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University of Alabama Master of Science in Forensic Science (MSFS)
UAB offers a program that leads to a chemistry- or biology-focused masters in forensic science. Depending on your interests in research, you can choose either the thesis option (where you have to complete 36 semester hours of courses plus 3-6 hours of research, then prepare, present and defend your research), or a non-thesis option of 48 semester hours. The required courses are pretty standard fare: introductions to forensic science, criminalistics, forensic biology, forensic drug analysis, law, and a seminar series that you take over multiple semesters.
Depending on how much bio or chem you had as an undergrad, UAB may let you opt out of some of the required courses, particularly the ones in graduate-level biochemistry, DNA, and the two semesters of graduate level analytical chemistry.
There are ton of forensic electives at UAB to choose from, and you'll find them very focused on biology, molecular genetics, pharmacology and toxicology. The unique ones that stand out are Advanced Questioned Death; Forensic Anthropology; Evolution & Population Biology; Biological & Chemical Weapons; and Toxicants.
UAB is good about offering graduate assistant positions, where they pay you about $850 a month and knock off half of your tuition. Another upside is that UAB offers 4 students part-time (20 hours per week) positions with the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Science, for $500 a month. Tuition is about $170 per semester credit for in-state students, and about $400 per semester credit hour for out-of-state students. Unlike a lot of other schools, UAB will consider you an in-state student for tuition purposes if you work as a graduate assistant, research assistant, or DNA fellow at the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Sciences. This is a huge deal, really, way more than even the pay of the job brings. UAB also participates in the so-called Academic Common Market, an agreement between states to admit students from different states as in-state tuition payers. For UAB, this includes AK, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MY, MI, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA and WV. There's one thing to watch out for, though: work-study students do not qualify for in-state tuition.