Apply Master of Environmental Studies

Remember, you do not need to find a faculty sponsor before you apply. You'll be matched with a thesis advisor in your final year.

1. Bachelor’s Degree in any subject from a regionally-accredited institution of higher education or foreign equivalent. You may be admitted provisionally pending completion.
   • Evergreen students and alumni - because you don’t have a GPA, we read through all of your evaluations to determine if you’re ready for graduate-level study.
2. Prerequisites: You may apply to MES before completing all prerequisites. These courses must be completed within the five years prior to starting MES.
   
   Four (4) quarter hour or three (3) semester hour credits are required for each discipline. Coursework may be lower or upper division.
   • Statistics 
   • Social Science
   • Natural Science
3. Three Letters of Recommendation
   • Information that includes your skills in critical reasoning, data interpretation, quantitative analysis and written/verbal communication
4. Official Transcripts from bachelor's degree-granting institution 
5. Statement of Purpose
6. Academic Writing Sample or GRE Scores
7. Resume

Select and Contact Three References 

Request recommendations from people who can provide evidence of your ability to do excellent graduate-level work in writing, critical inquiry, quantitative analysis and who can attest to your strong communication skills. Current or former faculty, supervisors and colleagues are potential providers of recommendations. If you have graduated from college within the last two years, at least one of your references needs to be from a faculty member.

Your recommender will be asked to upload their letter to our online application. You will need to provide the following information for each of your recommenders in the online application form:

• Name
• Title
• Organization
• Email address
• Phone number

Once you enter your recommender's contact information, as they will be emailed by us (you do not need to submit your application to activate this email invitation). Make sure to contact them in advance so they know to expect this message.

Format Your Resume

List key employment or other experiences relevant to your interest in environmental studies, including any significant public and community service activities.

Write a Statement of Purpose

Tell us why you want to pursue graduate study in environmental studies at Evergreen in 500-1,000 words. Describe in some detail your experiences in education, employment and public or community work. Explain how they influenced you to seek a graduate degree in environmental studies.

This statement helps the admission committee assess your interest and motivation for graduate study and helps the committee gauge the fit between what our program offers and what you hope to receive from it. Your essay will also be evaluated for clarity, analysis and general writing skills.

Prerequisite Coursework 

• You can apply before completing all prerequisites, but you will need to provide proof of completion before starting the graduate program
• These courses must be completed within the five years prior to starting MES
• Four (4) quarter hour or three (3) semester hour credits are required for each discipline below
• Coursework may be lower or upper division
• A 2.0 GPA or satisfactory narrative evaluation is required

Statistics

General statistics courses or research methods courses that include a significant statistics component should fulfill this requirement.

Course content must include: elementary descriptive and inferential statistics, including basic probability, binomial and/or normal distributions, null hypothesis testing and p-values, and some specific tests (e.g. t-test, chi-square test, regression).

In order to achieve a high level of success in MES we recommend taking an in-person statistics course (not online).

Social Science

Social sciences might include: economics, sociology, political science, anthropology and human geography.

Natural Science

Natural sciences might include: biology, ecology, geology, botany and chemistry.

Meeting Prerequisites 

If admitted, you will need to provide proof of completion before you start the degree. Your application will look stronger if all prerequisites are completed or in progress at the time of application.

If you are missing any prerequisites, consider a community college or other regionally-accredited institution near you (or online). Most colleges allow you to take some credits without being admitted to a degree program. 

Complete Your Prerequisites at Evergreen

You can take up to 8 credits at Evergreen without applying for undergraduate admission. Find out more about enrolling as a Non-admitted Student

If you find a course which fulfills our prerequisite requirements in the Academic Catalog, and want to confirm that it meets our requirements before you register, please email us with a link to the course for approval. 

If you have been admitted to MES and are required to take more than 6 credits of prerequisites, you may be eligible for financial aid. Contact Financial Aid for more information. 

Waiving Prerequisite Course Requirements

Professional experience may substitute for specific prerequisites. If you need a prerequisite waived, we suggest adding an additional attachment to your application with a short statement explaining why one or more prerequisite requirement should be waived. 

If you aren’t sure if you've met a specific prerequisite, please contact us. 

