The reasons are as follows. The Department believes that its 4 core courses, a 14 hour mix of Environmental Sciences electives and the required related work in science and calculus is the minimum preparation needed to be a competitive environmental scientist. In order to be confident that majors have mastered our way of training, we normally require that all courses taken for the major are taught by our faculty. Thus, we are quite rigid about expecting majors to take at least 30 hours of Departmental courses including the cores. Recognizing that the 30 hour major is a minimum requirement, we hope that majors will take many more courses in Environmental Sciences and in many other areas.
Most majors do take work in other areas, and often at other schools here or abroad.
Although these hours are not counted into the Departmentally defined major, they are critical to each student s personal major. Your major is the sum of your experiences as they relate to your interests in environmental sciences. It is this full mix of your experience that you will explain to others in covering letters and interviews at each stage of your career advancement. Your official University of Virginia transcript upon graduation will carry the designation Environmental Sciences Major, but will not identify the courses that counted toward the major. Thus, you define and explain your personal major and the relevant experiences each time you are asked.