Why CU Geography?

We’re experts at bridging the physical and human sciences

We bring a holistic perspective to the physical and human processes that shape the world around us, and we strive to understand how people interact with, are shaped by, and in turn help shape, our world.ÌýOur teaching and research span an exceptional array of disciplines and we excel at providing field-oriented, hands-on experience.ÌýWe train our students – in a friendly, well-supported environment – to be top scientists as well as citizens of the broader world to which we’re all connected.

Our faculty members are frequently recognized with awards and honors. We’ve had various faculty members deliver a keynote address at a science forum at the White House; help author the report to the President on climate change, awardedÌýDistinguished Research Lecturer,Ìýreceive a gold medal research award from the Russian Geographical Society and we have a former Chief Scientist of NASA. We are often quoted in major magazines and have published numerous papers involving groundbreaking research.ÌýIn the Academic Analytics 2014 release, our department ranked first among 101 departments in the US in five categories.

Students can study such diverse topics as migration, geopolitics, global health, natural hazards, culture and power, participatory mapping, conservation communities, indigenous environmental knowledge, geographic information science (GIS), international development, political ecology, remote sensing, climate change, globalization, hydrology, computer programming, population movement, third world cultures, catastrophic events, environment and ecology, impact of war, world health issues, water quality, movement, & distribution, GIS software development, agricultural change, impact, & needs, and land utilization.

The Department of Geography in Boulder attracts some 3,500 undergraduates to its courses every year, and has approximately 190 undergraduate majors in Geography. Undergraduates receive a broad, liberal education that integrates the study of human activity and the natural environment, with possible concentrations in physical geography, human geography, environment-society relations, or geographic information science.ÌýÌýThe graduate program of the Department of Geography offers both MA and PhD degrees.Ìý There are currently about 90 graduate students enrolled in the program, with a slight majority of these in the PhD program.Ìý The MA program was founded in 1930, and the PhD program began in 1965; the first PhD was awarded in 1968. The Department is ranked as one of the top programs among the nation’s doctoral-granting departments of geography.Ìý CU Geography has one of the nation's highest rates of PhD placement in academic geography programs as well as one of the highest rates of external funding for graduate student research.