The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry offers an online MS for working professionals, an on-campus MS for emerging scientists and researchers, and an online graduate certificate for anyone looking to deepen their agroforestry knowledge. An MU master’s degree and/or graduate certificate in agroforestry can help you advance your career in this rapidly expanding and globally acclaimed field. If you want to help farmers and landowners diversify their income, improve soil quality, and increase biodiversity, this may be the degree for you.

Not in the position to enroll in a formal graduate program? Consider UMCA’s hands-on Agroforestry Training Academy, a low-cost, 5-week online curriculum paired with virtual class meetings and an optional, 3-day in-person field experience in Columbia, MO.


General Agroforestry Graduate Program FAQs

Our world has finite resources. As the Earth’s population continues to increase, multiple overlapping concerns have emerged: how does society feed and support everyone and also preserve the environment with the amount of land and water present? To provide an answer and adapt to the growing need for sustainable business practices, agroforestry has taken off in the United States and overseas. The University of Missouri-Columbia’s (Mizzou) agroforestry graduate degree programs train individuals with a background in agriculture, natural resources, urban planning, engineering, education, environmental science or a similar field on key practices and strategies for implementing these efforts.

Mizzou currently offers two formats for a master in science in agroforestry: an on-campus option with a thesis component and a fully online, non-thesis degree that accommodates working professionals. As an alternative, prospective students can consider supplementing their current job or degree with Mizzou’s 12-credit, online agroforestry graduate certificate, which can serve as a pathway to the master’s program. More information about each program can be found at the links below.

The on-campus MS program requires students to develop an original research project resulting in a thesis and carries the expectation of subsequent publishing in the refereed literature.

Instead of a thesis, the online MS degree requires a final project, which can take many forms and often does not include an original research project. Final projects can include the development of detailed case studies, the creation of educational materials, and/or in-depth reviews of a wide array of agroforestry topics (though projects are not exclusively limited to these formats).

The graduate certificate is a series of course requirements in agroforestry, with no requirement of a thesis or a final project.

Prospective students must apply both to the MU Graduate School and the MU School of Natural Resources for admission. More information can be found here.

For updated information on tuition and fees for online students, click here. For information related to on campus tuition and fees, click here.

A note for prospective online MS students: there is no difference in tuition for in-state or out-of-state students taking Missouri online courses.

For more information about graduate studies with the MU School of Natural Resources, please contact Dr. Neil Fox, director of graduate studies: snrgrad@missouri.edu. Additional information about SNR graduate programs can be found in the SNR Graduate Student Handbook.

For more information about the specific agroforestry emphasis area, please contact Dr. Mike Gold, SNR agroforestry emphasis area coordinator and UMCA associate director: goldm@missouri.edu.

For more general information about resources, networking opportunities, and events available to all MU graduate students, visit the MU Graduate School webpage.


Online MS program and Graduate Certificate FAQs

As an agroforestry M.S. graduate, you can expect the following: (1) to possess the technical knowledge required to advise landowners, businesses, and other organizations that seek to create multifunctional working landscapes to diversify products, markets and farm income; improve soil, water and air quality; sequester carbon; enhance and conserve land and water habitats for fish and habitat; and increase biodiversity; (2) to broaden career opportunities, successfully competing for both U.S. and international professional positions requiring an interdisciplinary master’s degree; and (3) to increase their immediate and long-term earning potential.

  1. Professionals with years of experience in agriculture, forestry, or agroforestry, but lack a formal credential.
  2. Those interested in or involved with the Peace Corps or other programs involved in sustainable international development initiatives.
  3. Those possessing a bachelor’s degree in a related area but with no formal training in agroforestry.
  4. Agriculture, forestry, and natural resource professionals who provide technical assistance to land owners and land managers.

Our graduates come from a diverse set of backgrounds and have an equally diverse set of expectations and experiences that have been gained from completing the online agroforestry M.S. Graduates generally work as professional and consulting foresters, certified crop advisers, horticulturists, extension agents, international development experts, soil and plant scientists, forestry and conservation science teachers and educators, and as forestry or soil and water conservation agents.

Yes. You can take up to 6 credits (2 courses) as a non-degree graduate student without admission to the graduate program. More information for non-degree seeking students can be found here.

Should you decide to apply to obtain your MS degree, these courses will count toward your online MS degree or online graduate certificate if you are formally admitted to the program. That said, taking and passing the courses does not guarantee admission to the MS program.

