<p>So, I'm looking for a strong, well-known school which meets the following criteria (if you could give me a couple safeties + targets + reaches I will hug you):
-Suburban/Urban/at least somewhat close to a city
-Preferably no core curriculum/core requirements
-2,000-10,000 undergraduates
-Good job placement across the country</p>
<p>Here are my stats (for academic fit, safeties/matches/reaches?):
-4.0 UW
-9 AP classes
-5/490
-2160 SAT
-ECs: Loads of environmental things with leadership, internships at "green" companies
-Native American male
-Financial Aid is not necessary, I've won a hefty tribal scholarship from a casino (shut up)</p>
<p>University of Colorado and Colorado State are doing a lot with sustainability and green issues - one has an entire new major, one a new school, etc. I think ASU is also moving in this area. Might research those three on line.</p>
<p>Colorado College as a “target”, on the small end of your range. Beautiful setting, in a city but on the front range of the Rockies. Their unusual one-course-at-a-time “block plan” gives you lots of flexibility to do field work, with easy access to interesting geologic and habit zones. ES is located in a nice new science center. The Outdoor Club is the most popular student organization.</p>
<p>Middlebury is a more selective college, with the oldest Environmental Studies program in the country, but it is in a very rural area.</p>
<p>If you want the ultimate in strong and well-known, with great job placement, shoot for Stanford.
I don’t know about their ES program in particular but it must be great. And I would think the SF Bay area is a great place to be for internships in this field.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll look into the environmental program. Do you know how long it would take to fulfill the requirements?</p>
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<p>I have a relative who was not all too fond of Colorado State, but the University of Colorado looks pretty nifty. Does it have distribution requirements?</p>
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<p>Do you think that at Colorado College a student could take a few side courses unrelated to his or her major? Would there be time constraints with the whole one class at a time thing? Thanks for the suggestion, though, that sounds really cool. Middlebury also sounds pretty interesting. Do you know if they have distribution requirements?</p>
<p>Duke has an entire school devoted to the environment (the Nicholas School)…so you’ve got a ton of opportunities there in both science and policy. </p>
<p>^Check that out - depending on what major (AB, BS, etc) you’re wanting, they have specific requirements, but for the most part the requirements are within the school so you can focus pretty intensely, if you’d like.</p>
Hmm…not sure what you mean. Basically, you’re taking the same number of courses, but one after another instead of all at the same time. The cool thing about that is (a) you can throw yourself completely into the one course (b) you don’t have to be anywhere for your next class, so you can go off with your professor and 15 other students into the mountains or wherever to do field work. They even offer $1K “Venture Grant” money to encourage kids to put together their own personal/team independent projects. My S and 2 friends are applying to go off to a green design/build school in rural New England for a term.</p>
<p>There’s a challenge to this, too. You cannot procrastinate when a “block” is only 3.5 weeks long. Time management.
Hey buddy, here’s where I start charging for services Check out their web site.</p>
<p>As I recall, Duke has a School of Forestry. Check that out for opportunities.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that people who graduate from the environmental program at Duke have a harder time than others finding work? Is there any truth to this?</p>
<p>That does not sound right at all about Duke (though of course we’re in a tough economy right now).</p>
<p>My 20-something son tells me that what really makes a difference right now (what separates his friends who got good jobs right out of school from those who did not) is not so much where you went as your internship and work experience. </p>
<p>If you want a career in the “green” economy (e.g. forest conservation, sustainable architecture, public policy) then you’ll want to seek out (or create) these opportunities for yourself while you’re in school. Internships, national conferences, research projects, networking. Make yourself look like a junior “go to” guy in some area (biofuels, whatever.) Read up on everything there is to know about prairie restoration (for example), develop a passion for it, go work on a planning task force or a hands-on seeding project, get to know a couple of influential people in this area. Have fun with it. Make it happen, don’t wait for it to happen.</p>
<p>In many cases, schools strongest in environmental science will be more isolated or rural. Would you be willing to look into schools within (short) driving distance of a city? Also, what subfield of environmental science interests you most?</p>
<p>Syracuse has a SUNY school attached to it that is the Environmental Studies and Forestry. It is smaller than Syracuse itself, but the students get to use all of Syracuse dorms and take classes there, so it’s the best of both worlds: small school within big school, focused major, low tuition, near/in a city as well as access to rural areas, good sports, respected for environmental studies.</p>
