Majors and Minors

OVERVIEW

The Geography Department offers two undergraduate majors that lead to the Bachelor of Arts degree, and three minors. Our majors prepare students for employment opportunities in both the public and private sectors (in environmental analysis, assessment, and management, map making and remote sensing, regional analysis, economic and urban spatial analysis, and teaching) and for graduate study in law, management, urban and regional planning, education, other biophysical and social sciences, and applied programs, as well as in Geography.

Majors:

Minors:

PETITION TO DECLARE OR DROP A MAJOR AND/OR MINOR

Please review the criteria to declare a Geography major or minor. If you are eligible, please download and fill out the petition form here and return it via email here.

Petitions to declare a Geography major or minor are processed weeks 5 and 9. Petitions to drop a major or minor are processed throughout the quarter.

INTERESTED IN A DOUBLE MAJOR?

Please go to the College of Letters and Science’s information page concerning the procedures for declaring a second major.

Counseling & Advising

For information about the majors and/or minors offered in Geography or for other general inquiries, send email to undergraduate@geog.ucla.edu. You will receive a response in 1-2 days.

For questions regarding General Education or University requirements, you must consult with your main counseling unit (https://registrar.ucla.edu/academics/academic-counseling).

INTERESTED IN DEPARTMENTAL HONORS?

The Geography Honors Program is designed for highly motivated Geography and Geography/Environmental major students who are interested in completing a two-quarter research project (contract courses GEOG 198A and 198B) with a final thesis paper under the supervision of one or two Faculty Advisors. Students typically participate in the Geography Honors Program during their senior year. Departmental Honors are bestowed upon graduation to participating students who have achieved at least a 3.5 GPA in the major and at least a 3.0 overall GPA. For further information, please review the guidelines:

COURSE SUBSTITUTION PETITION

Upper Division classes taken in the discipline of geography (taught by another Geography department) that transfer into UCLA may be applied to your major requirements through course substitute petition. Upper Division classes taken outside of the discipline require the same course substitute petition, but only 2 are allowed.

Review the guidelines in the header of the petition form carefully (see link below). In petitioning a substitute, you are asked to identify a specific UCLA Geography course comparable to the class you completed. For upper division GEOG course information and descriptions, please visit: https://registrar.ucla.edu/academics/course-descriptions?search=geog.

Course substitutions are approved by the Geography Undergraduate Faculty Committee to count toward the major/minor requirements if:

1) the course is letter-graded and the grade assigned is “B” or above, and;

2) explicitly demonstrate or engage geographical approaches, theories, and scholarship.

The department allows up to a maximum of two (2) upper division courses completed outside of the discipline of Geography to count towards a GEOG major/minor with the Undergraduate Faculty Committee’s approval. For Study Abroad courses taken in Geography departments and approved by UC Education Abroad (UCEAP), the number of upper division courses allowed is five (5) for majors and two (2) for minors. For Study Abroad courses from non-Geography departments and courses outside of the Department, there will be a maximum of two (2) upper division courses that can transfer to the majors and a maximum of one (1) upper division course that can transfer to the minor.

Substitutions for lower division GEOG courses are not permitted. Pre-approval of a course substitute is not provided.

Once the course you are proposing appears in your UCLA academic record or your degree audit, you may submit the petition with the supplemental documents requested to the department.  Please follow the instructions in the header of the petition form and include the required supplemental documents for review. Petitions are reviewed in groups, two times per quarter, typically Weeks 5 and 9.

Course Substitution Petition Form

CONTRACT COURSES (GEOG 195B, 198A, 199, etc.)

Major and minor upper division requirements (4.0 units) may be satisfied by an approved contract course designed by the student and mentored by a Geography faculty member in a quarter. Students must have the consent of his/her faculty mentor prior to creating the contract.

To create a contract:

  1. Login to my.ucla.edu
  2. Click on “Contract Courses”, which is located on the left column under “MyUCLA Features”
  3. Click on “Submit a new contract” under “My Contract Courses”
  4. Select year and term
  5. Select the course you wish to enroll in, e.g., Internship (195), Directed Research (199) or Honors Research (198)
  6. Select the “Subject Area,” which is the department that your faculty mentor is affiliated with
  7. Choose your faculty mentor and the number of units that you will enroll (4.0 units required towards majors and minors)
  8. In “My Research Plan,” write a brief description of your project
  9. Complete any other areas as requested and print out the contract

To be enrolled in your contract course:

  1. Obtain your faculty mentor’s signature
  2. Send the signed contract to the department that your faculty mentor is affiliated (e.g., Michael Shin, GEOG) and then send signed contract by email to GEOG Student Affairs Officer (SAO)
  3. The SAO will review for approval, obtain the signature of the authorized departmental representative, and process your enrollment