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Department of Geography

Bachelor of Arts in Geography

Students on Summer 2019, Fall 2019, or Spring 2020 requirements GEOGBA
The Bachelor of Arts in Geography is intended to provide a strong liberal arts degree focusing on the major subject areas of geography while maintaining a great deal of flexibility. This allows students to focus on a particular transcriptable concentration area while also pursuing additional majors and/or minors. Students with a Geography B.A. take their education in many directions, whether moving directly into a career or going on to graduate or professional studies. They are prepared to work in education, federal and state government, research, nonprofit organizations, and business. Graduates have gone into a variety of career areas including: environmental management, sustainable development, urban planning education, alternative energy, land acquisition, food bank management, public safety, public health, international aid, business logistics, marketing, and geospatial technology.

Requirements

The major requires at least 30 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
  1. Environment and Society. One (1) course:
    • GEOG-G 208 Environment and Society
  2. Geographic Methods.
    1. Geographic Methods core. One (1) course:
      • GEOG-G 237 Mapping our World: From Mercator to Mashups
      • GEOG-G 338 Geographic Information Systems
    2. Geographic Methods electives. One (1) additional course from the Geographic Methods electives list.
      • GEOG-G 250 Computing in the Geospatial Sciences
      • GEOG-G 336 Environmental Remote Sensing
      • GEOG-G 338 Geographic Information Systems
      • GEOG-G 350 Field Methods in Physical Geography
      • GEOG-G 388 Qualitative Methods in Geography
      • GEOG-G 438 Advanced Geographic Information Systems
      • GEOG-G 488 Applied Spatial Statistics
  3. Job and Internship Search. One (1) course:
    • ASCS-Q 296 College to Career II: Navigate Your Arts and Sciences Experience
  4. Capstone. One (1) course:
    • GEOG-G 498 Capstone in Geography
    • GEOG-G 499 Honors Research in Geography
  5. Concentration. Comprehensive or Concentration option.
    • Comprehensive Option. 15 additional credit hours chosen from across the breadth of the Geography curriculum. Since this is not a formal concentration, it will not appear on the transcript.
    • Concentration Option. One (1) of the available concentrations (see below), consisting of 15 additional credit hours, with at least 12 credit hours at the 300–499 level.
  6. Electives. Complete additional Geography courses, as necessary, to fulfill the remaining requirements for the major. At least six (6) credit hours of the above must be at the 400–499 level.
  7. Major GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
    1. At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
    2. At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed at the 300–499 level.
    3. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the major.
    4. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the major—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
    5. Exceptions to major requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.