No, you do not need to take the GRE although it is strongly recommended.  If you do take the GRE, there are standards of performance based on the GRE (you should exceed the 50th percentile, approximately a 150, on all test scores).

Yes! If you do not have a background in forestry, natural resources or agriculture in terms of prior coursework, you will in all likelihood be required, as a condition of acceptance to the masters, to agree to take both a soils course and a plant ecology course (agroecology or forest ecology).  These two courses should be taken prior to joining the online MS program. They can be taken as undergraduate courses at any accredited college or university. There are universities that offer both of these courses online. These undergraduate background courses will not count toward the 30 credit online MS.  Each students’ graduate committee will let you know if any other background courses would be required to round out your program.

Note: here are two examples of relevant online courses from NC State: SSC 200 Soil Science and CS 230 Agroecology

SSC 200  Soil Science

Fundamentals of soils including origin, composition and classification; their physical, chemical, and biological properties; significance of these properties to soil-plant relationships and soil management.

CS 230  Agroecology –  Offered Fall and Spring.

The minimum standard for admission includes an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher in the last two years of an undergraduate program. If an applicant’s undergraduate GPA falls below this minimum standard, they will be asked to enroll as a non-degree student in two of the core agroforestry courses. If, after completion of those two core courses, the student has achieved grades of “B” or higher in both courses, their application to the online agroforestry MS program will be evaluated for admission.

FOREST_7385 – Agroforestry Theory, Practice and Adoption taught by Dr. Gold is the overview course for the entire online MS program and is offered every fall semester. While it is not absolutely essential that students start with FOREST_7385, it provides a comprehensive survey of the agroforestry subject material covered in the online MS program. We recommend it as an appropriate starting point for most students.

A list of all courses in the online MS can be found here.

Yes. We recommend purchasing North American Agroforestry by H.E. Garrett, S. Jose, and M.A. Gold (2021 edition). This is the required textbook for FOREST_7385. Do not buy the first or second edition of this book (published in 2000 and 2009, respectively) as these editions are out of date and likely unavailable.

All courses in the online MS follow a semester format: 15-week semesters in fall and spring, and 8-week semesters in the summer. All the MU courses listed under the agroforestry masters are asynchronous and 100% online (a couple courses are hybrids and taught both online and on-campus). Asynchronous courses do not have any specific in-class time during the week and course materials are available 24/7.  Please note that even in asynchronous courses, there are specific days of the week and times of day when assignments are due.

No. There are currently no scholarships available to support individuals who wish to take advantage of the online MS in agroforestry. One potential source of external funding is the USDA SARE graduate student grant program.

Yes. Mizzou provides military personnel, veterans and their families (qualified dependents) with a 10% reduction off of base tuition for undergraduate and graduate online degree and certificate program credit hours. The Military Tuition Award applies to online students after they are admitted to the university and enrolled in their respective programs. Members of the United States Armed Forces, National Guard and Reserves, and their spouses and dependent children who have been accepted as a degree-seeking student to one of Mizzou’s online degree programs qualify for this award. The MU Veterans Center on campus provides additional support for student veterans.

Most online agroforestry graduate students have full-time jobs and tend to enroll in one course (3 credits) per semester. At that pace, it will take approximately about three years (9-10 semesters) to complete the online MS. However, if an online student averages 2 courses (6 credits) per semester, it would take less than two years (5 semesters) to complete the program. The pace is entirely up to the individual student.

Yes. You can take up to 6 graduate credits at another accredited university.  These courses must be approved by your MU graduate committee.

In addition to the UMCA core faculty, many faculty members within the School of Natural Resources serve as graduate advisors or graduate faculty members for online MS students. A current list of faculty can be found here.

The short answer is: it depends. In general, it is a much better idea to complete the on-campus thesis MS degree as background for a PhD program. The on-campus MS requires design and completion of original research culminating in a MS thesis and typically resulting in publications in the refereed literature. This experience provides the student with a very clear understanding of what will be required in a PhD program. To complete a thesis you must be able to develop clear research questions and design your study with the proper materials and methods to carry out the research.  Beyond the raw data, you must be able to present your research findings in a clear and coherent manner, followed by a discussion of the implications of your results relative to the existing literature.

The online M.S. does not require the student to conduct original research, so unless an online student is self-motivated to conduct original research, they are not likely to be well positioned to continue on for a PhD.


