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Credits and costs
Enhance Your Penn State Degree
Add a minor to get even more value out of your education.
Gain Specialized Geography Knowledge
Gain Specialized Geography Knowledge
The field of geography encompasses both social-behavioral and environmental sciences. Because of this, Penn State World Campus has partnered with the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences to offer an Undergraduate Minor in Geography (GEOG) that can complement most majors in the social sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, and technical disciplines.
The 18-credit geography minor introduces you to a broad range of concepts in areas such as:
- sustainability and human-environment systems
- energy policy
- global warming
- cartography, remote sensing, and geographic information systems
- geopolitics
The courses are designed to provide you with a basic understanding of how geography can be used to describe, analyze, and explain the arrangement of human and physical features on Earth’s surface. This can help you to understand how and why people use environmental resources the way that they do.
The knowledge and skills that you gain with this minor can help prepare you to work in a variety of fields, including:
- business
- resource management
- geographic information systems, remote sensing, and photogrammetry
- policy analysis
- urban and regional planning
This minor is open to all interested undergraduate World Campus students who meet the prerequisites. Students of energy and sustainability policy or business may find this minor particularly useful.
Online Geography Courses
Online Geography Courses
The 18-credit Minor in Geography is composed of one prescribed and five elective courses. Your elective courses will be selected from a list of available courses in geography and can include a particular content emphasis, such as environmental issues or urban and regional planning.
Requirements for the minor —18 credits chosen in consultation with a geography adviser:
- Select 3 credits in physical geography (GEOG 1N or 3N or 30N or 430)
- Select 3 credits in human geography (GEOG 1N or 2N or 3N or 30N or 430 or 432 or 438W)
- Select 6 credits of additional geography courses (GEOG 1N or 2N or 3N or 6N or 430 or 432 or 438W)
- Select 6 credits of 400-level geography courses (GEOG 430 or 432 or 438W)
All courses taken for the minor must be completed with a grade of C or higher.
Required Course (3 credits)
- 3credits
Introduction to the relationships between humans and the natural environment, in addition to the theories and methods that geographers employ in addressing them.
Additional Courses (select 15 credits)
- 3credits
This course uses parks and protected areas — both in the U.S. and globally — as a framework for exploring broad themes of sustainability, conservation, and socio-ecological systems.
- 3credits
Explores various visions of the apocalypse and their relevance for addressing major contemporary social, ecological, and economic issues. These issues include global climate change, nuclear war, the growing refugee crisis, the breakdown of democratic governance, economic recession, and forms of everyday violence and social fracture.
- 3credits
Introduces students to the multiple connections of people and the environment through the dynamics of food and the places where it is produced, processed, and consumed.
- 3credits
Explores the fundamentals of cartography, geographic information science, and associated technologies through mapping and spatial analysis to answer key human and environmental problems.
- 3credits
The human use of resources and ecosystems and social causes and consequences of environmental degradation in different parts of the world; development of environmental policy and management strategies.
- 3credits
Analysis, formulation, implementation, and impacts of energy-related policies, regulations, and initiatives.
- Prerequisite
EBF 200 and EGEE 120 and PLSC 490
- or:3credits
Analysis, formulation, implementation, and impacts of energy-related policies, regulations, and initiatives.
- Prerequisite
EBF 200 and EGEE 120 and PLSC 490
- 3credits
Human dimensions of global environmental change: human causes; human adaptations; and policy implications of global warming.
- Prerequisite
(EARTH 002 or GEOG 010 or METEO 003) and GEOG 30N
Course Availability
If you're ready to see when your courses will be offered, visit our public LionPATH course search (opens in new window) to start planning ahead.
Costs and Financial Aid
Costs and Financial Aid
Learn about this program's tuition, fees, scholarship opportunities, grants, payment options, and military benefits.
Costs and Financial Aid
Undergraduate Tuition
Undergraduate tuition is calculated based on the number of credits for which you register and the number of total credits you have accrued at or transferred to Penn State.
Tuition is due shortly after each semester begins and rates are assessed every semester of enrollment.
2024–25 Academic Year Rates
| How many credits do you plan to take per semester? | If you have 59 or fewer credits | If you have 60 or more credits |
|---|---|---|
| 11 or fewer | $632 per credit | $678 per credit |
| 12–19 | $7,678 per semester | $8,288 per semester |
2025–26 Academic Year Rates
| How many credits do you plan to take per semester? | If you have 59 or fewer credits | If you have 60 or more credits |
|---|---|---|
| 11 or fewer | $638 per credit | $685 per credit |
| 12–19 | $7,755 per semester | $8,371 per semester |
Undergraduate students taking more than 19 credits will be charged the flat tuition rate plus the regular per credit hour rate for each credit above 19.
Financial Aid and Military Benefits
Some students may qualify for financial aid. Take the time to research financial aid, scholarships, and payment options as you prepare to apply. Federal financial aid may only be used to pay for credits used to satisfy program requirements.
Military service members, veterans, and their spouses or dependents should explore these potential military education benefits and financial aid opportunities, as well.
Additional Cost of Attendance Details
To view the detailed list of cost of attendance elements:
- visit the Tuition Information site
- click the plus sign to expand the table
- select a semester from the World Campus row
Convenient Online Format
This program's convenient online format gives you the flexibility you need to study around your busy schedule. You can skip the lengthy commute without sacrificing the quality of your education and prepare yourself for more rewarding career opportunities without leaving your home.
A Trusted Leader in Online Education
Penn State has a history of more than 100 years of distance education, and World Campus has been a leader in online learning for more than two decades. Our online learning environment offers the same quality education that our students experience on campus.
How to Add a Minor to Your Degree
How to Add a Minor to Your Degree
You must be a current student and meet specific requirements to apply for a minor.
Application Instructions
Steps to Apply
To be eligible for admittance into this minor, you must:
- be a current Penn State undergraduate student in your fifth semester and be in a bachelor's degree major
- maintain a grade of C or better in all courses for the minor
- confirm that the minor code and major code do not match
Talk with your academic adviser about incorporating the minor into your major and to develop a semester-by-semester plan for meeting requirements. You should add the minor as early as possible, but you can apply up to the late drop deadline of your graduating semester.
You will receive a confirmation email once you declare the minor in LionPATH.
Admissions Help
Please work with your adviser if you have questions about adding a minor. You can find your adviser's contact information in your student portal or by calling advising at 814-863-3283.
Contact Us
Contact Us
Have questions or want more information? We're happy to talk.
To learn more about the Minor in Geography, offered in partnership with the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, please contact:
Jodi Vender
Coordinator of Undergraduate and Alumni Programs
302 Walker Bldg
University Park, PA 16802
[email protected]
Phone: 814-863-5730