Undergraduate Studies

The Department of Geography runs a nationally recognized undergraduate program, ranking fourth among all Geography programs in the country.

At Ohio State, students can choose between four main areas of study including:

• Environment & Society;
• Atmospheric & Climatic Studies;
• GIS & Spatial Analysis; and
• Urban, Regional & Global Studies.

Upon graduation, students will be able to enter the job market prepared for positions in GIS, meteorology, urban planning, travel and tourism, product marketing and others.

The Department also gives undergraduate students a strong academic foundation that prepares them for graduate work.

Prospective Geography undergraduates can access information about our geography requirements, honors and scholars programs, career prospects in geography, and admission requirements, using the links the links below.

Course Requirements (see program pages)

Career Opportunities

Admission Application

Admission Deadlines

For more information or to make an appointment regarding undergraduate studies, please contact Rick McClish, our undergraduate advisor.

Rick McClish
Undergraduate Advisor

Department of Geography
The Ohio State University
1036 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1361

e-mail: mcclish.10@osu.edu
phone: (614) 292-3553
office: 1085 Derby Hall

Geography 120: Weather and Climate

Geography 200: World Regional Geography

Geography 205: Human Geography

Geography 210: Physical Geography Environmental Issues

Geography 240: Economic and Social Geography

Geography 400: U.S. and Canadian Geography

Geography 410H: Climate and Environmental Change (Honors)

Geography 450: Making of the Modern World

Geography 460H: Space, Power, and Political Geography (Honors)

Geography 597.01: World Urbanization

Geography 597.03: Environmental Citizenship

Geography 120: Weather and Climate (Earth Systems II: Atmospheric Environment) click her for pdf

Geography 120: Weather and Climate (Earth Systems II: Atmospheric Environment)

Physical Sciences GEC with Lab (B.A. or B.S.)

Ever wonder how Columbus can experience rain, freezing rain, sleet, AND snow in a single day? Or why skiers love Utah's snow? Or why hurricanes form in the summer and fall? Then Geography 120 is for you! In Geography 120 you will learn about basic weather and climate phenomena: the seasons, types of clouds and precipitation, high and low pressure systems, thunderstorms, hurricanes, and historical and future climate.

Labs for Geography 120 explore basic weather concepts such as temperature, pressure, wind, and moisture. Throughout the quarter students think critically about the scientific process and to evaluate potential sources of error in their data. Two labs examine the relationships between temperature and latitude, time, surface color (albedo) and material (specific heat). During SP/SU/AU quarters, the class launches a pair of 8 ft balloons from the Oval to collect weather data away from Earth's surface.

No prerequisites. Science and non-science majors are welcomed in this class.

* Five Week Session 1: June 20th - July 21st *

Geography 200: World Regional Geography click here for pdf

Social Science GEC: Human, Economic, and Natural Resources (International Issues)

Think geography is just about maps? Think again!
Geography 200 examines the development of and relationships between world regions, with a focus on human geography. Human geography encompasses the urban, cultural, economic, historical, and political characteristics of a region. You will be introduced to geographic concepts such as space, place, globalization, and development. These concepts will be used to understand the human geography of world regions and their connections across time and space. The focus of the class varies by instructor. Topics include conflicts arising from globalization (economic issues and terrorism); interactions between nature and society; and differing measures of development. Geography 200 provides a foundation for understanding current and future world events.

* Five Week Session 1: June 20th - July 21st *

* Regular Session / Night Class: June 20th - August 25th *

No prerequisites.

Geography 205: Human Geography click here for pdf

Social Science (Individuals and Groups) GEC

This course provides a broad overview of the relationships and interactions between space, place, humans, and the physical environment. This course introduces essential concepts and topics of human geography, including the interconnectedness of people and places, interactions between society, culture, and nature, and the relationships between development, difference, and inequality. Students will be encouraged to develop a geographical imagination—that is, to learn to see the changing patterns, processes, and relationships among people, places, and regions that shape our world.

No prerequisites.

Geography 210: Physical Geography and Environmental Issues click here for pdf

Physical Sciences GEC with Lab (B.A. only)
Everything in the “natural world”— such as water, energy, and geochemical cycles—affects humans and is also influenced by humans. This introductory physical geography course has two main components. First, students will be exposed to the hard science behind an array of physical geography concepts and the “natural world.” Second, we will learn how environmental issues quickly become political issues whose outcomes and solutions are dependent upon humans. Key concepts throughout the course involve sustainability and energy consumption, and will appeal to anyone interested in environmental studies.
The associated labs for Geography 210 underscore the importance of the overlap between natural and human systems. For example, one lab will focus on the water cycle, introducing students to the ways that water naturally moves through this system, but then showing what happens when humans interrupt this cycle, and what we might do about it. For this and other lab topics, students are encouraged to think critically and creatively in developing ideas and solutions to environmental problems.    
  

