Admission Requirements
To apply, you must have ONE of the following:
A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
Two years of college education and professional experience in a field such as planning, engineering, environmental science, utilities, resource management or branches of business that require spatial analysis.
You must also have:
If you’re new to GIS and need help meeting the GIS requirements (or simply want to brush up on your skills), we recommend the independent study courses below.
These free Esri online courses and tutorials will help you gain the essential and fundamental knowledge you’ll need to be admitted to this certificate program. If you complete the two required courses and at least one elective course from the list below, you’ll earn Esri certificates of completion that can be used to demonstrate that you meet admission requirements:
For the above courses, you’ll need ArcGIS Pro, which is available for free for a 21-day trial period if you have a professional affiliation and email address that you can use. Otherwise, you can purchase a $100 ArcGIS for Personal Use license, which is valid for a year for personal, non-commercial use, and includes the most popular ArcGIS Pro extensions.
Time Commitment
Excluding time in class, you should expect to spend about 6 to 9 hours each week on coursework.
English Proficiency
If English is not your native language, you should have at least intermediate English skills to enroll. To see if you qualify, make sure you are at the B2 level on the CEFR self-assessment grid. To learn more, see English Language Proficiency Requirements – Noncredit Programs.
International Students
Because this offering is 100% online, no visa is required and international students are welcome to apply. For more information, see Requirements for International Students.
Technology Requirements
Access to a recent computer with:
Windows operating system* (MacOS is discouraged, see below)
At least 32GB of RAM
32GB or more of available disk space
Recent web browser
Ability to use Esri’s GIS software platform (free license for software provided via the UW for the duration of the program)
The computer should meet the system requirements identified on the ArcGIS Pro website.
High-speed internet connection
Headset and webcam (recommended)
* The software you'll use in this program is designed specifically for Windows. MacOS is highly discouraged, as you would need to install and configure Windows emulation software to run the Esri ArcGIS software. Also, technical support is limited for this option, and we can't guarantee the product will work as intended.
