<p>Can any Amherst students, or those with any information regarding these two majors, shed some light on them? How strong are these programs at Amherst? What kind of opportunities present themselves to Amherst graduates who have majored in one or both of these fields? What has been your overall experience with or in regard to these Amherst departments? Thanks!</p>
<p>My D2 is planning on a Geology/Biology double major. Amherst was one of the first colleges to ever offer a Geology major. D2 took the first Geology class her first semester and absolutely loved it. She heard that you shouldn’t graduate from Amherst without taking that class even if you aren’t a Geology major. She loved the field trips they went on to the surrounding sites such as Mt. Tom and the dinosaur fossils.<br>
Amherst has an amazing Natural History museum on campus. Go to the Amherst website and explore the Geology classes and opportunities.</p>
<p>Geo has been a strong suit for Amherst for a long time. My senior-year roommate (okay, I’m class of '83) had a great experience, went on to get his Ph.D., did a stint at ExxonMobil, and is now on faculty at UT. The new geo building has state-of-the-art facilities plus museum space for the extensive collection built by Prof. Hitchcock a century ago.</p>
<p>More up-to-date info: a friend of my D is a recent geo/enviro major from Amherst and very enthusiastic, working hard to recruit my D to the program.</p>
<p>Geo is pretty awesome. The final in the introductory course is legendary, a group project, is legendary. The Professor arranges a bunch of rocks on a big grid, representing some geographical area, and your group must analyze them and deduce the area’s geological history. Also, the building is gorgeous.</p>
<p>Environmental Studies is a really new major, so it’s hard to say what the post-graduation opportunities will be since there aren’t that many graduated majors yet. I imagine the opportunities will be strong, though. People I know who’ve taken the courses have spoken highly of them.</p>