The Geography Major
The Department of Geography has two different sets of major requirements — one for students who have declared geography as their major on August 30, 2010 or later, and one for students who declared before that date. Both are explained below.
REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS WHO DECLARE ON AUGUST 30, 2010 OR LATER (printer-friendly version)
To earn a bachelor of arts in geography, students must complete 10 geography courses with a minimum grade of C-minus, including five core courses, four courses in one of three areas of concentration, plus one elective. Students must select an area of concentration within six months of declaring geography as their major.
Core Courses
All geography majors must complete five core courses:
GEOG 401: Regional Geography of the Western World
GEOG 402: Regional Geography of the Non-Western World
GEOG 572: Geography of the Natural Environment
GEOG 581: Human Geography
GEOG 658: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
The core courses are intended to provide students a basic understanding of human, physical, and world regional geography, plus geographic information systems. They should be taken as early as possible in a student's program because they provide a foundation for more advanced coursework.
Students are encouraged to complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another statistics course approved by their advisor before enrolling in GEOG 658.
Concentrations
Human geography: Intended for students most interested in the geography of human activity, including population, urban, cultural, political, and economic geography.
Students must complete three of the following, including one course at the 600-level or above:
GEOG 582, Economic Geography
GEOG 583, Urban Geography
GEOG 584, Political Geography
GEOG 588, Geography of Food
GEOG 680, Historical Geography
GEOG 685, Geography of Population and Development
GEOG 690, Geography of Third World Development
Students must complete one of the following regional geography courses:
GEOG 510, Geography of New England
GEOG 514, Geography of the United States and Canada
GEOG 540, Geography of the Middle East
GEOG 541, Geography of Japan
GEOG 550, Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa
Environmental geography: Intended for students most interested in the geography of the natural environment, including weather, climate, landforms, biogeography, and human-environment interactions.
Students must complete three of the following, including one course at the 600-level or above:
GEOG 473, Elements of Weather
GEOG 560, Geography of Natural Hazards
GEOG 573, Biogeography
GEOG 574, Geography of Landforms
GEOG 670, Climatology
GEOG 671, Advanced Weather Analysis
GEOG 673, Issues in Environmental Geography
Students must complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another statistics course approved by their advisor.
Geotechniques: Intended for students most interested in geographic information systems, aerial photo interpretation, remote sensing, photogrammetry, and other geographic techniques.
Students must complete three of the following:
GEOG 650, Field Methods in Geography
GEOG 757, Remote Sensing of the Environment
GEOG 759, Digital Image Processing for Natural Resources
GEOG 760, Geographic Information Systems in Natural Resources
Students must complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another statistics course approved by their advisor.
Additional regulations
Students entering UNH beginning in August 2010 must pass a comprehensive examination in their senior year to fulfill the Discovery capstone requirement.
The university’s foreign language requirement can be fulfilled by any of the following languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Latin, or Greek. Other languages will be considered by petition.
No course may fulfill both a major requirement and a General Education or Discovery requirement, except when geography is a student's second major.
REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS WHO DECLARE BEFORE AUGUST 30, 2010 (printer-friendly version)
To major in Geography, the following course requirements must be fulfilled with a grade of C- or above.
ALL OF THE FOLLOWING CORE COURSES:
GEOG 401: Regional Geography of the Western World
GEOG 402: Regional Geography of the Non-Western World
GEOG 572: Geography of the Natural Environment
GEOG 581: Human Geography
GEOG 658: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
PLUS ANY FIVE ADDITIONAL GEOGRAPHY COURSES
GEOG 695 and GEOG 795 can only be applied to major requirements if taken for four credit hours and each can be counted only once.
Students are strongly encouraged to complete an introductory statistics course before enrolling in GEOG 658. Several statistics courses are offered at UNH, including ADM 430, BIOL 528, EREC 525, HHS 540, MATH 439, PSYC 402, and SOC 402. All of those courses can be used to satisfy the General Education Category 2, Quantitative Reasoning, requirement.
The university’s foreign language requirement can be fulfilled by any of the following languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Latin, or Greek. Other languages may be considered by petition.
No course may fulfill both a Geography requirement and a General Education or Discovery requirement.