<p>Geography can also be a very high-tech major. At Texas A&M it's part of the College of Geosciences (along with Geology and Geophysics). Students earn a B.S. degree, not a B.A. Classes in Remote Sensing and Imaging, GIS, etc.</p>
<p>I know a couple of students who have majored in geography - one with a geology minor - one with a marine geology minor - both very well employed. The internships and opportunities were awesome - and neither had any difficulty finding very well paying jobs.</p>
<p>My neighbor majored in Geog. many years ago. Today he works for a large chain of stores traveling the country scouting sites for new store locations. He works from home and it always off to a different destination. I think he does well salary wise.</p>
<p>I know a young man who just graduated last year from UNC-CH with a degree in Geog. He is now a police officer. He decided he wanted an "active" job and never even pursued anything in the Geog. field. His Mom told me she thinks he just sort of chose it out the when it was time to pick a major because he didn't have any other ideas and it sounded interesting.</p>
<p>Geahgrahfii Lol</p>
<p>Geography is becoming a hot major - especially if you major in the technical side. Geospatial Information Science is one of the options. There are more jobs than people. In the meantime, it can be a nice blend of technical study with a social science flavor - or vice versa. Here's a link to some info on GIS.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gis.com/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.gis.com/index.html</a></p>
<p>For another type of career option, I used to recruit Geography majors for a large retailer. Somebody has to do the research to determine where to place new stores.</p>
<p>Even not being a college student (much less a parent) I still suppose I might have a good description.</p>
<p>In the UK, Geography is one of the most markeatable subjects there is. In Why? Because Geography involves almost everything present in our world. Physical geography explains every features present in our world, from lithospheric processes to coasts and their formation to drainage basins; with case studies on how they can be prevented, effects minimised etc.. Human Geography compliments this idea, studying culture, globalisation, development, settlement patterns, resources and population; jointly presenting an outstanding view of the world. You can describe everything reasons for suburb explosion in developed countries (counter-urbanisation), settlement patterns, population patterns (Malthus vs. Boserup). as well as the formations of the surrounding landscape and so forth. Add on intense fieldworks and research skills...</p>
<p>It encompasses so much if you choose to specialise in those areas: Statistics (yes, there is quite a good amount if you choose to), Economics (specially on Development), Physics, Biology and Chemistry in the branch of Geophysics, Geobiology and Geochemistry; Politics always present in Human Geography, IT in GIS and Remote Sensing...</p>
<p>I am not sure to what extent the geography presented at Chapel Hill is similar, but it is not at all silly, and you can always go to the UK to pursue further studies.</p>
<p>Prince William doesn't have to worry about getting a job.</p>
<p>^ Haha that made me laugh...</p>
<p>It seems a lot of the courses seem to be in the cultural aspect...examining how people and the places they live in intertwine and relate. Sounds similar to anthropology...kind of. </p>
<p>I totally agree with the comment about deciding against business. I'm going in with the mindset of doing business, because it is challenging to get into Kenan-Flagler. I can always change my mind after getting in, but it's hard to decide sophomore year "oh hey I wanna do business..." That would wind up being another year or two in school. I can always decide later to drop it and do a different, liberal arts type major, which are less structured than Kenan's business plan is. </p>
<p>Which is why I want to do a double major, ideally, with business being one, and a fun, interesting area being my second major. I'm just trying to figure out what that second, fun one is going to be.</p>
<p>I took several geography courses at UGA and considered majoring in it. I was alwasy a map and travel nut (it's the Army brat in me, I guess), and I loved cultural history. It would have been a cool way to combine both. I agree with other posters that it can take you in a variety of directions -- the city planner/graduate civil engineering route, GIS, cultural, geology, anthro, etc.</p>
<p>However, my budget was severely limited and I couldn't afford to change majors and take more pre-reqs. Sigh...</p>
<p>GetOuttaBuffalo - You are a story in geography yourself! How about the shift of people, resources and employment opportunities from North to South in the past several decades. </p>
<p>Please if you major in it, can you figure out why the snowline stops at Jamestown, NY, yet the national weather news reports "snow in Buffalo" so everybody's afraid of us, which is hurtful to new industry relocations to help the upstate ecoomy recover -- WAAAAH! That's a geography story, too.</p>
<p>Haha paying3tuitions, you're pretty funny. Yeah, the whole human side of geography is what really interests me. </p>
<p>Any other input?</p>
<p>Michael Jordan was a geography major..</p>
<p>Now that GIS technology is hot--this should become a trendy major. I was impressed by the program at Clark University when we did the campus visit--they apparently still have awarded the most Ph.D.s in the field.</p>
