Best Environmental Science, Natural Resources, Sustainable Energy Programs?

<p>I really want to major in some type of environmental science or a job that allows us as humans to have a good relation with mother earth. What are some good colleges? I enjoy math too btw. Also I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, am ranked numero uno in my class, and I want some financial aid. I live in PA. Also I would prefer a small city- rural school, I don't like them big urban areas or cities. Any help would be much appreciated.</p>

<p>UC Davis is considered in the top ten for Environmental Science. Although 20 minutes away from Sacramento, it is very small town and rural. 11 different majors for environmental science students and many internships available. Financial aid may be a problem since you are out of state but check it out.</p>

<p>Warren Wilson?</p>

<p>What do you mean by want financial aid? What’s your parent’s expected financial contribution, and how much can they actually afford? Your in state flagship, Penn State has outstanding programs in many fields either directly or tangentially related to ES. However, it’s quite expensive and gives awful financial aid. </p>

<p>Some liberal arts colleges give great financial aid and are located in rural or semi-rural areas. However, these schools often have limited offerings in more mathematically oriented fields like geophysics, hydrology, atmospheric science, etc. Some outstanding schools for the major are Bowdoin, Carleton, Sewanee, Colorado College, and College of the Atlantic. There are many others as ES is a popular major and compliments one of the greater aims of many LACs (understanding the world through a multidisciplinary standpoint) quite nicely. Depending on your stats, the University of Alabama also has decent programs in some subfields of environmental science although it lacks highly quantitative ES or related major courses. </p>

<p>Edit: I knew a poster recently asked a similar question, and it turned out it was the OP. What about the recommendations on this thread: <a href=“"Hippie" Colleges - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1605600-hippie-colleges-p1.html&lt;/a&gt; did you find inadequate? </p>

<p>Middlebury is another small college with a strong ES program. Bill McKibben is there (<a href=“Bill McKibben - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKibben&lt;/a&gt;). Middlebury was the first LAC to participate in the DOE’s Solar Decathlon competition (<a href=“http://solardecathlon.middlebury.edu/”>http://solardecathlon.middlebury.edu/&lt;/a&gt;). Middlebury is in a very small New England town over 3 hours by car from Boston or Montreal.</p>

<p>Carleton and Colorado College both have strong programs in geology, which overlaps with ES. Carleton is in a small rural town about 45 minutes from Minneapolis St Paul. Colorado College is in a mid-sized city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. </p>

<p>OP, the title of your post refers to environmental science, natural resources, and sustainable energy programs. These fields cover a very broad range of disciplines and career options. While you are generally interested in “some type of environmental science,” you should try to clarify your particular interests in this broad area. For the applied environmental fields stated in the title of your post, the largest number of relevant majors (and options within those majors) probably would be found at a public landgrant university. A few private universities, like Duke, would also offer a suitable range of relevant disciplines and options. </p>