Introduction
Increasing reliance of U.S. colleges and universities on student tuition makes recruitment a
high priority for geoscience departments. In 2017, ~70% of geoscience graduates did not
enter university declaring geology as a major, up by 10% since 2013 (Wilson, 2019). They
discovered geology by taking an introductory geoscience course to fulfill general education
or a previous major’s requirement (Stokes et al., 2015). Thus, inspiring students to pursue
a geoscience career through general education courses is a critical recruitment tool.
However, what happens when these courses are taught online because of a pandemic, budget
cuts, or to accommodate students’ need for flexibility? It is not easy to be inspired
through a computer screen.
This paper aims to describe two innovative pathways to recruit new undergraduate and graduate
students at a large public research institution where, rather than focusing recruitment
efforts on incoming students, a program recruits students who are already on campus and
majoring in high-enrollment programs by offering them a path to earn a geology degree as a
secondary major.
Graduation Rates and Future Employment Trends
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI; Gonzales and Keane, 2020) projects growth of
>20,000 geoscience jobs by 2029, a 4.9% increase from 2019, higher than the projected
growth in the U.S. workforce of 3.7%. By comparing the number of projected retirements and
geoscience graduates, the expected shortfall is ~130,000 full-time geoscientists. While some
of these positions will be covered by increased efficiency and use of technology, the
expectation is that the demand will exceed the number of graduates and that programs will
need an intentional focus on attracting and training new students.
AGI data (Wilson, 2019) show steady growth in geoscience undergraduates at four-year
institutions since 2009 and a slight rise in degrees awarded since 2013 that do not match
recent concerns expressed by departments about decreasing undergraduate enrollments. Data
from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS, 2021) show that, of 288
geology programs at U.S. doctoral-granting institutions, 128 (44%) saw a decline in
graduates from 2013 to 2019. Almost 40% of these programs (112) had fewer than 10 graduates
in 2019, and 20 had none. Only 56 had ≥25 graduates. In the same period, the number of
graduates in half of the 123 geology/earth-science programs at B.S.- and M.S.-granting
institutions increased or stayed the same.
Geology as Secondary Undergraduate Major
Most science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors must complete one year of
calculus and physics and one or two semesters (one to three quarters) of chemistry. Some
degrees require additional math and physics courses, often enough to earn a minor. On the
other hand, a double major adds several more courses and typically at least one year to the
undergraduate degree, delaying students’ entrance into the workforce and adding to their
financial burden.
The situation at Iowa State University (ISU) is typical of many geoscience departments: More
than half of the geology graduates enrolled between 2004 and 2013 had entered the university
either as undeclared (13%), engineering (11%), meteorology (4%), physics (4%), or one of 19
other majors. They had discovered geology through an introductory course or the learning
community (Cervato and Flory, 2015). Most enroll in the B.S. geology, with smaller numbers
pursuing B.S./B.A. earth-science degrees. This paper focuses on the B.S. geology program,
the most popular undergraduate geoscience degree in the U.S. (66.6% of 2013–2017 graduates;
Wilson, 2019).
The author has actively pursued STEM recruitment for more than a decade in collaboration with
colleagues in other departments. These efforts include the physics+ program, an alternative
path to a double major inspired by the Engineering Physics program at the University of
Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. It consists of core physics courses to which additional
physics courses can be added to create a traditional physics degree or courses in other
majors that could replace equivalent physics courses. These degrees, e.g., B.S. physics with
aerospace engineering emphasis, are considered double majors and intended for students who
do not plan to pursue graduate studies in physics.
Unlike physics, only a few programs require a geology course. Thus, the author adopted a
different approach to creating “geology+” programs and focused instead on identifying majors
with an affinity for geology to provide pathways to geology for students in select majors.
Similar paths were created for meteorology and aerospace and electrical engineering.
The first step of the year-long process was producing a geology “core” program. By comparing
our B.S. geology curriculum with Drummond and Markin’s (2008) analysis of nearly 300 B.S.
geology degrees offered in the U.S., as well as the degree requirements at ten peer
land-grant institutions, we identified 31 credits of core courses and labs (introductory
physical and historical geology, mineralogy and optical mineralogy, petrology, sedimentology
and stratigraphy, structural geology, and field camp) that include courses required by more
than 60% of the programs analyzed by Drummond and Markin (2008), with the addition of
optical mineralogy. Although the department agreed that these courses represent the
foundation of geology, we also agreed that this reduced curriculum is only acceptable for
students also majoring in another program.
