School suggestions
I am trying to build my college list, and I’m looking at competitive schools which would help me get into the environmental/natural science field. Any suggestions?
@starry.night gave some good suggestions for competitive schools below.
In addition to the good advice they gave you down below, I have a few additional points to consider.
Depending on what you want to do with environmental science (research/field work or policy work), there are a few additional colleges to consider.
If you want to go into field work, one thing to look for is a school that's located outside of a city. The reason is that if there's more nature around the school and close by, it will allow you to get more practical experience both in classes and extracurricular activities. So by that rationale I'd consider picking a school like Dartmouth over UPenn because there's more nature around.
A couple of other competitive schools that fit this dynamic are Bowdoin, Cornell, Williams, and Amherst.
If you want to get involved in the policy side of environmental science you ideally want to be in DC (for the government, private, and nonprofit sectors) or in California (Bay Area or Sacramento), which is the most advanced state in terms of environmental policy. California is also where a lot of green tech development is happening, so there are both policy and technical roles at those companies.
Competitive schools that fit those parameters include:
UVA, Georgetown, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, UC Davis, UCSD, UCLA.
Best of luck with your pursuit of environmental studies and hopefully this helps!
As a general guide, land grant colleges and universities tend to have amazing programs for environmental and natural sciences. Penn State, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue are some good starting point schools to check out. They are all solidly good schools that aren't necessarily the most competitive, but still have high standards. Another good way to build your college list is by looking at research universities because if it has the program you are interested in and is in an environment that you like, research opportunities will greatly enrich your experience.
Hi there! If looking for competitive colleges that have environmental science related majors I'd say that Stanford, Yale, UPenn, MIT and Dartmouth are all good (they offer environmental science degrees).
Some good majors are chemistry, ecology, geology, forensic chemistry, engineering so you could also look into colleges that have those majors (Emory, UCSD, UC Berkeley etc,.)
Good luck and I hope this helps :)
One thing I would like to add for suggested majors is that as far as forensic science specializations go, chemistry might not be the best at every school. Some have an approach more focused on drug toxicology, while others do focus on environmental toxicology. Some even have programs that specialize towards environemntal forensics. Public health is also a major that dips into environmental toxicology as well if policy is an interest.
What grade do u have
My friend is going to Cal Poly for their horticulture program. I also heard Berkeley was good for environmental programs too.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!