<p>GOB:</p>
<p>I was one of those persons who was not encouraging when you said that you wanted to go to Carolina. Well what do I know?</p>
<p>A high school friend of mine was a geography major and worked for the US Geological Survey. I don't recall what he did exactly, but you might want to check out their website.</p>
<p>I know very little about geography or boats, but--
My cousin combined his major in geography with his mechanical and boating skills and experience as a salmon fisherman, and ended up captaining some boats for wealthy explorer types and even did some national geographic expeditions. He now works for a company that remains on call for disasters like oil spills. Don't know much about the details, but he seems to enjoy his life.</p>
<p>Really tsdad? I don't remember... why were u against Carolina?</p>
<p>For anyone potentially interested in geography, this is a great article. It discusses geography education (and lack of education) as well as career opportunities. Dr. Dobson is president of the American Geographical Society and professor of geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. He writes here as a member of the American Geographical Society's Writers Network.</p>
<p>"Bring Back Geography" by Jerome E. Dobson</p>
<p>You should not be afraid to try this - esp at a University, where you can change your mind/major if you don't like it. </p>
<p>Many years ago I was at Cornell and found my intended major required lots of classes of no interest to me at all - so I took what interested me instead, and ended up with lots of remote sensing, soil science, and did a geography-ish honors thesis. I loved all that stuff AND got a great job in the field. </p>
<p>Later, I went to B-school and switched fields, but I still find that the basic analytical skills of understanding patterns, imagery, and the organizational thinking from those early courses can help in lots of fields. </p>
<p>Plus, geography remains fun for me - in odd settings. I am useful as a science olympiad coach (there's geography stuff there) and my humanities/drama daughter and I go geocaching whenever we can squeeze it into our overhectic lives. Not the kind of stuff you can plan for, but that is the beauty of college, eh? </p>
<p>Also, Chapel Hill is a great college town.</p>
<p>I'm not against Carolina. I'm an alum of the grad school. I wasn't sure you could get in. Stupid me.</p>
<p>I'm an incoming freshman and have declared my major as Geography. Looking at the course requirements, I have fallen in love with the major. I either want to do Urban Planning or work in Marketing type stuff (researching locations for where to place certain stores sounds interesting to me). When my extended family asks what I'm majoring in it sounds weird to say Geography...I guess now I can say it with pride!</p>
<p>I have a Degree in Geography, A concentration in Geographic Information systems, a minor in Emergency Management… and another Minor in Music… and now 3 IT certifications… . I also was an Electrical and Computer Engineering Student for a few years. I’ve been around the block a few times 
</p>
<p>Geography is good. Geography + GIS is a great major. I wound up in the software business and I’ll tell you that 5 years into my career I’m making over 70 thousand/yr. </p>
<p>However… I’m very sharp with computers. If I had it to do over again, I would get a degree in Geography, concentration in GIS , then do a MINOR IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. OR… do computer science with a minor in Geography. </p>
<p>If you do that, I guarantee that you will see close to a 100 thousand dollar/year salary in the first 2-8 years in your career. The demand for programmers is HIGH and the demand for GIS programmers is even HIGHER. </p>
<p>People use GIS for urban planning, telco network modeling, pipeline mapping, environmental analysis etc. As you see… GIS overlaps with many engineering related fields. </p>
<p>GIS can get very deep. Analyzing satellite imagery and performing spatial analysis can be quite intensely analytic. </p>
<p>Google these terms and you’ll get a feel for what GIS and Geography is about these days :
remote sensing
geographic information systems
intergraph
bentley
CAD
geomedia
g technology
National geospatial intelligence agency
NGA</p>
<p>You joined CC just to resurrect a 6 year old post?</p>
<p>I’m going to resurrect this post to thank fordfiveohh for giving me the information I needed! </p>
<p>Just wanted to throw in that in addition to its connection to sciences such as geology and astronomy, it has serious connections to fields such as anthropology, econimics, and history. In history, there are those who maintain that it explains all–William McNeill, “The Rise of the West,” and more recently, Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel.”</p>
<p>And then there are those who just like to look at maps. </p>