On-Campus MS Program FAQs

Please note that all on-campus MS students are admitted with a graduate research assistantship (GRA). GRA positions occasionally become available when funded research projects have the capacity to include graduate students whose interests align with our research programs. If you’re interested in working with UMCA in this capacity, please get to know UMCA faculty & staff and contact the research professors whose work is relevant to your interests.

The campus-based thesis option is designed for individuals with an undergraduate degree in forestry, natural resources, environmental science, or in one of the biological, physical, or social sciences basic to agroforestry. It is geared to those who wish to gain the skills required to conduct original research resulting in an MS thesis and refereed publications. The MS thesis in agroforestry is designed to be a flexible degree that can meet the advanced educational goals of a wide range of students.

The minimum requirements for admission into a graduate program at Mizzou are:

  • A U.S. bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from a regionally accredited institution. If the applicant’s degree is from a non-U.S. college or university, the institution must be recognized and approved by the Ministry of Education or Commission responsible for higher education in the country where the degree is earned. The degree must be equivalent to a four year U.S. bachelor’s degree, or higher degree.
  • A 3.0 or better GPA in the last 60 hours of baccalaureate coursework (for applicants with less than a master’s degree).

More information on admissions requirements can be found on the graduate school website and the MU School of Natural Resources agroforestry graduate program page.

While applicants are encouraged to turn in all materials by the deadlines stated online, these are “soft” deadlines for the agroforestry graduate program. If you do not think your application materials will meet the deadline, please contact Dr. Gold (goldm@missouri.edu).

If you have not already made contact with an affiliated faculty member, you will be assigned an advisor upon admittance to the program. Your letter of admission will include the name of your academic advisor. Faculty affiliated with the agroforestry graduate program can be found here.

GRAs are highly competitive financial awards designed to support graduate students in pursuit of their MS thesis degrees. Very few GRAs are available in a given year, and are largely dependent on the availability of funds of the individual Center for Agroforestry faculty member and/or awards brought in by the student to conduct original research within a faculty member’s lab. Before you reach out to faculty, take a look at UMCA’s current research projects and see if we have any current openings posted for students.

Once all required materials are submitted to the MU Graduate School, applications to the University of Missouri’s on-campus agroforestry graduate program are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.  Applications are carefully screened for a variety of parameters including undergraduate GPA, experience, strength of letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, and “fit” with the research program of the core faculty within the Center for Agroforestry.  NOTE: GRE’s are not required but are highly recommended to provide additional information for admission. All students admitted into the on-campus agroforestry graduate program must receive a GRA position.

Yes. Graduate students must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA to continue with their graduate program.

Yes. On-campus agroforestry graduate students will only be admitted if they have been given a GRA award through one of the MU faculty associated with the agroforestry graduate program. You can browse affiliated faculty here.

As a GRA, you will receive a monthly stipend and a tuition waiver, but you will still be responsible for student fees and course fees.

For additional questions on GRA payments and/or other graduate program costs, please contact Desire Perkins: perkinsDJ@missouri.edu.

In general, GRAs for master’s students are for two full calendar years. In specific cases, based on agreement from your faculty advisor and available funding, assistantships can be extended for an additional semester to support completion of your research and work towards publications. As an alternative option, with the support of their advisor, students may also pursue grants, awards, or fellowships geared toward extending or enhancing their MS-level research projects.

GRAs must be enrolled in full-time studies. The MU Graduate School considers nine credit hours (three classes) as full-time, but each individual graduate program sets the specific threshold for assistantships. We typically recommend first semester students to enroll in three classes. The next semester, it is common for students to enroll in two classes and three credits of research.

GRAs are required to maintain enrollment every semester, including summer. In the agroforestry graduate program, students must been enrolled in a minimum of one credit hour during the summer semester in order to keep their GRAs. The enrollment can be for research credits or a combination of coursework and research credits.

The core coursework for the on-campus program is the same as the online program. The 10 credits of core requirements include:

  • FOREST_7385 – Agroforestry I: Theory, Practice and Adoption with Dr. Gold
  • FOREST_8395 – Ecological Principles of Agroforestry with Dr. Gold and Dr. Lovell
  • FOREST_8385 – Agroforestry Economics and Policy with Dr. Cai
  • NAT_R 9087 – Graduate Seminar

All of these courses are offered online. There are no standard agroforestry electives. Each M.S. thesis program is tailored to each individual student’s research and required skill set. Students can peruse the list of agroforestry-affiliated faculty here, and search of the graduate-level courses they teach through the Mizzou course catalog.


Agroforestry MS Testimonials

Newsletter Signup