B.A.,
Geography,
General Track
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
What You'll Do
Geographers document where things are and try to understand geographic distributions. As a Geography major pursuing the General Geography track at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, you’ll explore a varied academic landscape, sampling courses from different subfields of your major as you build a well-rounded base for your career.
Among the classes you can choose are Population Geography, Fresh Water Resources, Geography of American Indians, Geography of Russia and the Soviet Sphere, Geography of Pennsylvania, and Climatology.
You’ll have opportunities to get hands-on experience with the technology used by geographic professionals through the Geography Department’s labs and weather station. Free electives in the General Geography track allow you to add a minor, perhaps in Geology, or to choose your own path by selecting a mix of courses that interest you most.
What You'll Become
The Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography achieved through pursuit of the General Geography track leads to graduate study or employment in related areas. More than 95 percent of IUP Geography Department graduates in a recent five-year span were placed in graduate programs or found jobs in business and industry, as environmental professionals or municipal planners, with regional and state agencies, in federal government, as social science educators, and with engineering firms.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that overall employment of surveyors, cartographers, surveying technicians, and mapping technicians is expected to grow by 21 percent from 2006 to 2016. Increased interest in Geographic Information Systems is expected to expand demand for maps and information.
The labor report also notes that job growth for geographers and political scientists in the social science end of the field is projected to be slow and to offer few opportunities outside government.