About the Program

The graduate courses in ERG provide advanced training in interdisciplinary analysis and research. Individual courses review current developments in the field or emphasize particular disciplinary perspectives: economics, resources, politics, public policy, or environmental sciences.

Master’s Degrees in Energy and Resources

The pur­pose of the ERG Master’s pro­gram is to edu­cate the next gen­er­a­tion of inter­dis­ci­pli­nary lead­ers. Stu­dents are taught the range of meth­ods and sub­jects they should be able to under­stand, advance, and cri­tique to address crit­i­cal issues stem­ming from the inter­ac­tion of humans and the envi­ron­ment. To that end, the require­ments for the ERG master’s degree are both broad and deep, stress­ing ana­lytic, method­olog­i­cal, the­o­ret­i­cal, and prac­ti­cal approaches to prob­lems in energy, resources, and the environment.

The course require­ments pro­vide for a sub­stan­tive intro­duc­tion to the dis­ci­pli­nary approaches that are employed in study­ing energy and resource issues. The require­ments also ensure expe­ri­ence in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary analy­sis applied to a key resource con­cern. The cur­ricu­lum pro­vides an oppor­tu­nity—through a top­i­cal clus­ter and an inde­pen­dent project—to extend and deepen the areas of inves­ti­ga­tion and under­stand­ing to sat­isfy the intel­lec­tual inter­ests of each student.

The cur­ricu­lum is intended to serve those stu­dents for whom the master’s degree will be the final for­mal edu­ca­tion in sup­port of a pro­fes­sional career and also those stu­dents who intend to con­tinue their edu­ca­tion, for exam­ple by pur­su­ing a PhD in Energy and Resources.

Master’s/PhD Track

A small num­ber of highly qual­i­fied appli­cants will be selected for the Master’s/PhD Track. The track is both an indi­ca­tion of your intent to con­tinue to the PhD pro­gram at ERG, and ERG’s expec­ta­tion that you will to be qual­i­fied to con­tinue to doc­toral work after sat­is­fy­ing the master’s degree require­ments.  It does not oblig­ate you, or ERG, to your even­tual matric­u­la­tion to the PhD. Can­di­dates admit­ted into the joint Master’s/PhD track will be expected to com­plete all the require­ments of the ERG Master’s Degree before con­tin­u­ing.

ERG Con­cur­rent Degree Pro­grams (MPP/MA or MMP/MS)

The Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and the The Gold­man School of Pub­lic Pol­icy (GSPP) offer a MPP-ERG (MA or MS) con­cur­rent degree pro­gram that inte­grates the strengths of pub­lic pol­icy ana­lyt­i­cal tools with the inter­dis­ci­pli­nary knowl­edge and exper­tise in energy and resources. Stu­dents com­plete both pro­grams in three years and receive a master’s of pub­lic pol­icy (MPP) as well as a master’s degree in Energy and Resources (MA or MS).

Matric­u­la­tion from the Master’s to the PhD

Stu­dents who begin on the Master’s/ PhD Track, as well as those who are admit­ted to the two-year master’s degree pro­gram, will have an oppor­tu­nity to declare their inter­est in con­tin­u­ing to the PhD dur­ing the third semes­ter of the two-year master’s program.

To offi­cially matric­u­late into the PhD pro­gram, all master’s degree stu­dents must meet the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria: 1) they must meet all the require­ments of the master’s degree pro­gram and 2) they must have a let­ter from one ladder-rank fac­ulty mem­ber in the ERG core or affil­i­ate pool that indi­cates a com­mit­ment to serve as the student’s PhD advi­ser and an assess­ment of the types of projects the stu­dent could work on dur­ing PhD stud­ies.  If the stu­dent does not meet these cri­te­ria he or she will be given the oppor­tu­nity to fin­ish any addi­tional course work, if nec­es­sary, to com­plete the require­ments of the master’s degree, but will not matric­u­late to the PhD program.

PhD in Energy and Resources

The admis­sion require­ment for the PhD is that the total­ity of the student’s course­work after the bachelor’s degree, includ­ing courses taken at other uni­ver­si­ties and inside and out­side of ERG at Berke­ley, must meet the sub­stan­tive and unit require­ments for the ERG MA or MS degree.

There is no for­mal lan­guage require­ment for the PhD degree. How­ever, those stu­dents con­duct­ing research in a non-English speak­ing coun­try must demon­strate com­pe­tency in the lan­guage of the country.

