Masters in Regional Planning

Master of Regional Planning Program in Urban and Regional Planning

The M.R.P. in Urban and Regional Planning is a 48-credit program designed to prepare students for professional planning careers with government agencies, consultancy firms, developers, and nonprofit groups. Students may opt to take the degree full- or part-time, and they may begin graduate study in Fall, Spring or Summer. Full-time students can complete the degree within two years.

Students must complete a series of core courses. These provide a broad-based introduction to planning (Pln 501 through 506). They also include a group planning studio project (Pln 681), a planning internship (Pln 684) and a Master's Research Paper on a topic of the student's choice (Pln 683). The requirement for specific core courses may be waived if a student obtains approval of transfer credit for equivalent graduate courses, or, in the case of Pln 503 and 504, if the student can demonstrate equivalent computational and statistical proficiency. The requirement for a planning internship is normally waived for students who have six months or more of paid, professional work experience in a planning-related job.

To demonstrate focus and expertise in a specific field of planning, students must complete at least three courses totalling nine or more credits in one of five alternative specializations:

  • Environmental Planning
  • Housing, Local Economic Development, and Community Planning
  • Land-Use Planning and Urban Design
  • Transportation Planning
  • Urban Regional Information Systems.

To complete the minimum requirement of 48 graduate credits, students may take other planning courses as electives. Alternatively, with the approval of their advisor, they may take planning-related graduate courses in other University at Albany graduate programs or elsewhere in the Hudson-Mohawk Association of Schools and Colleges.

In order to acquire a much better perspective of the MRP program, review the MRP graduate handbook which is available for download here.

For the official program description provided from the graduate office of the University of Albany, click here.

The University also provides a listing with description of all the courses available in geography are listed here.

Syllabi and course sites of the courses offered in the planning program are listed.

For further information contact:

Professor Catherine Lawson by email, AS 214, (518) 442-4775

Department of Geography and Planning
1400 Washington Ave., University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222 Phone: (518) 442-4770