Geographers study the way various phenomena are distributed on the Earth's surface, the social and physical processes responsible for such spatial patterns, and their impact on human well-being. Career opportunities in geography are diverse, and employment prospects after graduation are excellent.
Employment varies from positions in business and government to jobs in planning and education.
Because of the breadth of the discipline, many students choose to specialize in a subfield such as community studies, environmental assessment, or geographic education. The geography program at Kansas State University is one of outstanding faculty and student accomplishments. Faculty and graduate student research successes have resulted in Kansas State University geographers playing a leadership role in extramural funding, research publications, and recognition among the social sciences. The tradition of success led to the establishment of a doctoral degree program emphasizing rural geography in 1995. The department strives to have the best undergraduate geography degree program in the State of Kansas, the best masters program in the region, and the best PhD program, with an emphasis on rural geography, in the country.