<p>I've been looking very closely at Lafayette and so far, I love it and will most likely apply early decision. However, after reading through all the information on the environmental science program I don't feel like I know how good of a program it is. I know they have La Farm so that is definitely a plus, but in the large scheme of things, compared to other colleges and universities, is the environmental program good or is it neither here nor there?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for any and all responses!</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’ve never taken an Env Sci class, nor do I know much about it.</p>
<p>Lafayette focuses on students, and it has amazing teachers. I doubt that varies by department, so I’m certain no matter which department you join, you’d still get a stellar experience. To get more details about the program, I’d recommend you email a professor/program chair for Environmental science to get details on it. Not necessarily admissions, because the department chair would know a lot more about the features of the program. </p>
<p>sidenote: I just looked at the faculty list for the program, and I’ve been told by many students that a huge majority of the professors on that list are amazing. I’d recommend you email Kira Lawrence, or David Sunderlin, or Lawrence Malinconico. My roommate knew these professors very well, and I always heard good things about them.</p>
<p><a href=“http://environment.lafayette.edu/faculty-staff/faculty-by-department/”>http://environment.lafayette.edu/faculty-staff/faculty-by-department/</a></p>
<p>Thanks so much for the response @sixstringsrocker ! I will definitely email them to find out their perspective. </p>
<p>Do you think you could get one of your friends who is part of the program to post on here? </p>
<p>I’m not sure I know anyone in the program. My roommate was in the geology department, and he knew the professors, who are cross listed in the Env Sci program. However, if you email the profs, you can ask them if you can contact a student, and they’ll be able to give you a contact info.</p>
<p>Alright. Thanks for the advice.</p>
<h2>Ok so I emailed Dr. Lawrence and she gave me a great reply that alleviated my concerns. Below are my questions, followed by her response.</h2>
<p>I know that your program is relatively new, instated in 2012. As such, I was wondering, will your program teach me all the skills and knowledge I need, or is it still in a trial phase, that may leave some gaps in my knowledge when compared to an education I could get in a more established program? </p>
<p>Also, is there anything that you would say makes this program special or better than programs offered at other colleges? </p>
<h2>Finally, If I decide to major in something else, engineering for example, how easily would I be able to switch to this program?</h2>
<p>While our environmental programs are relatively new, I can assure you that if you come to Lafayette and major in environmental science your degree will be among the most rigorous out there. In developing our program, we had the benefit of being able to evaluate the models implemented by many other pre-existing programs at other institutions. We talked to our colleagues at those institutions as well as colleagues at leading environmental graduate schools and in environmental industries to gain a strong sense of the knowledge and types of skills someone pursuing a career in environmental science would need to be successful. This process led to the development of a robust major (20 course requirements) with three potential tracks all of which contain both significant breadth and depth in environmental areas. We have recently updated our website with a new course information sheet for the Environmental Science program. I am attaching it here in case you have not visited our site in the past few weeks. We have also recently developed an optimal course sequence for environmental science majors which is available on our website at: <a href=“http://environment.lafayette.edu/courses/envs-b-s-course-schedule/”>http://environment.lafayette.edu/courses/envs-b-s-course-schedule/</a></p>
<p>I think what sets Lafayette apart in terms of its environmental program is that unlike many of our liberal arts college peers, we have a strong engineering program. This unique aspect of our academic offerings means we have not only additional environmentally focused faculty within engineering, but also additional faculty within the natural science division beyond our peers because training in engineering requires substantial coursework in the natural sciences. In this respect, we are in a much better position than many of our peers to offer a robust and unique environmental science curriculum. </p>
<p>If you are potentially interested in majoring in engineering that is the best place to start, as the engineering division has a very prescribed curriculum that requires students take 5 courses per semester. It is much easier to switch from engineering to another degree program than to do the opposite. If you decide that engineering isn’t for you, then most of the co-curricular credits (math, physics, chemistry) will be applicable to your environmental science major as well. </p>