After the doc­toral stu­dent and his or her advi­sers have agreed on a sub­ject for the dis­ser­ta­tion, the stu­dent must defend in a three-hour oral exam­i­na­tion the suit­abil­ity of the topic and his/her prepa­ra­tion for attack­ing it. This exam, called the qual­i­fy­ing exam­i­na­tion, is con­ducted by a com­mit­tee of four fac­ulty mem­bers cho­sen by the stu­dent, in con­sul­ta­tion with his/her fac­ulty advi­ser and sub­ject to the approval of the graduate dean.

This exam­i­na­tion should be taken at least one year before the expected com­ple­tion of the dis­ser­ta­tion. The final require­ment for the PhD is com­ple­tion of the dis­ser­ta­tion to the sat­is­fac­tion of a com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of three fac­ulty advisers/readers cho­sen by the stu­dent, sub­ject to approval by the grad­u­ate dean. The PhD degree in Energy and Resources is typ­i­cally com­pleted three to five years beyond the master’s degree.

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Admissions

Admission to the University

Minimum Requirements for Admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all graduate programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A grade point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant comes from a country or political entity (e.g., Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 90 on the iBT test, 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, 230 on the computer-based test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Sufficient undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants Who Already Hold a Graduate Degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees not as vocational training certificates but as evidence of broad training in research methods, independent study, and articulation of learning. Therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to pursue new subject matter at an advanced level without need to enroll in a related or similar graduate program.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree only if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may apply only to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Any applicant who was previously registered at Berkeley as a graduate student, no matter how briefly, must apply for readmission, not admission, even if the new application is to a different program.

Required Documents for Applications

1. Transcripts:  Applicants may upload unofficial transcripts with your application for the departmental initial review. If the applicant is admitted, then official transcripts of all college-level work will be required. Admitted applicants must request a current transcript from every post-secondary school attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) attended. 
   If you have attended Berkeley, upload your unofficial transcript with your application for the departmental initial review. If you are admitted, an official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required.
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants may request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants from countries or political entities in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada). However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a US university may submit an official transcript from the US university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature. If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests.

Where to Apply

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page . 

Admission to the Program

The Energy and Resources Group seeks stu­dents who have excelled aca­d­e­m­i­cally, what­ever their dis­ci­pline; who show promise of abil­ity to cross dis­ci­pli­nary bound­aries; and who want not only to under­stand prob­lems of energy, resources, and envi­ron­ment but to help solve them. ERG delib­er­ately admits stu­dents with a wide vari­ety of inter­ests, per­spec­tives, dis­ci­plines, research meth­ods, and expe­ri­ence so that each can help the oth­ers see the whole picture.

Admis­sion to ERG is highly com­pet­i­tive, with a class of 20 stu­dents (Master’s and PhD com­bined) selected annu­ally from approx­i­mately 300 applicants. Those admit­ted to the pro­gram have strong aca­d­e­mic records and let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion, bal­anced and strong GRE scores, and, where applic­a­ble, related work expe­ri­ence and pub­li­ca­tions. The state­ment of pur­pose, sup­ple­mented by the per­sonal his­tory state­ment, is vital in demon­strat­ing an applicant’s com­mit­ment to the program.

You may apply to the two-year master’s degree (MS or MA), ERG/Public Pol­icy Con­cur­rent master’s degree or the PhD pro­gram. Within the master’s appli­ca­tions there is check­box to indi­cate your inter­est in the Master’s/PhD Track.

Admission to the Master's Program, MA or MS

The min­i­mum require­ment for admis­sion to the master’s degree pro­gram is com­ple­tion of a bachelor’s degree or its equiv­a­lent at a fully accred­ited US insti­tu­tion of higher learn­ing or international equiv­a­lent. Because the pro­gram is fun­da­men­tally inter­dis­ci­pli­nary, there are no other for­mal require­ments for con­sid­er­a­tion, although, as dis­cussed above, suc­cess­ful can­di­dates will demon­strate aca­d­e­mic and intel­lec­tual excel­lence.

Admission to the Master's/PhD Track

A small num­ber of highly qual­i­fied appli­cants will be selected for the Master’s/PhD Track. The track is both an indi­ca­tion of your intent to con­tinue to the PhD pro­gram at ERG, and ERG’s expec­ta­tion that you will to be qual­i­fied to con­tinue to doc­toral work after sat­is­fy­ing the master’s degree require­ments. It does not oblig­ate you, or ERG, to your even­tual matric­u­la­tion to the PhD. Can­di­dates admit­ted into the joint Master’s/PhD track will be expected to com­plete all the require­ments of the ERG master’s degree before con­tin­u­ing. Can­di­dates for admis­sion to the master’s pro­gram whose ulti­mate goal is to con­tinue on for a PhD at ERG should select either the MA or MS degree appli­ca­tion and select the Master/s PhD track checkbox. Other master’s stu­dents may apply to the PhD pro­gram upon suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the two-year master’s program.