* Five Week Session 1: June 20th - July 21st *

No prerequisites.

Geography 240: Economic and Social Geography click here for pdf

Social Science (Human, Natural, and Economic Resources) AND International Issues GEC

What is the economy? Where are the boundaries between economic practice or economic processes, and social relationships? The purpose of this class will be to think about how we as social actors engage in economic activity. We are often taught to think of “The Economy” as something outside ourselves and separate from social life, but economic relationships are fundamentally social relationships. We will also consider the spaces and places of economic activity, and examine our role in producing them. The class will introduce key concepts from human geography used to study society and the economy, as well as summarizing major economic processes (production and consumption) and key economic trends (deindustrialization and globalization).

No prerequisites.

Geography 400: U.S. and Canadian Geography click here for pdf

Social Diversity in the U.S. GEC

Geography 400 provides an introduction to geographic issues covering North America.  This course aims to develop conceptual tools for critical thinking from a geographic perspective, rather than an encyclopedic knowledge of North America’s “geographic” features. Accordingly we will work through case studies on topics including the industrial revolution, climate change, immigration, racism and urban space, free trade, U.S. foreign policy, the subprime crisis, and de-industrialization. In doing so we will emphasize that the geographies of this place we call North America remain deeply contested and always "under construction."

No prerequisites.

Geography 410H: Global Climate and Environmental Change (Honors) click here for pdf

Physical Sciences OR Social Science (Human, Natural, and Economic Resources) GEC

Climate and environmental change are arguably the world’s most defining challenges of the 21st century, with profound ethical, practical, and scientific dimensions. With a range of interactive learning components (class debates, group presentations, field trips, problem sets, and a final term paper), this course examines both natural and social factors that force changes in our climate and environment and explores strategies for a sustainable environment in the future. Students are challenged to critically consider both the scientific basis and the socio-political implications of the proposition that human activity has altered the global climate. A subtitle to the course is: “Individuals Matter,” meaning students will practice civil discourse to engage differences of policy options, opinions and worldview perspectives as they evaluate personal choices.
  

No prerequisites.

Geography 450: Making of the Modern World click here for pdf

Social Science (Organizations and Polities) AND International Issues GEC

How has our world changed? Does globalization explain everything? Where will the winners and losers be in the twenty-first century?

This course surveys the geography behind the history - and the history behind the geography - of our modern world. Specific topics include: the formation of capitalism as an economic system; changes in the governance of cities, nations, and the world; migration, diasporas, diversity and otherness; colonialism; the transformation of nature; science and technology;
Eurocentricity; modernization and globalization; and geographies of uneven development.

No prerequisites.

Geography 460H: Space, Power, and Political Geography (Honors) click here for pdf

Social Science (Organizations and Polities) GEC

Political geography is the study of power and space; that is, the study of how relationships of power are at once spatial relationships, and how spaces are the product of relationships of power. This course introduces students to the complex interaction of space and power by surveying a suite of issues relating to cultural, economic and political governance in the 20th and 21st centuries. Throughout, an emphasis is placed on how the study of space requires dealing with the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality and nationality.

The goal of the course is to introduce students to the deeply complex geographies of cultural, economic and political power which weave peoples and places across the globe into a dense “power geometry”. By the end of the course, students are theoretically and empirically conversant in the myriad ways in which life ‘inside’ the US is profoundly dependent on multiple forms of life on the ‘outside’.

No prerequisites.

Geography 597.01: World Urbanization click here for pdf

Contemporary World GEC

Urbanization has two aspects: the physical growth and development of cities, and the migration of people from rural to urban areas. This class reviews the process of urbanization at global and regional scales, focusing on relationships between urbanization and economic development. The course will also focus on geographic variations in urbanization at both inter-urban and intra-urban scales.
  

* Five Week Session 1: June 20th - July 21st *

No prerequisites.

Geography 597.03: Environmental Citizenship click here for pdf

Contemporary World GEC
Cross-listed with English 597.03

This course encompasses both "reading" and "writing" the environment (i.e., learning to interpret the physical, social, and cultural forces that shape environments and assuming an active role in shaping environments) through reading and discussion, weekly lab sessions, and a course project. One component of this class consists of a case study of human-environment interaction in a local landscape-the Olentangy River Watershed. The interdisciplinary approach of this cross-listed course will help students incorporate the multiple kinds of knowledge necessary for understanding environmental problems and shaping comprehensive environmental values. 

No prerequisites.