Master’s Application Deadline: December 8
For guaranteed consideration of your application, all materials must be completed and submitted electronically no later than the deadline of 11:59 PM EST, December 8.
Master’s Admissions
A degree from YSE equips graduates with the knowledge and leadership skills they need to have an immediate impact in a wide range of environmental fields as scholars, policymakers, industry experts, and boots-on-the-ground professionals.
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The demand for professionals with training and experience in the environmental field is growing across multiple industries and sectors. Whether you’re just beginning to consider a career in the environmental field or have made the decision to join the YSE community, our Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is here to help.
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Our Commitment to Diversity
YSE is committed to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including increasing the diversity of our faculty, student body, and staff; increasing access and affordability for underrepresented students; and taking conscious steps to combat racism and other forms of discrimination.
Funding Your Master’s Degree
YSE master’s students fund their studies through a variety of sources, including internal and external fellowships, scholarships, awards, and grants. Eighty percent of our students receive some financial aid directly from YSE.
Supporting Next Generation Leaders in the Global South
The Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South aims to support next generation environmental leaders! This transformative program provides scholarships to students from the Global South who are committed to advancing climate solutions in their home countries.
Ready to have an impact?
Whether it is at the local or global level, we help students develop the skills, knowledge, and perspective to navigate complex global environmental issues and help build a sustainable future.
Student and Alumni Spotlights
Indigenous Restoration Approaches
As co-founder and executive director of Shelterwood, Nikola Alexandre ’18 MF, MBA leads the restoration of a 900-acre forest in Northern California with Black and Indigenous community approaches to land care.
His work creates partnerships with and between traditional conservation NGOs, Indigenous and racial justice organizations, government agencies, and private landowners to model socially just and ecologically sound pathways to protecting and restoring nature. In 2020, Alexandre was named a Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award candidate for his work.
Preserving China’s Biodiversity
As the executive director of the Shan Shui Conservation Center in China, Irene Xiangying Shi ’13 MESC is helping conservation efforts in the Tibetan Plateau and southern regions. The Center focuses its work on urban ecosystems and endangered species, such as giant pandas and snow leopards.
“If we have the right incentives,” she says, “people will conserve nature in the best way." Her efforts have helped build a biodiversity conservation alliance, an information sharing platform on biodiversity, and long-term funding mechanisms to continue work on these issues.
Waste Warrior
As founding chair of the New York City Public Housing Authority Recycling Committee, DeNeile Cooper ’22 MEM is working to boost recycling efforts in public housing units.
Only 2% of waste from NYCHA units is recycled. Nationally, that rate is 32%.
“This work has been successful so far because it involves a variety of stakeholders who bring unique perspectives to create programs that work for everyone,” says Cooper, who is a member of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board.
Mapping Panama’s Sustainable Farmlands
A researcher for the Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, Cecilia Rogers ’22 MFS is mapping the success of ELTI’s Panama program that helps cattle ranchers incorporate sustainable practices, such as the use of forested pastureland, into their land management.
Working with fellow students, she found that the amount of sustainably managed farmland had significantly increased from 4% in 2011 to 66% in 2020.
Working to Make the Midwest Greener and Cleaner
As the climate solutions director at Clean Wisconsin, a nonprofit whose mission is to fight for clean air and water in the state, Chelsea Chandler ’10 MEM is working to protect one of Wisconsin’s most effective programs: Focus on Energy, the statewide energy efficiency program.
By helping people buy efficient lightbulbs or tune up their grain dryers, Focus on Energy has been an enormous success, and Chandler says that evaluations of the program have consistently shown huge returns for the investments.
Climate Justice for Cities
As a public school teacher in New York City watching socially marginalized Black and Latinx students struggle with inequalities in education and health issues from an emerging lead poisoning crisis, A.J. Hudson ’19 MESc was moved to take action. He helped found a public high school and led neighborhood workshops on climate justice and political action efforts.
He also helped organize coalitions to pass New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and helped plan the 2019 Youth Climate Summit, the nation’s largest gathering of young people of color passionate about climate change.
Why choose the Yale School of the Environment?
Experiential Learning
At YSE, education and training extend well beyond the classroom. Participate in our unique summer orientation program, MODs; travel widely for field research and internships; attend global conferences and climate talks such as the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP 26).
Acclaimed Faculty
Working closely with some of the top experts in their fields is one of the advantages of a YSE graduate degree. Our faculty are committed to mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders to tackle the world’s most urgent problems.
Contact Master’s Admissions
Introduce yourself to the YSE master’s admissions team.
Funding Your Master’s Degree