Next, we identified programs with similar math, physics, and chemistry requirements and
professional similarities with the broad field of geology (materials science and
engineering, civil engineering, and environmental science) or that complement it (biology
and meteorology). Collectively, there are close to 2,000 undergraduates majoring in these
programs at ISU. Just 1%–2% of these students pursuing a geology+ degree would add a
significant number of majors to the program.
Working with advisors and departmental and college curriculum committees, we put together and
received approval for four-year plans for each of these programs, fulfilling all primary
major requirements while adding the geology core courses as a secondary major. Since this is
a different approach than the one developed in physics, and there are no other examples at
ISU, the validation process for these double majors required approval in each college
involved.
Some characteristics that make this pathway to geology attractive to students include the
ability to graduate in four years with two majors, the added professional benefit of a
geology degree in a competitive job market, and the opportunity to pursue a career or
graduate degree in geology. It is not unusual for geology graduate programs to admit
students with degrees in biology, chemistry, physics, civil engineering, or environmental
science. Completing the core geology courses in addition to their primary major’s
requirements would make the transition into a geology graduate program relatively smooth.
Also, the M.S. geology degree has historically been the preferred professional degree for
private-sector jobs in geoscience (Wilson, 2019), whereas the Ph.D. is the graduate degree
of choice for some programs like materials engineering.
Growing Graduate Program Through Concurrent B.S./M.S. Degrees
Increasing numbers of students enter university with college credits earned in high school
through dual enrollment programs, advanced placement courses, or credits transferred from
two-year institutions. ISU offers 30 concurrent B.S./M.S. or B.S./MBA programs that allow
students to earn a B.S. and M.S. or MBA in five years in engineering, agronomy, chemistry,
and more.
The ability to earn concurrent B.S. and M.S. degrees within five years is motivated in part
by the M.S. becoming the degree of choice in many disciplines, including the geosciences
(e.g., in oil and gas, federal government) (Levine, 2011; Wilson, 2019). Taken sequentially,
it takes on average >6.5 years to earn both degrees (Wilson, 2018). This extended time
could discourage students interested in a STEM career from pursuing a degree in geosciences
in favor of a degree in engineering, for example, where starting positions require only a
B.S.
We developed B.S./M.S. and B.S./MBA geology programs aimed at students pursuing a career in
industry or as consultants. To our knowledge, there are only three other B.S./M.S.
geoscience programs in the U.S. (two at Penn State and one at the University of Texas at El
Paso), and none that include the MBA. While the primary goal is career preparation, the
B.S./M.S. program might be a potential mechanism to increase the number of students who
pursue a Ph.D. in geosciences (~18% of B.S. graduates in 2017; Wilson, 2018).
Students apply to the graduate program in their junior year after identifying a graduate
advisor and complete graduate courses in their fourth and fifth years. Using this as a
recruiting tool for students transferring from two-year institutions that tend to have a
higher percentage of underrepresented minorities would potentially provide an opportunity to
increase a program’s diversity (Wilson, 2018). As for the traditional M.S. geology degree,
there is a thesis and a rarely pursued non-thesis (creative component) option. Students are
eligible for graduate teaching and research assistantships in their fourth and fifth years
and reduced or free tuition as part of the graduate assistantship package.
Conclusions
We started accepting students into the geology+ program in fall 2019, and there are currently
eight students from civil engineering, biology, meteorology, and environmental science who
have declared geology as a secondary major. So far, there are a handful of students pursuing
the B.S./M.S. option. However, we foresee this as an attractive recruiting tool and an
opportunity to diversify the student body through partnerships with university programs to
attract women and underrepresented minorities to STEM fields.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Craig Ogilvie and Marzia Rosati for introducing me to the physics+ program
and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on the manuscript.
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Manuscript received 24 Feb. 2021.
Revised manuscript received 6 Apr. 2021.
Manuscript accepted 12 Apr. 2021.
Posted 7 May 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG503GW.1
© 2021, The Geological Society of America. CC-BY-NC.