Best Colleges for Geology

Introductory geology is often termed “rocks for jocks,” as 101-level courses in this discipline serve as one of the more accessible disciplines in the hard sciences. But don’t let that fool you—undergraduates who actually concentrate in geology face a highly rigorous academic program that will prepare them for a host of careers with oil and mining companies, government agencies, or teaching at secondary or post-secondary institutions. Only schools whose reputations possess a Rhodium-level luster in the geological community landed spots on our list of the Best Colleges for Geology. Note the heavy presence of many small liberal arts schools where geology majors have access to the best professors and laboratories as undergrads.

Click the links below for more information about each college’s geology program. Click here to read our methodology. Finally, note that although some of the colleges featured below do not offer a formal major in geology, their undergraduate offerings in this subject area are so strong that they warrant inclusion on our list.

Amherst College

Bates College

Bowdoin College

Brown University

California Institute of Technology

Carleton College

Colby College

Colgate University

College of William and Mary

Colorado College

Colorado School of Mines

Colorado State University

Columbia University

Cornell University

Duke University

Hamilton College

Lafayette College

Lehigh University

Macalester College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Miami University

Oberlin College

Occidental College

Penn State University

Princeton University

St. Lawrence University

Stanford University

Texas A&M University

Union College

University of Arizona

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Cruz

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Florida

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

University of Texas at Austin

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin – Madison

Whitman College

Yale University

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