B.S. in Environmental Sciences

Program Overview

Environmental Sciences students gain the knowledge and professional skills needed to address climate change, improve water quality, advance sustainable design, facilitate species conservation, and more. Graduates will receive a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences and will be prepared to use foundational knowledge from diverse fields, critical thinking, and integrative analyses to sustainably manage social-ecological systems and how they interact in air, on land, and in water.

Because Environmental Sciences is a broad, interdisciplinary field, after two years of exploratory study, students choose a concentration they are most passionate about to deepen their expertise. There are ten concentrations outlined in the program curriculum including the option to create a self-designed concentration.

Concentrations

The Environmental Sciences faculty has outlined several concentration options for students to choose from based on pressing environmental issues, student interest, and needs in the job market. Students can, in consultation with their academic advisor, create an independently designed concentration if their interests lie outside the current concentration list.

Agriculture and the Environment: Impacts of agriculture on the environment and strategies for minimizing environmental degradation.

Conservation Biology and Biodiversity: Endangered species and ecosystems and strategies for conserving the diversity of Earth's life forms.

Ecological Design: Use of ecological systems to improve environmental quality.

Environmental Analysis and Assessment: Techniques for measuring environmental impacts and managing environmental data. 

Environmental Biology: Ecological and molecular analysis of endangered populations, phenomena affecting biological diversity, interrelationship of organisms and their environments, and conservation genetics. 

Environmental Geology: Groundwater, earth hazards, historical climate change, and landscape evolution.

Environmental Health: Exploration of the link between toxins, pollution, and human health.

Global Environmental and Climate Change: Analysis of the controls on Earth's climate and ecosystem responses to change.

Water Resources: Global water supply and human impacts on surface waters.

Self-design: Are you interested in an environmental topic that is not captured in these focus tracks? No problem, work with your adviser to design your own trajectory!

Explore courses in each concentration

Curriculum

All Environmental Sciences students must complete the Rubenstein School Core Curriculum and a common set of courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and geology or plant and soil science. 

Students are challenged to identify, analyze, and respond to complex environmental problems across local, regional, and global scales. Students dive into the science and issues related to global change, water quality, species and ecosystem conservation, ecological design, environmental and human health, and more.

Popular Courses

• Climate Change
• Global Environmental Assessment
• Ecological Design and Living Technologies
• Recovery and Restoration of Altered Ecosystems

B.S. in Environmental Sciences Courses

Admissions

Resources for Prospective Rubenstein School Students

UVM Undergraduate Admissions

Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Environmental Sciences graduates are trained to:

• Apply their scientific knowledge with a range of methodologies and disciplinary perspectives through scientific inquiry, modeling and real-world experience in addressing pressing environmental issues;
• Employ a systems approach to analyze how human and ecological systems interact to influence processes in air, on land, and in water;
• Assess and articulate the scientific evidence surrounding key environmental issues and critically evaluate ongoing efforts to mitigate environmental problems;
• Design practical and effective solutions to real world problems in collaboration with community partners;
• Deepen their understanding of the concepts, processes, problems, and solutions in a chosen concentration.

After Graduation

The world's ever-increasing environmental challenges have created an urgency for solutions-oriented environmental scientists. Environmental Sciences graduates are environmentalists on many levels and are actively working in communities around the world. Graduates go onto graduate school or find employment in a wide variety of settings, including government agencies, non-profit organizations, and environmental consulting firms.

Careers

• Biologist
• Conservation Planning Scientist
• Ecologist
• Educator
• Energy Consultant
• Environmental Chemist
• Environmental Lawyer
• Environmental Manager
• Environmental Resource Specialist
• Environmental Scientist
• Environmental Technician
• GIS Specialist
• Hydrologic Scientist
• Policy Advisor
• Research Scientist
• Sustainability Coordinator
• Water Resources Specialist

Where Alumni Work

• Corporate Sustainability Programs
• Energy and Solar Companies
• Environmental Consulting Firms
• Environmental Engineering Firms
• Green Building and Design Industry
• Law Firms
• Municipal Watershed Programs
• Nonprofit Education and Conservation Organizations
• State Agencies of Agriculture
• State Attorney Generals' Offices
• State Departments of Natural Resources/Environmental Conservation
• State Departments of Transportation
• State Energy Programs
• Sustainability Consulting Firms
• Tribal Water Resources Departments
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Forest Service

Where Alumni Study

• University of Arizona
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Michigan
• University of Oklahoma
• Syracuse University
• Tufts University
• Yale University