Academic Writing Sample

For those interested in submitting an academic writing sample, please submit your sample as an attachment in this section of the application. The academic writing sample requirement is your opportunity to show your writing skills, and ability to synthesize literature.

Writing Requirements

• Must be completed individually (no group project writing, no co-authors)
• Synthesis of information from various sources (including at least three academic journal articles or academic books, along with additional sources)
• Subject of the writing can be on any topic
• Cite evidence in parentheses throughout the text
• No use of artificial intelligence (AI) or plagiarism
• 5-10 pages (double-spaced)
• 5-10 citations in a References section

You may use previously completed work, as long as your final document meets the requirements for an academic writing sample.

Evaluation Criteria

The committee will evaluate your writing based on the following criteria:

• Clarity and organization of writing
• Lack of grammatical errors and sentence fragments
• Strong sentence and paragraph structure
• Ability to synthesize academic literature and evidence
• Demonstrated use of in-text citations and a bibliography

Writing Samples

The following are good examples of environmental essays:

Atlantic Salmon Farming in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea

Long-term Capitol Lake Management Plan Review in Relation to the Sea Level Rise in Downtown Olympia

Harvesting Forest Biomass as a Sustainable Fuel Source

Management of Prairies with Prescribed Fire in the Olympic Peninsula

An Evaluation of Wetland Mitigation Banking in the United States: Positives and Negatives

GRE Scores

You may submit GRE Scores that are up to 5 years old from the date you plan to submit your application. For example, if you took the GRE on September 19, 2019, you may access and submit your scores from ETS until September 18, 2024.

If you have not yet taken the GRE, you will need to ensure that you take the test in time for your scores to be submitted to the Graduate Admissions office by the application deadline you are applying for. It takes ETS 10-15 working days from your test date to send your scores to your college(s) of interest. If for example, you would like to meet the First Round Application deadline of December 31, 2023, you will need to have taken the GRE by December 15, 2023 to ensure that your scores are received in time. Your GRE test fee includes 4 free score reports to be sent to colleges of your choosing, you can request to have ETS send your scores to Graduate Admissions at Evergreen via Email to: graduateadmissions@evergreen.edu or Mail To:

Graduate Admissions, Attn: MES
Evans Hall, 1200
The Evergreen State College
2700 Evergreen Parkway, NW
Olympia, WA 98505

If you have taken courses or graduated from Evergreen you will need to request an official transcript from Evergreen. You can order your Evergreen transcript online through Parchment.

Your transcript must verify the award of a bachelor’s degree. Provisional admission can be granted on the basis of work in progress near the completion of a bachelor's degree. A final transcript must be submitted before classes start to gain regular admission status. Students with non-English transcripts must have them translated into English and certified by a translation agency.

A transcript is considered official if it bears the official seal and signature of the issuing institution and is either:

Evergreen accepts e-transcripts from colleges that are registered members with Docufide, National Student Clearinghouse, Naviance, Parchment and Scrip-Safe International. If the e-transcript system asks for an email address, use graduateadmissions@evergreen.edu.

Otherwise, mail or deliver transcripts to:

The Evergreen State College
Graduate Admissions
Attention: Master of Environmental Studies
Evans Hall, 1200
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, WA 98505

1. Sent directly by the issuing institution; or
2. Delivered by the applicant, as long as it’s still in the issuing institution’s original sealed envelope.

• English Language Proficiency: Every applicant whose native language is not English must demonstrate English language proficiency through one of the following ways:
  1. A bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education or from an institution in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago or the United Kingdom.
  2. Official documentation from an institution (other than those listed in #1) verifying that the applicant's bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree is from an institution where all instruction is in English.
  3. One of the following minimum English language proficiency test scores demonstrated through submission of official scores at the time of application:
     • TOEFL paper test: 600
     • TOEFL computerized test: 250
     • TOEFL online test: 100 or
     • IELTS: 7.5
• Students with non-English transcripts must have them translated into English and certified by a translation agency.
• If admitted, international students must have evidence of having at least $36,744.00 USD to pay all expenses for one academic year's enrollment at Evergreen. This estimate includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, health insurance, personal expenditures and transportation (excluding travel to and from U.S.). Admissions will work with admitted students on this paperwork.