Environmental Science (co-major)

The term "co-major" is unique and indicates that students must be concurrently enrolled in and must complete another major at Miami University. The co-major complements this primary major, which provides significant depth and breadth in an academic discipline. There is no specific degree designation for the co-major; students receive the degree designation of their primary major.

This co-major emphasizes earth science and life science approaches to understanding environmental patterns and processes. Students are prepared to pursue a wide variety of career paths and post-graduate degrees in environmental science, especially those with biological and physical science specializations.

Students with a primary major in one of the sciences can easily complete the co-major, because many of the course requirements are the same for both the major and the co-major. Students who are not science majors (e.g., Philosophy, Spanish, Early Childhood Education, etc.) are also able to satisfy the requirements for both the primary major and the co-major relatively easily with early planning and strategic choice of Miami Plan Foundation courses. One reason the co-major is compatible with so many majors is that it allows students to fulfill co-major requirements at the same time they satisfy Miami Plan Foundation (MPF), Thematic Sequence, and Capstone course requirements. For example, the courses available to fulfill the various requirements of the co-major also serve to satisfy the Miami Plan requirements in the social sciences (MPF IIIA), world cultures (MPF IIIB), natural sciences (MPF IV), and in mathematics, formal reasoning, and technology (MPF V). In addition, because the co-major is essentially a second major, it also satisfies the Thematic Sequence requirement. Finally, several of the courses that can be taken to satisfy the Practicum and Synthesis section of the co-major serve as Capstone courses.

The primary departments that offer upper-level courses for the co-major are Botany, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Geography, Geology, Mathematics and Statistics, Microbiology, and Zoology. The Environmental Science Co-major Advisory Board reports to the Dean of the College of Arts and Science and has authority to grant exceptions to the curriculum (e.g., if students petition to transfer courses from other schools) and to approve topics for independent studies and internships that students propose to satisfy the Practicum and Synthesis requirement.

For More Information

For general information about Miami University, please contact:

Office of Admission
301 S. Campus Ave.
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056-3434
513-529-2531 (v/t)
www.muohio.edu/requestinfo

For specific information on the Environmental Science co-major, please contact:

Department of Zoology
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-1480
www.cas.muohio.edu/environment/environmentalscience.html