economics, Policy, Geography, MEES, etc.) and universally they have reported that the CONS program provided them with excellent preparation.

Q: Do I need to take the Biology area GRE exam?
A: No, just the general exam.

Q: When should I take the GRE exam?
A: In time to have the scores reported to the University (Department Code 0299) by mid-January if you want to be considered for a fellowship nomination.

Q: My undergraduate GPA is above the 3.0 required for admission by the graduate school, but not super. Is there anything I can do about this?
A: Consider taking a graduate course or two. At the University of Maryland, you can be admitted as an Advanced Special Student (i.e., you already have a Bachelor's degree) and register for graduate courses. If you are admitted to CONS, you can then transfer those credits (if the courses are appropriate) into your CONS program. You may be able to take courses in a similar context at another university, and up to 6 credit hours can be transferred to your CONS degree requirements. This may be a way for you to demonstrate that you can handle the challenge of graduate courses even if you didn't have a stellar undergraduate GPA.

Q: I took the GRE exam and didn't do very well. Can my application still be competitive?
A: We don't have any required minimum score for admission. However, we do pay some attention to GRE scores because our program's reputation at the university is to some degree dependent on GPA and GRE scores of applicants we admit. The range of GRE scores for domestic students we admitted recently was 510-720 verbal (mean 648), 520-730 quantitative (mean 678), and 3.5 - 6.0 analytical (mean 4.9).

Q. Do I have to be a full-time student?
A: No. There's a Graduate School deadline of five years for completing an M.S. degree, but even that could be waived if necessary. Some of our students continue to work at jobs in the D.C. area while taking a few classes a semester.

Q. I wasn't a biology/science major as an undergraduate, and haven't taken introductory biology or calculus. Should I take them before applying?
A: You could consider taking introductory biology (a course that includes ecology, evolution, behavior, and maybe systematics; e.g., BSCI 106 at the University of Maryland), but you could probably pick up the necessary background by reading the appropriate sections of an introductory biology text on your own. (After all, you developed strong learning skills to get your Bachelor's degree, right?!) This should provide you with the background you need in biology for the Population Ecology course that most CONS students take in their first semester. Calculus is not an absolute requirement, but is recommended. You will find it useful in the Population Ecology course, probably in your core ecology course, and maybe in resource economics.

Q. Can I receive more information about the CONS program?
A: Rather than request more information by snail-mail, you can download the information packet about the program..