School of Arts and Sciences
Environmental Studies Program

BA/BS in Applied Environmental Studies

This is a stand-alone major that does not require majoring in a second discipline, in contrast to the Environmental Studies co-major.

The Applied Environmental Studies major provides theoretical grounding of environmental principles while also providing robust training in quantitative methods, spatial analysis and communication skills required for success in the field. 

Program Requirements and Policies

Students will be required to complete fifteen classes: five core courses, five skill-based courses, four courses in an area of specialization, and a project-based capstone or equivalent course. Students must also complete a pre-approved environmental internship (min. 100hrs; ENV 99). We recommend students to start with the gateway interdisciplinary course ENV 1 Introduction to Environmental Studies.

Students majoring in Applied Environmental Studies may:

  • double-count up to five courses with another stand-alone major in another department or program
  • double-count up to up to two courses with a minor in another department or program
  • count up to four (approved) classes taken abroad
  • use one (approved) Experimental College class toward this major
  • petition classes not listed in the major's website in order to fulfill degree requirements (see ENVS Academic Policies)

Course Requirements

Core courses (n=5)

Five core courses:

A. ENV 1 Introduction to Environmental Studies

B. Two of the following Natural Sciences/Technology courses:

  • BIO 7 Global Change Biology * (or Env. Sci. AP score 5)
  • ECS 3 Intro to Climate Science
  • ENV 6 One Health: Animals, Environment, Humans
  • ES 25 Environment and Technology
  • CHEM 8 Environmental Chemistry
  • EOS 2 Environmental Geology (No longer offered but accepted)

C. One of the following Environmental Policy courses:

  • ENV 135 Environmental Policy: U.S. Challenges and Solutions
  • ENV 135 Environmental Policy: Linking US and Global Politics

D. One of the following Environmental Economics courses:

  • EC 8 Principles of Economics with Environmental Applications **
  • EC 30 Environmental Economics ** (Prerequisite: EC 5)

Skill-based courses (n=5)

Five skill-based courses:

A. One of the following Environmental Communication courses:

  • ENV 150 Environment, Communication and Culture
  • ENG/ENV 160 Environmental Justice and World Literature
  • ENG/ENV 176 Earth Matters
  • ANTH 24 Anthropology of the Environment

B. One Intro-level (or above) GIS course:

  • ENV 107/GIS 101/INTR 81 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
  • ECS 104 Geological Applications of Geographic Information Systems
  • CEE 187 Geographic Information Systems
  • NUTR 231 Fundamentals of GIS for Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Applications

C. One Intro-level (or above) Statistics course:

  • BIO 132 Biostatistics
  • BIO 133 Ecological Data and Statistics
  • CEE 006 Principles of Biostatistics
  • MATH 21 Introductory Statistics (AP credit not allowed)
  • EC 13 Statistics
  • PSY 31 Stats for Behavioral Science

D. ENV 120 Environmental Fieldwork: From Class to Community

E. ENV 170 Environmental Data, Analysis and Visualization (Prerequisite: Intro-level stats course)

Specialization (n=4)

Four courses in an area of specialization:

4 courses from the Electives category in one of the following thematic tracks:

Capstone (n=1)

One capstone or equivalent course:

  • ENV 191 Environmental Studies Capstone, or ENV 198 Directed Research, or ENV 199 Senior Thesis

Internship (n=1)

One internship:

  • ENV 99 Environmental Internship (Must be pre-approved. See Internships page)

* Biology majors may take BIO 142 or BIO 144 instead.
** EC 9 Review of Ec Principles w/Env App can be used to fulfill the Environmental Economics requirement. Economics majors and minors may use EC 130 Topics in Environmental Economics to fulfill this requirement.