Georgia's MLA CurriculumThe MLA curriculum balances basic instruction in broad, necessary professional skills with independent, specialized focus  and development. Each semester is dominated by a central studio  course. Clustered around the studio are supporting lecture and seminar courses in construction, ecology, theory, and elective subjects.

The progression of courses assures confidence in the grasp of necessary professional skills, thorough exercise in design applications, and synthesis of material from different courses.

Tracks to the MLA

Applicants without the BLA (or other professional landscape architectural or architectural degree) enter the three-year track. All of these students enter in the fall. Certain three-year students are exempt from some early courses as a result of their previous study; these students can begin their study in focused elective courses early. Students with MCP or other related graduate professional degrees may be exempted from a limited number of elective courses. All course exemptions are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Applicants holding the BLA (or other professional landscape architectural or architectural degree) enter directly into the second year of study. All two-year students enter in the fall.

Applicants holding the BLA degree with experience of 10 or more years in responsible professional positions enter directly into the third year, accelerating their study into a one-year program emphasizing specialization. One-year students enter in the fall.

Individual Georgia students envision their roles in landscape architecture based on their unique backgrounds, expectations, and motivations. Specific areas for focused study are associated with fields of practice, work styles, employment opportunities, ethical imperatives, and measures of professional success. Students develop their roles during the progression of MLA courses, selection of elective courses, and definition of thesis ideas. During the students' development, all required MLA courses continue to round out their understanding of and appreciation for the whole organism of landscape architecture.

As part of individual focusing, advisement by the MLA Coordinator and selected faculty is frequent and careful. The following categories are used during advisement to help students be aware of the options in front of them, and to identify the courses, faculty and outside reading that can help develop those options:

Computer applications

Ecological restoration and natural resource management

Golf course design

Historic landscape preservation

Land development

Landscape history and criticism

Recreation and open space design

Rural planning and preservation

Urban design and planning

Some students fall squarely into one of these categories; others do not. These are not formal programs that students must choose from exclusively. Alternative elective courses may be selected; components of different areas may be mixed. Ultimately, with advisement and exploration of detailed resources, each student participates in developing an individually defined track.

Some focus areas are associated with formally defined, but optional, interdisciplinary graduate certificate programs. Completion of a certificate is evidence that the student has studied the area in a planned and valid way; thus it is like an optional graduate "minor." A certificate program is a way to organize, set goals for, and acquire certain skills, and to document your achievement. MLA students are free to take some or all of any program's courses within the elective portion of the MLA curriculum. However, careful planning is necessary to allow completing all of a certificate's requirements without prolonging a student's course of study.

The following certificate programs have been attractive to MLA students in the past:

Preservation Studies: This is the certificate arm of the school's historic preservation program. For information contact MHP Coordinator, School of Environmental Design, 609 Caldwell Hall, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602, (706) 542-4720.

Conservation and Sustainable Development: This program enhances decision-making skills in conservation and development, which involve both ecological and social issues. Several landscape architectural professors serve on the interdisciplinary faculty. For information contact Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development Certificate Program, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602, (706) 542-2968.

Environmental Ethics: Environmental ethics attempts to guide environmental decisions involving competing values. Several landscape architectural professors serve on the interdisciplinary faculty. For information contact Environmental Ethics Certificate Program, 132 Marine Sciences Building, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602, (706) 542-0935.

Geographic Information Science: Required GIS courses in the Geography Department are supplemented by cartography, statistics, and remote sensing. For information contact Department of Geography, 204 GGS, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602, (706) 542-2345.

Essentially all students obtain professional experience before their final year of study. Most students do this through a summer internship. Internship positions are arranged by individual students in accord with their professional and geographic interests, ability to travel, and advice from the school. Georgia students have obtained internship positions all over the country and all over the world, with all types of consulting offices, design-build companies, arboreta, and planning and design agencies at all levels of government.

University credit for the internship experience is elective. The credit is available for those students who want to validate and document their professional experience, or who want to accelerate their course of study. To obtain credit, the professional appropriateness of the internship venue and overseeing personnel must be approved in advance.

Each summer the School of Environmental Design conducts an optional program of studies abroad in cooperation with the School of Art. Students and faculty come from programs in landscape architecture, visual arts, drama and Italian language. The program is housed in Cortona, Italy, a Tuscan hill town where students experience a deep cultural tradition without the intrusions of tourists. The program emphasizes historical and cultural case studies, and sustained studio and research experience. Course instruction is supplemented by guest artists and lecturers of various nationalities. The stay in Cortona is supplemented by trips to Sienna, Florence, Venice and other sites, and two weeks of travel to major cities and artistic centers in other parts of Europe.

Certain elective courses are taught from the Athens campus during the summer semester. They are available for students who are interested in the specialized contents of these courses, or who want to accelerate their course of study. Examples are:

 FORS 7983  Hydrology, Geology and Soils of Georgia (extensive field study)GEOG 6370  Introduction to Geographic Information SystemsLAND 6400  Plant Communities of the Southeast (extensive field study)LAND 6800  Field Study in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (extensive field study)

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