Geography, B.A.

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

Major Requirements

The department offers two major programs, a bachelor of arts (B.A.) and a bachelor of science (B.S.). The B.A. requires a minimum of 48 credits, including 44 credits in geography and environmental systems courses. The BS degree requires a minimum of 63 credits, including 41 credits in geography and environmental systems courses.

Core Courses:

Both degree programs require all students to complete the following 14 credits of core courses:

GES 102-Human Geography (3.00)
GES 110-Physical Geography (3.00)
GES 286-Exploring the Environment: A Geo-Spatial Perspective (4.00)
GES 386-Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (4.00)

B.A. degree

In addition to the core courses identified above, a minimum of 30 additional credits in other departmental electives is required. Distribution requirements are as follows:

Four human geography courses, chosen from the sequences GES 320-369, 420-469 and sections of selected topics courses (GES 302 or GES 400 ) that are designated by department faculty as meeting the distribution requirement. At least one of these four courses must be at the 400 level.

Physical Geography Electives

Two upper-division physical geography electives chosen from the following sequences:

GES 305 -GES 319 , GES 405 -GES 419 or sections of special topics courses (GES 302 or GES 400 ) designated by department faculty as meeting the distribution requirement
Four additional GES electives, three of the courses must be at the 300 level or above, and at least one of which must be a 400-level course.
Internship and independent study do not count toward the minimum number of credits required for the B.A. degree.
All students, upon declaring the geography major, will be expected to take GES 286 and a statistics course the first semester each course is offered, following satisfaction of any prerequisites.

Other courses

All students must complete an outside statistics course to be selected from among the following:

STAT 121-Introduction to Statistics for the Social Sciences (4.00)
STAT 350-Statistics with Applications in the Biological Sciences (4.00)
STAT 351-Applied Statistics for Business and Economics (4.00)
STAT 355-Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers (4.00)
For GFR students a 300 level writing or a WI course is required.

Note:

all GEP students are required to take a WI course

Note:

No course in which the student has earned a grade lower than C; shall count toward the major requirements. No course taken on a P/F basis shall count toward the major.