The Kopchick College of Sciences currently enrolls about 1,425 undergraduate and graduate students in five different departments offering various programs and opportunities to earn a variety of professional certificates and minors. If you love science, we’ve got a program for you.
In academic year 2023–24 we celebrated many achievements, milestones, and a new building! Please take a moment to review the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics successes.
You Will Experience Research and Learning
The Kopchick College of Sciences offers exceptional research and internship opportunities. In the college, the education you receive transcends the traditional classroom and laboratory experiences and allows you to experience what it is like to be a practicing scientist in the lab and the field. These activities give you a unique and rewarding experience. Our students are well prepared and have been selected to participate in Research Experience for Undergraduates programs (REUs) across the country in biochemistry, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Natural sciences and mathematics students have won all of IUP’s four prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, placing them among the top science students in the country.
Last year, our faculty received more than $3.5M in grant funding to work with students on a wide range of projects, from cybersecurity to understanding human motion and repetitive stress injuries, from wildlife conservation along the Appalachians and throughout central Americas to unearthing the site of WWII American plane crash in Germany.
Accredited Programs
Kopchick College offers degree programs with ABET (Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited programs in safety sciences and computer science. The Languages and Systems BS degree in computer sciences prepares students for technical work with operating systems, integrated development environments, and other systems software. The Safety Sciences BS program meets the Board of Certified Safety Professionals standards as a qualified academic program. As a QAP, graduates of the BS degree are awarded the Graduate Safety Practitioner designation from the BCSP. Graduates with this designation receive a waiver of the Safety Fundamentals Examination and the recognition they are proceeding toward the CSP safety certification. Our BS in Regional Planning offers PAB (Planning Accreditation Board) accredited coursework to prepare students for leadership as professional planners.
Instruction by Highly Qualified Professors
All our faculty have doctoral degrees related to their expertise and instruct all classes offered in our programs. The average level of classroom teaching experience for faculty in the Kopchick college is more than 15 years, so you’ll be taught by experienced, professional instructors in all your classes.
Award-Winning Programs
The cybersecurity program has been designated by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education continuously for more than 20 years. This designation indicates that or cybersecurity curriculum meets the most stringent requirements set forth by the NSA, preparing students for jobs as network administrators, and information security analysts. U.S. News and World Report selected the IUP Master’s in Mathematics Education as one of the “2022 Best Online Programs.” In 2021, the Safety, Health, and Environmental Applied Sciences program was ranked third in the nation for excellence by Universities.com. Editors rated them as excellent in categories of career preparation, students and culture, facilities, and activities and groups.