Geography B.S.
Download as PDF
Program description
Geography is a discipline for the curious and the open-minded. It answers the need in our society for an integrated, critical understanding of the relation between people and their natural and built environments. As a geography major, you will develop the knowledge and skills to confront the challenges of a changing world. There is no one way to be a geographer; climate scientists, ecologists, economists, planners, data scientists, and scholars of race and gender have all found their home in a field that builds an integrative approach to problem-solving. Geographers are skilled observers of the world who possess unique critical thinking skills and are attuned to the role that space, place, and environment play in everyday life.
The B.S. in Geography will provide you with scientific skills to understand your world and its conjoined social, spatial, and environmental processes. It offers you an area of specialization, enhances your quantitative analytical skills, and encourages engagement with a range of cognate sciences.
Students follow one of three tracks:
● Environmental Geography students study natural environments and systems, both in themselves and as they relate to humans. Students will study the natural functioning of climate and biophysical systems, how human life has altered these systems, why animal and plant populations grow, shrink, or shift ranges, and how our understanding of biophysical systems can lead to healthier environments and more sustainable futures.
● Geographic Information Science combines digital data with cutting-edge computational approaches and theories to advance our knowledge of natural and societal phenomena and processes. Geographic Information Science develops technologies to gather, manipulate, and analyze spatial data, ranging from centuries-old mapping methods to new approaches like artificial intelligence and big data. Students will learn to apply these skills to environmental, urban, health, and other problems.
● Human Geography students focus on the structure and functioning of social systems and their relationship to the built and natural environments. Human Geography students can focus on the way that cities function and the kinds of lives and livelihoods they make possible, the way that local and global economies create and constrain possibilities for people around the world, how justice and injustice emerge from the functioning of social systems, attachments to and meanings of place and landscape, and the ways that humans interact with and shape their environments.
A wide variety of career options are open to students with a B.S. in Geography. Local, regional, and federal agencies seek geographers for positions in natural resource management, environmental conservation and restoration, city and regional planning, transportation, and community development. Private industry consulting, environmental and marketing firms, the nonprofit sector, and non-governmental organizations seek the geographic skills taught in the Geography B.S.
For help navigating the major, see z.umn.edu/GeogGuide
The B.S. in Geography will provide you with scientific skills to understand your world and its conjoined social, spatial, and environmental processes. It offers you an area of specialization, enhances your quantitative analytical skills, and encourages engagement with a range of cognate sciences.
Students follow one of three tracks:
● Environmental Geography students study natural environments and systems, both in themselves and as they relate to humans. Students will study the natural functioning of climate and biophysical systems, how human life has altered these systems, why animal and plant populations grow, shrink, or shift ranges, and how our understanding of biophysical systems can lead to healthier environments and more sustainable futures.
● Geographic Information Science combines digital data with cutting-edge computational approaches and theories to advance our knowledge of natural and societal phenomena and processes. Geographic Information Science develops technologies to gather, manipulate, and analyze spatial data, ranging from centuries-old mapping methods to new approaches like artificial intelligence and big data. Students will learn to apply these skills to environmental, urban, health, and other problems.
● Human Geography students focus on the structure and functioning of social systems and their relationship to the built and natural environments. Human Geography students can focus on the way that cities function and the kinds of lives and livelihoods they make possible, the way that local and global economies create and constrain possibilities for people around the world, how justice and injustice emerge from the functioning of social systems, attachments to and meanings of place and landscape, and the ways that humans interact with and shape their environments.
A wide variety of career options are open to students with a B.S. in Geography. Local, regional, and federal agencies seek geographers for positions in natural resource management, environmental conservation and restoration, city and regional planning, transportation, and community development. Private industry consulting, environmental and marketing firms, the nonprofit sector, and non-governmental organizations seek the geographic skills taught in the Geography B.S.
For help navigating the major, see z.umn.edu/GeogGuide
Program last updated
Fall 2025