Careers and Graduate SchoolDepartment of Environment, Geography, and Earth Sciences

After Gustavus: Choosing your path forward

The EGE Department encompasses three majors and several minors, which lead to many possible paths after Gustavus! In most years, about one-third of our graduates go directly to graduate school to seek a master’s or doctoral degree related to their major. About one-third of our graduates decide to enter the workforce in a job related to their major. And, about one-third of graduates decide to try something completely different after college; in this case, the competence and skill sets they’ve gained in their major courses are still very important contributors to post-college success.

More about graduate school:

For some career paths, a graduate degree is either necessary or at least will give you a big advantage in getting the job you want. Graduate school is very different than college: 

• In some fields, like the sciences, the university will pay your tuition, health insurance, and a modest salary in exchange for you working in a research lab or helping teach a course while you complete your studies. In other fields, you may be expected to pay more of the costs.
• You usually take fewer courses in a semester
• You spend a large portion of your time doing research and creating your own ideas, data, writing, and/or artistic creations (depending on the field)
• In some fields, you apply to a university’s graduate program and must find a match with a professor who agrees to take you on as an advisee. In that case, when choosing a school you need to identify which faculty member you’d like to work with and reach out to them to see if they are taking new graduate students that year.

More about entering the workforce:

Our recent graduates are employed in a wide variety of settings. Here are a few examples:

Environmental Studies majors: 

• Sustainability coordinator or sustainability consultant (private companies, health services)
• Cartographic technician (National Park Service)
• Environmental educator (e.g. Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center)
• Renewable energy program administrator or energy analyst (e.g., U.S. Solar, Frontier Energy)
• Waste reduction specialist (private companies)
• Environmental compliance specialist

Earth Science (Geology) majors:

• Hydrologist (e.g., Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
• Water resource technician (Soil and Water Conservation Districts)
• Geology project manager (environmental consulting firms)
• Environmental scientist

Geography majors:

• Geographic information systems (GIS) specialist (government agencies, private companies, nonprofits)
• City planner (various cities)
• Drone operator and crop scout (private company)
• Environmental health specialist

Requesting a letter of recommendation from one of the EGE faculty

Please fill out this form and email it to the professor as early as possible. Professional etiquette suggests that you request a letter four weeks ahead of its due date; the minimum lead time is two weeks. We spend a lot of time writing these letters to make them as thorough and helpful to your cause as possible.

It is a good idea to ask your recommender to tell you when they have sent the letter. Then, ~10 days before the due date, email a friendly reminder to your recommender that the due date is approaching.