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Why Major in Environmental Studies?

The EVST Program provides a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues than does a traditional Yale major. Environmental Studies prepares students for leadership at local, national, and international levels. "Leadership" may involve work for a nongovernmental organization (NGO), state and local government, Congressional or federal-agency staff, or corporate management. Environmental Studies is a problem-solving discipline, good preparation for graduate study in law, medicine and public health. Environmentally-aware Yale graduates have also pursued careers in teaching, writing, resource management and conservation.

Challenges of the 21^st Century

The six-fold increase in human population during the past 200 years, coupled with technology advances and escalating per-capita consumption, has created unprecedented pressure on environmental quality, natural resources, and non-human species. The natural world is complex and understood imperfectly, but management of human impacts is critical. Our actions can have unexpected consequences that are hard to reverse.

Environmental Studies majors study how physical and biological processes maintain life, and how humans affect nature, from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. History and the social sciences provide insights into why people behave as they do. People's values, as expressed by our social, political, and economic institutions, can motivate action but also can limit the scope of "logical" policy initiatives. Effective policies in the 21st century will reflect knowledge of basic science, technology, social science, and cultural norms. Environmental Studies students can apply courses in all these areas toward the major.

Graduates of the major are broadly educated, actively engaged citizens who can analyze complex environmental problems and respond appropriately to their intellectual, social, and ethical dimensions.

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Summary of the Major Requirements

All of the major requirements for the EVST major is summarized below as well as on the following form.

Number of Courses: Thirteen or fourteen course credits in addition to the prerequisites. All courses in the major must be taken for a letter grade.

Prerequisites: CHEM 112a, 113b, or 114a, 115b, or 118a; MCDB 120a or E&EB 122b; CHEM 116La and 117b, or 119La, or MCDB 121La, or E&EB 123Lb; MATH 112a or b or above (except MATH 190a) or PHYS 150a or above.

Students are advised to take chemistry and biology during the freshman year before enrolling in the core courses in natural sciences. Students should finish the prerequisites before the end of the sophomore year. Where relevant, students may employ acceleration credit to fulfill the prerequisites. Students entering Yale with advanced placement in both biology and chemistry must complete one term of introductory laboratory science. Students with advanced placement in only one of these subjects must take the remaining science prerequisite and its associated laboratory.

Students doing experimental work in the social or natural sciences should take one statistics course STAT 101-106, or 230b prior to undertaking research.

Distribution of Courses: Choose at least two core courses from Group A, humanities and social sciences, and the two core courses from Group B, environmental sciences with approved laboratories. Select six upper level courses to form a coherent interdisciplinary area of concentration. At least two of the six should be chosen from disciplinary groups outside the department of the immediate area of concentration.

Required Courses: Two courses from Group A and two from Group B along with their associated laboratories. An approved EVST junior seminar.

Senior Requirement: EVST 496a or b senior research project and colloquium.

Official Yale College program information is found in the Yale College Programs of Study, available on line at www.yale.edu/yalecollege/publications/ycps