My son is a potential Geography and/or GIS major. Can you help us identify colleges that have good Geography/GIS programs in the mid-Atlantic, midwest and New England areas and that you have experience with – we already have a list of colleges that have geography programs (surprisingly there are not a lot)? I’d also be interested in hearing what sorts of careers people that you know have gone on to who have majored in geography/GIS.
Clark
UConn
SUNY ESF
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You might find Geography/GIS programs listed under Environmental Science and Earth Science/ Soul Science programs.
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Maryland.
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I’m a civil engineer who loves GIS because I know what it was like to work without it! I’ve been responsible for the creation and maintenance of my locality’s public works (my employer) GIS layers since the mid to late 1990s. That being said, civil engineering is still my main job function, and I am self trained in GIS.
check out ESRI for career opportunities. There are lots! GIS Jobs | Careers in Geographic Information Systems
My son is a senior at JMU. His main major is intelligence analysis. However, they require at least a minor. After bouncing around, he settled on double majoring in Geographic Science. He interned with a really strong company over the summer who offered him a job after graduation with a salary much higher than I would have guessed. The job encompasses both his GIS and IA skills.
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My very good friend was a Cartography major in college. He has spent most of his career in the public sector either for the federal or state governments. He is now working for a non profit.
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Colgate.
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Daughter is double major: Enviro Science and Chem at Washington college in Chestertown Maryland. They have a “Washington college GIS Program” that students apply to for paid internships. They do GIS projects for the state of Maryland. Great for resume. And they have GIS classes as well. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program | Washington College
Also millersville in PA seems pretty active.
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Thank you so much for sharing! JMU is one of my son’s top choices right now. We had a great visit recently.
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Have you seen this list? Best Colleges for Geography
Hamilton College has a geosciences major and a geoarchaeology major
Salisbury University has excellent GIS/Geography. GIS is one of the signature programs of the university; a GIS professor is the dean of the school of sciences, and they offer a M.S. in GIS (but not in general geography or geoscience). They also run a regional cooperative (the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative) that gives the students real world experience working on grant projects for governments and private businesses.
State of the art equipment for a small school, with a high-performance computing lab for working on big data problems. Small class sizes with no grad student instructors, ample research opportunities, and a great record of high-performing graduates.
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Oh, and careers? (1) regional and urban planning; (2) forest conservation; (3) State Department; (4) local government; (5) private development company, (6) National Park Service, just from seven people I knew who majored in GIS.
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University of Minnesota -Twin Cities has a strong undergrad program in geography with either a specialization in GIS or a separate minor in it.
https://cla.umn.edu/geography/undergraduate/majors-minors/geography/bs-geography
While GIS represents an important tool for these fields, the respective foundations and topics of inquiry of these fields (deep geological processes; prior, including prehistoric, human activity) do not appear to align with what the OP’s son is seeking.
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You beat me to it. My son graduated from the IA program in May. GS/GIS is a desirable compliment to IA.
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This has a list of member universities.
This has information on potential careers.
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I live in the west and know a lot of geologists, and their careers are as geologists. They are great fun to go on hiking or boating trips with as they can expound on the rocks and glaciers. I think for work most of them do a lot of reports for oil and gas companies, survey studies, government work. Two I know the best have their own consulting companies.
One famous geologist from Colorado is our senator. He was governor before that, owned a brewery before that, and was a geologist before that.
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And he was an English major as an undergrad. Go figure. 
I had a college friend who was a Radio/TV/Film major and his career never took off in this field. He got a Masters in GIS. He was relocated to Houston by a large energy corporation. He has worked for 3 big energy companies, is currently in a Senior Director GIS role, and is doing very well.