<p>After a geography major, an interesting career can be had as either a City Planner or Regional Planner. Check out the "American Institute for Planners" to see the scope of these professions. My thought is that Regional Planners, with their focus on larger sweeps of territory, could be a good next step.</p>
<p>I'm familiar with UMass at Amherst's Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. Harvard also has a masters degree program. You know Harvard, always trying to keep up with UMass ;)...</p>
<p>For planners, the masters IS the terminal degree, so you don't have to go all the way up to a PhD to work in that profession. </p>
<p>If you work in the South or Southwest, it's especially important because decsions are being made on where to develop land while preserving the natural resources. If you have the insight from your business major, that is useful because of the many dollar values people place upon these things...the tax base that will improve if a mall is placed HERE, weighed against the loss of prime agricultural land or wildlife feeding areas...</p>
<p>Look at UMass's work in the METLAND (Metropolitan Landscape Planning Model), which used GIS long before it was computerized, and then computers came in and POW, all that theory could be turned into some hard data for community decision makers.</p>
<p>Fascinating field! Only thing is, some Regional Planners have to be ready to move around a bit for their careers, until they might find some niche in state or federal government. </p>
<p>There are also small private consulting firms that come from city planners who give up on the local politics and begin to do independent contract work for other city governments, writing an independent report to advise on whether or not to proceed on a certain controversial topic. The city planners themselves, working for the city, can't make the statement, but the "outside expert" (hired consulting firm) can give the hard news to the community.
The community decides, but hopefully based upon some better, more objective information.</p>
<p>When a major project will happen in a region, then environmental impact statements must be developed, and these planning consulting firms do a fair amount of work in that area.</p>
<p>The federal government may decide to administer grants to localities to develop, and there are surely geographers working in those positions to advise, as part of a team with other resource experts, to decide who gets the bucks, then monitor the projects.</p>
<p>Look in agencies such as the EPA, NOAA (National Ocean and Atmospheric..for their Coastal Zone Management programs, for example). Perhaps also FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) or Department of Interior to see how geographers are working in the federal government. Look at the employment ads in those agencies.</p>
<p>Every state in the union has an Office of Planning. Or it may be a department within their state Office of Economic Development, or natural resources, or environment state agency. </p>
<p>Most cities, and some large counties, also, have offices for "Planning and Economic Development" where regional planners work.</p>
<p>Finally, see if there's a field called "Resource Economics." There was a grad program in it at UMass 3 decades ago, so perhaps it's still called that, or some more modern name. Anyway, that seems to blend your business and geography interests!</p>
<p>Two friends of mine majored in geography -- both went to work for Chevron, where they worked as researchers (presumably in divisions that focused on locating new sources of oil.) Chevron then paid both of these guys to get master's degrees in geomorphology. Neither is with Chevron now, one works in city planning in southern california; the other one is with something like forest service...</p>
<p>I believe there is also a field within geography called feminist geography. Don't know what it is all about but it sounds fascinating.</p>
<p>By the way, other than Chicago, Dartmouth and Syracuse, can't think of any other top private schools offering it as a major. Most publics have it though.</p>
<p>Check out this link for really interesting GIS projects at liberal arts colleges, most of which have geography departments.</p>
<p><a href="http://gis.nitle.org/resources/projects.htm%5B/url%5D">http://gis.nitle.org/resources/projects.htm</a></p>
<p>Militaries around the world are quite interested in geography. They pay defense contractors like my employer good money to create systems based on various mapping standards. There are literally 100's of grids and datums in use around the world. Using the wrong one at the wrong time results in one less foriegn embassy or hospital and lots of negative publicity, not to mention criminal sanctions at times. The University at Buffalo is big in geography.</p>
<p>^^oh, no! The OP got outta buffalo (screenname). Well, there's always grad school!</p>
<p>Hahahahaha :-D Yeah...no. I won't be going to UB. Thank goodness!! Hehe not that there's anything wrong with UB..it's a great school...but just not my cup of tea.</p>
<p>My brother majored in Geography at UB many years ago. I didn't know UB was "big" in it. I thought it was sort of a charming idea. He wasn't much of a student; mainly what he learned from college was enough focus, discipline, and communications skills to get into an OK business school and then go out and earn a great living.</p>