2025-2026 Academic Catalog

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Geography, BA

General Requirements

To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the three areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.

Program Requirements

  1. Students must complete a minimum of 33 credit hours from GEOG, GEOL and ENVS courses.
  2. Students must complete a minimum of 24 upper division (3000-level and above) credit hours from GEOG, GEOL and ENVS courses.
  3. Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses that apply to the major and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to program requirements.
  4. Students must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours of GEOG, GEOL and ENVS coursework with CU Denver faculty.

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

  1. Only three credits of Travel Study may be counted toward graduation requirements.
  2. Undergraduate students may count up to 6 credit hours of independent study or internship (any combination of GEOG 3840 Independent Study: GEOG, GEOG 4840 Independent Study: GEOG, GEOG 4880 Directed Research, or GEOG 3939 Internship) towards elective credit in the major as approved by the undergraduate coordinator. Students may not receive more than three credit hours per independent study section. No more than three credit hours of independent study may be taken with the same instructor or in the same term. 
  3. GEOG 3939 Internship: Community/Professional Experience optional, but highly recommended.
Complete all of the following required courses:15-16
Introduction to Environmental Sciences
and Introduction to Environmental Sciences Laboratory
Introduction to Physical Geography
World Regions Global Context
Introduction to Human Geography
The Power of Maps: Introduction to Geospatial Sciences
Weather and Climate
Globalization and Regional Development
Complete a minimum of one course from each of the following focus areas: 12
Complete six additional GEOG elective credits. Students can choose additional courses from the approved focus areas lists or may choose other GEOG electives of interest. 6
Total Hours33-34

Environment, Society, and Sustainability

Complete one of the following Environment, Society, and Sustainability courses.3
Environment, Society and Sustainability
Hazard Mitigation and Vulnerability Assessment
Sustainability in Resources Management
Climate Change & Society
Environment and Society in the American Past
The Politics of Nature
Science, Policy and the Environment
Urban Food and Agriculture: Perspectives and Research
Sustainable Urban Agriculture Field Study I
Urban Sustainability and Resiliency: Perspectives and Practice
Total Hours3

Human Geography

Complete one of the following Human Geography courses.3
Introduction to Human Geography
Urban Studies and Planning
Geography of Colorado
Geography of South America
Geography of Food and Agriculture
Geography of Health
Population, Culture, and Resources
Urban Geography: Denver and the U.S.
Disasters, Climate Change, and Health
Total Hours3

Physical Geography

Complete one of the following Physical Geography courses.3
Colorado Climates
Landscape Biogeochemistry
Earth Environments and Human Impacts
Applied Geomorphology
Fluvial Geomorphology
Glacial Geomorphology
Environmental Hydrology
Water Quality and Resources
Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and Solutions
Mountain Biogeography
Soil Science and Geography
Beeography: Geography of Bees
Urban Climate and Air Quality
Total Hours3

Techniques of Geographical Analysis

Complete one of the following Techniques of Geographical Analysis courses.3
Remote Sensing I: Introduction to Environmental Remote Sensing
Remote Sensing II: Advanced Remote Sensing
Introduction to GIS (highly recommended; pre-req to most of the advanced GISci courses)
Cartography
GIS Applications for the Urban Environment
Environmental Modeling with Geographic Information Systems
Open Source Software for Geospatial Applications
GIS Programming and Automation
Deploying GIS Functionality on the Web
Environmental Impact Assessment
GIS Applications in the Health Sciences
Total Hours3

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website. 

To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website