State University of New York at Oneonta
AC-4: Graduate Program

SUNY Oneonta's M.S. in Lake Management curriculum trains students to become effective water resource management professionals. Our innovative program blends scientific training in aquatic biology, limnology and quantitative skills with professional training in project design, management, and reporting in a real-life setting, working with lake stakeholders directly or with established lake management professionals.
The purpose of the Lake Management programs, which take full advantage of the natural resources and infrastructure at the College’s Biological Field Station near Cooperstown, NY, and a newly renovated science building on campus, is to train students for careers as Lake Managers. Lake Managers are capable of modifying the character and quality of our aquatic resources to meet the concerns of water providers, lakeside municipalities, recreational lake users, as well as improving the quality of life of those who live, work and play on our tens of thousands of inland lakes, ponds, reservoirs and the streams tributary to them. Degree recipients will meet the requirements to apply for certification as a Certified Lake Manager (CLM) or Certified Lake Professional (CLP) by the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). The Lake Management program has two tracks one of which holds a national recognition as a Professional Science Master's.

The M.S. Biology program focuses on increasing depth of knowledge, engaging in state-of-the-art research techniques, and engaging in applications of content taught at the undergraduate level. Students have the option of either the Thesis or Non-Thesis track. Students from this program have gone into private industry, forensic science, work with NGOs and non-profits, higher education, and secondary education.

The program emphasis is ecology and environmental science but open to any area within biology. Program quality is particularly enhanced by the facilities, opportunities for study and research activities at the Biological Field Station in Cooperstown, NY. This site provides students with a research complex that contains several multipurpose and analytical laboratories, two lakefront docks, boats, sampling equipment and access to over 2,600 acres of woodlands, bogs, marshes and ponds.