Graduate Degrees in Forestry

FER Home : Graduate Students : Graduate Degrees in Forestry

The Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources (FER) is proud to be one of America’s foremost colleges for graduates seeking advanced degrees in forestry. We offer a Master of Forestry, a Master of Science in Forestry and a PhD program. Our training covers all areas traditionally associated with forest resource programs, including tree improvement, forest management, yield modeling and forest economics.  A series of mini-courses provides students who enter without a forestry/natural resource background with overviews in several forestry subject areas.


Our non-thesis Master of Forestry program emphasizes the resources of North Carolina and the southern United States. Students may also address forestry problems throughout North America or leverage FER’s expertise in tropical pine species and many other international arenas. No minor is required.

Our Master of Science in Forestry program requires you to successfully complete a thesis within the field of forestry and to select a minor. It emphasizes the resources of North Carolina and the southern United States, but candidates may also address forestry problems throughout North America or choose an area of study that leverages FER’s expertise in tropical pine species and other international arenas.

Our PhD in Forestry lets candidates explore a variety of advanced problems involving forestry and natural resources. Degrees are available in a number of concentrations, ranging from all aspects of silviculture and forest management to related areas involving hydrology, ecology, policy, wildlife biology and spatial information systems.

Research Projects

See a current list of our graduate students conducting forestry research projects.

Research Facilities

Graduate candidates in Forestry benefit from nearly 100,000 acres of forest land available for fieldwork, and often participate in on-going research projects, partnerships and extension programs. For more information on the resources open to graduate students in Forestry, please visit the Research area of this website, as well as our Forest Ecology & Management and the Forest Genetics & Biotechnology interest area sections.

Requirements 

Application for admission is made through the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. Minimum requirements include an undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 in an appropriate discipline and a graduate record examination score of 1000, calculated as the sum of verbal and quantitative scores. Admission is contingent upon acceptance by an advisor. Exceptions to minimum requirements may be made for students with special backgrounds.

Once you are accepted, you must satisfy certain requirements in order to obtain a degree. These are outlined in our Grad Student Requirements section.

How to Apply

For instructions on how you can apply to the Forestry and Environmental Resources Department at NC State, please review our How To Apply section.

Promo Area

Christmas tree producers and forest visitors in the Southeast have good reasons for learning more about Kevin Potter, a recent doctoral student in Forest Ecology and Genetics at NC State. Kevin worked to conserve the genetic diversity of Fraser fir (Abies fraseri), a species that occurs naturally in only nine isolated populations on high-elevation ridges in the Southern Appalachians. In the past 50 years, mature forests of Fraser fir have been decimated by an exotic insect, the balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae). “My research focuses on population genetics and questions about genetic diversity, location, and size of the Fraser fir populations,” explains Kevin. He has used this information to draft a gene conservation plan in case any population is completely destroyed or seriously compromised.

Key Contacts

Sarah Slover
Graduate Program Coordinator
Phone: 919-515-7563
sarah_slover@ncsu.edu

Dr. Sarah Warren
Director of Graduate Programs
sarah_warren@ncsu.edu