<p>My sophomore son is taking classes at his high school in GIS and when he graduates hs he will be able to take a test for some sort of certification in this. He has said he thinks he'd like to study this in college. He'd like to stay close~ish to home and we'd like him to stay in-state for bright futures money plus we have the FL prepaid plan for tuition.</p>
<p>I've been researching a little bit and most everything I find is either graduate program or certificate program. And we'd really like him to go for a traditional 4 year bachelors degree </p>
<p>It appears that Kennesaw State in Georgia and Samford University in Alabama are the only southern schools to have a bachelors program in GIS. </p>
<p>I'm not familiar with either school but in a quick look, my son will probably be vastly over qualified as he currently has a weighted GPA over 4.0 and is one of the top 5 students in his grade level. SAT scores as yet undetermined but he will take the PSAT next month. It might work out if they throw lots of money at him at Kennesaw I guess. Don't think we're interested in Samford as it states a baptist religious affiliation and that would not appeal to him if it is very "churchy".</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm not even sure what I'm asking here. Anybody got any input/insight/feedback on this? </p>
<p>Best case scenario....find a FL University offering this program!</p>
<p>Thanks for any help you might have to offer!</p>
<p>UF offers a major in Geography with a concentration in GIS. Your best bet is to look for Geography departments in the universities that you are interested in and see if they have a concentration or option to specilaize in GIS. You really don’t want/need a degree in GIS, just the concentration. You might even be able to major in something else and minor in GIS. I know of several schools that allow that…Iowa, Montana, etc.</p>
<p>I’d look for a full geography, urban planning, or ecological science degree with a concentration in GIS. A number of western universities offer that; I don’t know about the east. University of Wisconsin, CU Boulder, ASU, Clark all have geography/GIS programs, and I see Florida State University does as well. </p>
<p>If he’s interested in the more technical aspects, taking a computer science minor would be extremely helpful, particularly if he might be interested in working for one of the companies that produces GIS software. </p>
<p>This is a booming area, and one where there are more jobs than applicants at the moment. Lots of government positions, too.</p>
<p>University of Iowa offers a great program in Informatics which is basically a degree program that is half computer science and half the more detailed study of a cognate area. Senior projects merge the two areas.</p>
<p>My son is a Junior in HS and is thinking about this program. I know some of the faculty and it is a top notch program. I think Indiana U also offers a similar program.</p>
<p>Kennesaw is doing a lot to become a stronger university within the state system of GA. It has more dorms (it used to be largely a commuter school) and I think it is planning to have more sports (eg football). But truth be told, it has a ways to go to be a more academically respected institution.</p>
<p>My S is a geography major at the University of Kansas and we found the info on the Assoc. of American Geographers website referenced by proudwismom very helpful. </p>
<p>We really want him to stay in FL due to the prepaid tuition plan and the bright futures.</p>
<p>I’ve done a lot more looking around on the different FL University websites and I think you all are right. He should major in computers or geography and minor or concentrate in GIS. Now I just need to narrow it down to which FL schools offer these programs.</p>
<p>The original plan, before GIS, was to major in computer science so this will be a nice fit.</p>
<p>I keep hearing things like this from my son and from his GIS teacher but when I google, I can’t find any recent unbiased articles backing this up. I can find articles on the GIS type sites that say this but I’d love to find some kind of independent article or something that listed this as a hot field or stated that there were more jobs than applicants.</p>
<p>According to the AAG website Florida Atlantic, Florida State, U South Florida and U West Florida offer GIS.</p>
<p>Here is some info from the Bureau of Labor Statistis on job outlook. It isn’t necessarily specific to GIS but will give you an idea of areas that are moving toward using more GIS information.</p>
<p>I’d do a CompSci program and minor in Geography or GIS instead. Geography is a lot easier to learn as a minor than CompSci. </p>
<p>A Geography/Urban Planning degree in this day and age may not be the best idea while a CompSci degree, GIS or no GIS, is much more ‘employable’. </p>
<p>I spent a decade working with computerized map data and knowledge of Geography was helpful but not really required.</p>
<p>I know nothing about it but I would guess that it would be a sub-field of Civil Engineering.</p>
<p>Is he a ‘social science’ kid or an ‘engineering’ kid? Does it require the engineering core?</p>
<p>My son is taking a Project Lead the Way engineering course and has determined that engineering is probably not for him. He is a social science kid and will still look at GIS as a major.</p>
<p>If very few colleges are offering a particular major it may be a red flag that the major is too specialized to be considered by most colleges which in turn might be a red flag that it’s too specialized and a more generalized major may be just as relevant, able to be applied more widely, and maybe even more accepted by employers in general. (emphasis on the word 'might)</p>
<p>The other issue with a highly specialized degree in a technical area is possibly some exposure if his interest wanes in that particular field - i.e. it may be more difficult to get a technical job in another area if his degree is so specialized.</p>
<p>Maybe like ‘turbo’ said, he should consider something like a computer science major and then a minor in his interest area. A CS major is widely applicable and has very good job prospects.</p>
<p>The other thing to do would be to possibly contact the HR departments of a few major employers in this field and ask them what they’re typically looking for if they hire new grads.</p>