Admission to the PhD Program

Stu­dents admit­ted directly to the PhD pro­gram must have a two-year master’s degree from a fully accred­ited US insti­tu­tion of higher learn­ing or international equiv­a­lent. They also must be able to demon­strate a highly inter­dis­ci­pli­nary aca­d­e­mic back­ground, either through a com­bi­na­tion of bachelor’s and master’s degree course­work, or an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary master’s pro­gram equiv­a­lent in breadth and depth to the ERG master’s pro­gram. Doc­toral stu­dents must also demon­strate their readi­ness for inde­pen­dent research with no addi­tional foun­da­tional work required. Appli­ca­tions from stu­dents with one-year master’s degrees, or with single-discipline pro­fes­sional degrees (e.g., law, pub­lic health) will usu­ally be redi­rected to the ERG Master’s pro­gram for consideration.

Recommended Preparation

We highly rec­om­mend at least one term of college-level cal­cu­lus and courses in fun­da­men­tal sci­ence (e.g., physics, chem­istry, and biol­ogy), as well as four or more upper division social sci­ence (for example polit­i­cal sci­ence, soci­ol­ogy, or anthro­pol­ogy) and human­i­ties courses.

Application Process

All applicants must use the online application system at http://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/apply/ . Applications open in the first week of September for the fall of the following year. There are no spring admissions at ERG. The application deadline is the first Friday in December. All admissions are subject to approval by the UC Graduate Division. The following information will be requested in the application.

1. State­ment of Pur­pose and Per­sonal His­tory State­ment: ERG requires two essays and places con­sid­er­able weight on them—the State­ment of Pur­pose and the Per­sonal His­tory State­ment. Each state­ment should be no longer than three pages (dou­ble spaced, 10–12 point font).
   • The State­ment of Pur­pose should dis­cuss your moti­va­tions for want­ing to enter a grad­u­ate degree pro­gram, and specif­i­cally why you would like to study at ERG. This is an open-ended oppor­tu­nity for you to tell us how you envi­sion this degree fur­ther­ing your plans and dreams for the future. We are not look­ing for a sum­mary of your dis­ser­ta­tion topic or master’s focus, but a gen­eral state­ment of how this pro­gram fits into your goals.
   • The Per­sonal His­tory State­ment should not be a nar­ra­tive sum­mary of your CV, but a more intro­spec­tive look what has brought you to this point of want­ing to pur­sue a degree at ERG. It can be a place to share for­ma­tive expe­ri­ences, inspir­ing influ­ences, or per­sonal challenges.
2. Tran­scripts: Unof­fi­cial copies of your tran­scripts will be accepted for the appli­ca­tion. If you are admit­ted, you will be required to sub­mit offi­cial tran­scripts for all college-level work. For course­work com­pleted in the fall term of your admis­sions cycle, ERG will accept amended tran­scripts and late grade reports until the first Fri­day in Jan­u­ary. There is a sec­tion of the appli­ca­tion that will allow you to doc­u­ment course­work in progress.
3. Let­ters of Rec­om­men­da­tion: ERG requires three let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion and will accept up to five. You are wel­come to use rec­om­menders from your pro­fes­sional as well as your aca­d­e­mic career. At least one let­ter must be from a pro­fes­sor who is in a posi­tion to assess your poten­tial for advanced aca­d­e­mic work. It is strongly pre­ferred that your rec­om­menders use the UC Berke­ley online por­tal to upload let­ters to your appli­ca­tion. On your appli­ca­tion, you will find a sec­tion that asks you for name and email address for your rec­om­menders. When you sub­mit that infor­ma­tion, the sys­tem will auto­mat­i­cally send an email request to your rec­om­menders with a link where they can upload their rec­om­men­da­tion let­ter as a PDF. You should review your appli­ca­tion peri­od­i­cally to see if the let­ters from your rec­om­menders have been uploaded. You will have the option to elec­tron­i­cally send a reminder request. If a rec­om­mender is unable or unwill­ing to upload a let­ter elec­tron­i­cally, we will accept hard copies mailed in a sealed enve­lope (with sig­na­ture over the seal) to: CONFIDENTIAL Admis­sions, Energy & Resources Group, 310 Bar­rows Hall #3050, Berke­ley, CA 94720–3050. We will then upload the let­ter to your file for them.
4. GRE scores: All appli­cants are required to sub­mit GRE scores. Inter­na­tional appli­cant GRE scores will be viewed with an under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges of tak­ing this test in a sec­ond lan­guage. ETS trans­mits scores to UC Berke­ley directly, but you may self-report scores until we are able to ver­ify your offi­cial score. To sub­mit your offi­cial score, on your test reg­is­tra­tion list the Berke­ley Grad­u­ate Divi­sion insti­tu­tional code 4833. You do not need a depart­ment code. We rec­om­mend tak­ing the GRE no later than Octo­ber. To be valid, the GRE must have been taken within the past 5 years.
5. Lan­guage Pro­fi­ciency Scores: Inter­na­tional appli­cants from coun­tries in which the offi­cial lan­guage is not Eng­lish must pro­vide offi­cial evi­dence of Eng­lish pro­fi­ciency. There are two stan­dard­ized tests you may take: the Test of Eng­lish as a For­eign Lan­guage (TOEFL), and the Inter­na­tional Eng­lish Lan­guage Test­ing Sys­tem (IELTS). To sub­mit your TOEFL score, on your test reg­is­tra­tion please list the insti­tu­tion code for Berke­ley, 4833. You do not need a depart­ment code. Scores more than two years old will not be accepted. For more infor­ma­tion about lan­guage test­ing and scores, as well as appli­cants from which coun­tries will be required to sub­mit scores, please refer to the Grad­u­ate Divi­sion website.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

