Undergraduate Degree in Environmental Science

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The baccalaureate degree in Environmental Science is a strong, comprehensive degree program. Our campus-wide faculty have identified the subjects you should study to prepare to enter the environmental job market or advance to a graduate degree program in disciplines including anthropology, botany, entomology and nematology, environmental engineering science, fisheries, forestry, landscape architecture, political science, resource economics, soil and water science, urban and regional planning, wildlife, or zoology or to a professional degree program in business, education, journalism, or environmental law.

Most students seek the Bachelor of Science degree, which offers specializations in Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Toxicology, Environmental Policy (environmental law), Environmental Policy and Business and Environmental Education.  Some, however, prefer the Bachelor of Arts, with specializations in Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Policy (environmental law), Environmental Policy and Business and Environmental Education.  The B.A. requires less physics and mathematics.

The first two years' study lays a foundation of coursework for building expertise.  Students need to know the natural sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology, with laboratory experience.  Study of microeconomics and macroeconomics is required to understand the human economy.  Introductory statistics empowers students to evaluate sets of numbers.  An introduction to calculus enables work with rates of change, the heart of ecological science.

The junior and senior level course work combines the basic and applied sciences needed to diagnose problems, the engineering needed to devise and test solutions, and the social sciences of human processes and institutions needed to take action.  Students take a core of courses designed to provide a base of common knowledge and experience, and then they explore electives chosen according to student interest.  Students return to a common course during the senior year that applies critical-thinking skills to what they have learned.  This program equips students to deal with a high level of complexity and respond effectively to opportunities that arise during their professional lives.

Students interested in the baccalaureate in Environmental Science should prepare by meeting the college's preprofessional requirements (see the Critical Tracking courses in the Undergraduate Catalog). Students seeking to become a registered professional engineer in Environmental Engineering Sciences, however, should instead follow the preprofessional requirements of that department. Those undecided about becoming engineers should make curricular selections that maintain their options until they make a firm decision. Students seeking the maximum depth of scholarship available in a more specialized or traditional environment-oriented discipline in another college are encouraged to major in the appropriate discipline-centered department rather than the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Last modified: Tuesday, December 11, 2007