<p>Also Cornell. It has The Science of Natural and Environmental Systems major. (But Ithaca is pretty rural and might not work if you want a city or suburbs. And it’s probably much too big. But it is respected for that major.)</p>
<p>I’d be fine with that, as long as they’re not more than an hour or an hour and a half long drive. I’m not quite sure which subfield of environmental science I would like to go into, although sustainable business policy does interest me.</p>
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<p>I had looked at both before and decided against them, but thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Vassar has a pretty good environmental studies program. The core requirements are minimal-one writing course, a year of language unless you can test out and one quantitative course which can be fulfilled with non math course with a math component-psychology for example. It is an hour by train to Manhattan.</p>
<p>Explore your options with much scrutiny because there is a distinct difference between Environmental Studies and Environmental Science.</p>
<p>Many large state universities have strong environmental science/biology/ecology departments. The privates do well also.</p>
<p>Michigan State University
Lehigh University
U of Washington
Oregon State University
Lewis and Clark College
U of Wisconsin-Madison
U of California-Berkeley
Ohio Wesleyan University</p>
<p>You also might be interested in the programs that are offered under the heading of Natural Resources. S1 has a degree in Natural Resource Management from a big state u.</p>
<p>My D is a junior at Tufts double majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies. She is thrilled with the program. Right now she is in South Africa on a semester abroad with the Duke OTS, conservation ecology all in national parks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up at Duke for grad school.</p>
<p>At Tufts, as at many schools, you can come at Environmental Studies several ways - through science, engineering, or economics/political science/international relations. She has found the double major very easy to achieve - I believe you can’t major in just ES, that it’s only a 2nd major and doesn’t have as many requirements in itself - and she’s really enjoyed the other disciplines, feels she’s getting an excellent grounding in the field. This year she took Econ and next year she’ll take intro to Engineering. Tufts is very highly regarding in Engineering, International Relations, and Science, so it’s a wonderful place to do Environmental Studies. She’s also had plenty of guidance on internships and research opportunities, through Tufts and outside.</p>
<p>Your stats should be excellent for getting in. She had a 4.0 and a 31 ACT, from a small town in the Midwest. </p>
<p>Environmental engineering and environmental science are very different fields.</p>
<p>Environmental engineers are first and foremost engineers, so they have to take a lot of classes in advanced mathematics, physics, mechanics, ecology and engineering design. It is closely linked with Civil Engineering in most universities as the work often requires engineers to connect their knowledge of the environment to modern building materials and construction methods. They may assist in building air and water treatment facilities, preparing environmental impact reports or helping to mitigate air pollution. </p>
<p>Environmental science on the other hand is loosely defined multi-disciplinary field much lighter on the math and science side than environmental engineering. It may be a BA or BS degree. Environmental science programs are typically heavy on the social sciences. </p>
<p>There are far more jobs opportunities for environmental engineers, especially with just a bachelor’s degree. They also get much higher starting salaries and are in high demand at this time. </p>
<p>Environmental science on the other hand, is not a professional program and therefore does not really train you to do anything specific. Most students end up going to grad school, med school, or law school upon graduation as as opposed to getting a job right away. Job opportunities for environmental scientists are mostly for PhDs with degrees in fields such as materials science, biology or biochemistry, not for college graduates.</p>
<p>If you want something in between with the greater job opportunities and salaries of environmental engineers but the flexibility of designing your own program you may to consider the exciting new field called Environmental Engineering Science offered by a few institutions such as MIT and UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>MIT defines EES as
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<p>While the first two years of an EES program are still heavy in core engineering requirements, the last two years offer much greater flexibility. As an example the MIT curriculum will include optional courses in areas such as Transport Processes in the Environment, Hydrology, Environmental Chemistry and Biology or Environmental Health. It also includes courses in the social sciences such as Environmental Law, Policy and Economics, Pollution Prevention and Control, Public Policy, Society and Environment, and microeconomics.</p>
<p>EES is one of the fastest growing fields in engineering today. In addition, these are jobs that cannot be outsourced to other countries.</p>
Check out their web site.</p>