Degree Outcomes

• Graduates have found careers in business and industry, urban and regional planning agencies, departments of federal and state governments, and teaching.
• Professional roles include city or regional planner, cartographer, demographer, resource analyst, land or economic developer, location analyst, and teacher/professor.
• An undergraduate geography degree is an excellent foundation for advanced graduate work or professional training in planning, business, or law.

The Student Experience

• Courses that challenge students to think about the spatial patterns of environmental, social, economic, and political processes close to home and around the world.
• An emphasis on hands-on learning with popular field schools for academic credit, including a summer field school in the western U.S. and international field schools in locations like Southeast Asia.
• Faculty mentorship on research projects with topics such as urban and transportation systems, tree-ring science, Europe’s migration crisis, and water resource management.
• Internships in local planning and mapping agencies and nonprofits.
• Facilities including fully equipped laboratories in computer cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing with a variety of other specialized locational analysis programs for both instruction and research.
• Labs that support teaching and research studies in dendrochronology (tree-ring studies), soils and regolith analysis, and geographic information systems.
• A student-run Geography Club that organizes speakers, hikes, and service projects and department activities like “GeoBowl,” pitting UNC schools against each other.

Accolades & Accomplishments

Our faculty and students have received numerous awards for teaching, research, and community engagement from local, regional, and national organizations.

Accreditations & Affiliations

Departmental chapter of the national geography honor society Gamma Theta Upsilon.