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Program and Faculty Description

Degree Requirements

Requirement Options

Masters Program in Urban Studies









This evening and weekend program is designed for working professionals as well as part time and full-time students. It offers a multidisciplinary graduate course of study leading to a Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies. Courses at the 500 level are available to qualified undergraduates in their junior and senior years.

The main purpose of the program is to provide a synoptic understanding of the metropolis and its surrounding region for persons interested in such areas as administration, economics, government, history, housing, management, planning and sociology.

Faculty for this program are drawn from Urban Studies, Economics, History, Political Science and Sociology. These include adjunct faculty selected for their knowledge and experience in professional practice regarding such matters as administration, management and planning. Guest lecturers from public and private agencies also contribute to courses that deal with specialized subjects.

This program is invaluable to persons having varied interests and experiences: those seeking new career orientations in such fields as administration, management, planning and public history; those working in a metropolitan agency but without previous concentrated academic education in this field; those seeking an intermediate degree as a stepping-stone to further academic or professional goals; and those interested in a graduate degree in urban studies with elective courses in various aspects of the metropolis such as Brooklyn studies, city planning, community planning and New York City history.

In addition, it should be noted that there are a large number of related graduate courses which are of interest to students in Urban Studies within such departments and programs as Community Health, Counseling and Development, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Political Science, Public Administration, Sociology and United Nations Studies.


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Degree Requirements

To qualify for a Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies, students have two options. In both options six courses totalling 18 credits are required.
These courses are:

1. URB 504 Development of the American Metropolis
or
URB 583 History of the City of New York
2. URB 601 Capital Cities
or
URB 604 Urban Government and Politics
3. URB 608 The Role of Ethnicity in the Metropolis
or
URB 666 Race Relations and Intergroup Tensions
4. URB 614 Principles and Practices of City Planing
or
URB 629 Community Planning and Metropolitan Economic Development
5. URB 605 Computer Technology, Application to Metropolitan Affairs
or
URB 507 Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences
or
URB 707.1 Dept. approved grad-level course in social science resrch methods, including Urban Studies 707.1
or
Soc Sci 511 or equivalent social science course
6. URB 707.2 Metropolitan Areas Research Seminar
or
URB 707.3 Research Seminar in Planning in Developing Nations
or
URB 708 Thesis Seminar
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Each Student must fulfill requirements A or B

Option A
With this option students must complete a total of 36 credits including Urban Studies 708, and submit an acceptable thesis, completed as part of Urban Studies 708. Students may elect, with the approval of the Department Chair, up to three credits of appropriate graduate work in a related discipline
Option B
With this option students must complete a total of 36 credits, including six courses from the above listing of required courses. Students may elect, with the approval of the Department Chair, up to 12 credits of appropriate graduate work in related disciplines. In addition, each student must complete as part of Urban Studies 707.2, Metropolitan Areas Research Seminar, a satisfactory terminal research project.
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