Contents > College of Design > Urban and Environmental Planning
Urban and Environmental Planning
Kenneth Brooks, Director, School of Planning
Balsas, Golub, Kamel, Lara-Valencia
The mission of the school is to advance knowledge and scholarship for planning and designing equitable, healthy, diverse, and sustainable communities. The school will provide students with the highest quality education to urban, environmental, international, and transportation planning and in housing and community development. The school contributes to the public and professional communities at the local, state, national, and international levels with the most advanced research and planning applications. The School of Planning offers a 47-semester-hour, accredited, professional, Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) degree. The school also participates in an interdisciplinary collegewide program leading to the PhD degree in Environmental Design and Planning.
MASTER OF Urban and ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING
The Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) is an interdisciplinary, professional degree designed to prepare students for leadership roles in planning within both the public and private sectors and from local to international organizations. The MUEP degree is accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board. The curriculum includes a common core of required courses that provides linkage between knowledge and practice, and fundamental theories and skills. The four specializations offered are community and urban development, environmental planning, international planning, and transportation planning. The community and urban development specialization provides students with knowledge and skills in areas such as housing, economic and community development, public policy analysis, transportation, land use planning, urban design, and historic preservation. The environmental planning specialization provides students with knowledge and skills in such areas as sustainable design, environmental resources, growth management, environmental policy analysis, open space design, and conservation. The international planning specialization prepares planners to work in the diverse and changing urban fabric of developing nations and in US cities, with their growing multinational and multicultural populations. Transportation planning focuses on nonmotorized transportation, economic development, border issues, and the environment. Specializations provide connections between the School of Planning and the other disciplines in the College of Design and the university. Students have a unique opportunity to integrate urban and environmental aspects of planning in rapidly developing metropolitan areas in the demographic and climatic context of the southwest region of the United States.
Students must take one of the three following options to obtain an integrative experience in research and planning: capstone studio, professional project, or thesis. Practical experience in planning may also be obtained through an optional internship program. In addition to the core faculty, the program is enriched by the participation of faculty from other ASU academic units as well as leading planning practitioners from the Phoenix area.
Admission Requirements and Procedures
To be consid-ered for the program, the applicant must fulfill all admission requirements of the Graduate College, in addition to meeting admission requirements of the School of Planning. The following materials are required by the School of Planning and should be submitted to
1. a statement of intent (maximum 600 words) explaining
(a) the applicant’s interest in planning;
(b) the applicant’s academic background, and if appropriate,
preparation for the selected area of specialty: community
and urban development, or environmental planning (these
may include written samples or a portfolio, but are not
required); and
(c) the applicant’s educational objectives;
2. test scores: TOEFL scores from international students whose native language is not English;
3. three letters of recommendation from references who are qualified to comment on the applicant’s potential in the selected area of study; and
International students who wish to be considered for a teaching assistantship and whose first language is not English are required to pass the TSE administered by the American English and Culture Center at ASU.
Since most financial aid packages are granted for the fall semester, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their materials on or before January 31 to the Graduate College. Preference is given to applications submitted by this date. Applicants who submit their materials after the semester deadline are considered on a rolling basis depending on available space.
The College of Design collects a nonrefundable $200 fee from applicants to its graduate degree programs upon admission to the program. Collection of this fee assures that space in the program is held until a College of Design-published deadline. Those enrolling and paying tuition and fees before the college-published deadline have their program fees reduced by $200. Those who do not enroll and pay tuition and fees before the college-published deadline forfeit the $200.
Selection Procedures and Notifications
School faculty evaluate the applications and supporting materials and rec-ommend to the Graduate College if the applicant should be granted regular or provisional admission or if admission should be denied. If admission is provisional, the Graduate College specifies in its letter of admission the provisions to be met to gain regular status.
An approved program of study is 47 semester hours or 50 with an optional internship. The pro-gram has the typical distribution as follows:
Required core courses, including either the capstone studio,
thesis, or professional project (23)
Students must take required core courses and select an area of specialization. Students must also select a capstone studio, professional project, or a thesis option. All students are expected to have taken at least one course in statistics. Inquiries about the MUEP program should be directed to the School of Planning.
A comprehensive oral examination administered by the supervisory committee and based on the student’s thesis or professional project is required of all students electing the thesis or professional project option.
Scholarly activities of the School of Planning include community development, environmental planning, housing and urban policy, international research, historical research and preservation, transportation, planning theory and education, urban-environmental modeling, indigenous planning, and sustainability planning.
For more information about the school’s research activities, access the Web site at design.asu.edu.
COURSES
Information about all courses is available on the Web at ASU Interactive. For more information, see Classification of Courses.
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