The primary focus of the PhD is the research and writing of the student's dissertation. There are no formal course requirements for PhD students, although many PhD students take classes to support their research and breadth of knowledge. Students may determine which, if any, courses they should take in consultation with their faculty advisers. 

PhD students are encouraged to register for, and attend the weekly ERG Doctoral Seminar (ENE,RES 296) where ERG PhD students share their ongoing work and solicit feedback from the ERG community. 

After the doc­toral stu­dent and his or her advi­sers have agreed on a sub­ject for the dis­ser­ta­tion, the stu­dent must defend in a three-hour oral exam­i­na­tion the suit­abil­ity of the topic and his/her prepa­ra­tion for attack­ing it. This exam, called the qual­i­fy­ing exam­i­na­tion, is con­ducted by a com­mit­tee of four fac­ulty mem­bers cho­sen by the stu­dent, in con­sul­ta­tion with his/her fac­ulty advi­ser and sub­ject to the approval of the graduate dean.

This exam­i­na­tion should be taken at least one year before the expected com­ple­tion of the dis­ser­ta­tion. The final require­ment for the PhD is com­ple­tion of the dis­ser­ta­tion to the sat­is­fac­tion of a com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of three fac­ulty advisers/readers cho­sen by the stu­dent, sub­ject to approval by the grad­u­ate dean. The PhD degree in Energy and Resources is typ­i­cally com­pleted three to five years beyond the master’s degree.

Master's Degree Requirements (MA & MS)

Curriculum

Additional Course Requirements

The cur­ricu­lum is intended to serve those stu­dents for whom the master’s degree will be the final for­mal edu­ca­tion in sup­port of a pro­fes­sional career, and also those stu­dents who intend to con­tinue their edu­ca­tion, for exam­ple by pur­su­ing a PhD in Energy and Resources. Differentiation of MA or MS degree is based on the substantive content of coursework and master’s project. To obtain a master’s degree from ERG, each stu­dent must meet the fol­low­ing requirements:

• Com­plete a min­i­mum of 40 post-baccalaureate units. A max­i­mum of 4 units of 299 (indi­vid­ual research) cred­its can be counted; 298  units (group study) can­not be counted.

• Com­plete a min­i­mum of 18 units of graduate-level study in energy and resources, some of which can be ful­filled by courses from other depart­ments and school.
• Com­plete the ERG Mas­ters Degree Series (see above).

• Six addi­tional units of approved graduate-level courses.
• Com­plete a master’s project.  An under­tak­ing of an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion that cul­mi­nates in an oral pre­sen­ta­tion before the ERG com­mu­nity and a writ­ten report approved by two fac­ulty readers.
• Com­plete a clus­ter of three courses (min­i­mum of 9 units) in a sub­ject area defined by the stu­dent and approved by his/her advi­ser.
• Com­plete one course in each of the A-E require­ments areas listed below.

A: Interdisciplinary analysis

B: Envi­ron­men­tal science

C: Resource and envi­ron­men­tal economics

D: Social sci­ence approaches to energy, resources, and the environment

E: Engi­neer­ing approaches to energy, resources, and the environment

For suggested courses to satisfy the A-E requirements, sample course lists and additional information please visit the ERG website at http://erg.berkeley.edu/

Courses

Energy and Resources