Undergraduate Geography Major & Minor Degrees

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

See Undergraduate Major Requirements for an explanation of Geography curriculum tracks.

The Department of Geography offers a bachelor of arts (BA) degree in geography. The geography BA emphasizes knowledge and awareness of:

the unique contributions of the discipline to understanding the spatial components of problems and the diverse factors relating to human interaction with the environment;
the spatial distributions of physical and human characteristics on the Earth surface, the general patterns these form, and the processes that have created and are changing these patterns;
the major themes of geographical analysis, including absolute and relative location; human and physical characteristics of place; human and environmental relations; movement of people, ideas, and products; and regionalization; and
the general geographical principles of human-environment interaction, global change, and human spatial organization.

Demonstrate knowledge of geographic theories and concepts in the discipline, and a thorough understanding of interactions between human and environmental processes, through a geographical lens.
Demonstrate the ability to perform critical inquiry in the discipline, including acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting geographical data to be used in statistical analyses, creating basic maps, and performing geospatial analyses.
Demonstrate information literacy in relevant geographic scholarship.
Effectively communicate about geographical issues through scholarly writing, presentations, and visualizations.
Demonstrate critical thinking skills and logical approaches to problem solving within interdisciplinary settings.
Demonstrate the ability to address real-world problems by applying advanced analytical techniques ranging from qualitative, to quantitative, to spatial and field survey methodologies.

Coming in Fall 2026.

Declaration of a minor is open to any student enrolled at CU Boulder, regardless of college or school affiliation.

A minimum of 18 credit hours must be taken in the Department of Geography, including a minimum of 9 upper-division credit hours.
All coursework applied to the minor must be completed with a grade of C- or better. No pass/fail work may be applied. The GPA of all minor coursework must equal 2.00 (C) or greater.
Student pursuing an individually structured major, or who are pursuing a major in distributed studies, will not be eligible to earn a minor.
Students will be allowed to apply no more than 9 credit hours (including 6 upper-division) of transfer work toward a minor.
Coursework applied toward a minor may also be applied toward Gen Ed as well as the requirements for other majors.