Earth Sciences

Degrees: B.S., B.S.E.

Go above and beyond for a rewarding career in the Earth Sciences field with a variety of faculty research projects, internships, co-operative educational experiences and a well-rounded curriculum available at Millersville University.

Why Study This Program?

The Department of Earth Sciences at Millersville University aims to provide a rich, authentic and challenging learning experience in the areas of meteorology, ocean science & coastal studies, earth science education and general earth sciences. We strive to achieve this through enlightened and comprehensive curricula, modern facilities and equipment, meaningful opportunities for students to engage in extracurricular activities, and by attentiveness to inter- and cross-disciplinary trends and opportunities for student engagement.

Students in all the Earth Sciences programs have complete access to state-of-the-art networked computers and research-grade instruments and equipment and the department also maintains licenses for FORTRAN 95, Interactive Data Language (IDL), MatLab, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and has the latest versions of interactive data visualization applications for education and research.

Graduates of the Department of Earth Sciences do extremely well, no matter what path they take after Millersville, be it graduate school, the private sector, the military or as civil servants. Many of the department’s graduates comment that their educational experiences at Millersville provided superior preparation compared to their peers at other institutions.

What Will You Learn?

This department is dedicated to providing a rich student-centered learning environment focused on the undergraduate education, and augmented by faculty research projects, internships and co-operative educational experiences, in which students are encouraged to participate. A direct consequence of this diverse program is the success our graduates exhibit in finding employment upon graduation or being accepted to post-graduate degree programs. All three concentrations require a set of Earth Sciences courses but then deviate into the option of your choice; meteorology and oceanography.

These programs stand out in a variety of ways, including:

  • The Meteorology curriculum conforms to the American Meteorological Society's Guidelines for a B.S. in Meteorology and the GS-1340 National Weather Service requirements.

  • The Oceanography program, the only one in the State System of Higher Education, is a founding member of the Marine Science Consortium located on Wallops Island, VA, where oceanography students spend part of their summers onboard a 46-foot research vessel.