#3 Florida International University
Miami, Florida
FIU is perhaps the most flexible forensics graduate program out there. On the one hand, they offer one of the most unrestricted course schedules you will see in graduate-level forensic science. Instead of laying out two years of mostly required courses, as a lot of programs do, FIU requires only three classes: forensic chemistry, forensic biology and forensic analysis. After you knock these down, you only need a couple workshops and laboratories, and your choice of 29 credit hours in a broad array of options: criminal justice, legal psychology, medical lab science, geology, and of course chemistry and biology.
FIU will also let students pursue their degrees online, but with a few catches. The first is that you must be employed in a lab somewhere. This reason is because when it comes down to your research project, it has to be performed in your company's lab space. Secondly, your supervisor has to be on-board with it, and agree to supervise you while you complete the work. Even if you can arrange all of this, you have to be on campus at least a little bit, usually one week at the end of each semester. But FIU will cut you a break when it comes to presenting your final research project. You can present to a committee of faculty members, but it doesn't have to be as formal as the on-site presentations conducted by in-class students.
Here's another thing to consider. Within the Miami area, there are more police agencies and forensics labs than you can shake a stick at. Students from graduate programs throughout the U.S. find themselves going to Florida for internships, simply because that's where the labs and agencies are: Miami-Dade Police, Broward and Dade Counties Medical Examiners, and the Broward County Sheriff's Office. The DEA, one of the biggest employers of forensic drug chemists, also has a major presence in the state. This is certainly something to think about when you consider how many weeks you will spend doing your internship.
