When I told my mom I was interested in applying to the Yale School of Forestry, she was very confused. "You want to be a forester?" (Probably thinking about the money spent on that liberal arts education in order for me to spend my career tramping through the outdoors). But no, the Yale School of Forestry is actually one of the oldest and most well respected graduate school for environmental studies. The school does own a sizable tract of land in Connecticut and Vermont (~11,000 acres according to Wikipedia). However, its main purpose consists in its respected masters and doctoral programs. What is so special about the Yale program is that it is incredibly interdisciplinary. The masters programs include a "Master of Environmental Management," a "Mastery of Forestry" a "Master of Forest Science" and a "Master of Environmental Science." In particular, the "Master of Environmental Management" is a unique program which forces the student to take courses from a wide range of areas, including climate science, biology, and economics. It is relevant for people interested in resource management, environmental consulting, environmental policy and analysis, ect. To check out the specific details on this masters program, as well as the others, click on:
http://environment.yale.edu/3796/masters_degree_programs/
So how do we get into this place? The website has a very vague statement regarding the application process which implies that background courses in mathematics, social sciences and natural sciences in encouraged, although not required. Those of us who are in interdisciplinary programs react joyfully to this news, because we are probably in some of the only majors which make it easy to have experience in such disparate areas. However, I have personally never ventured too near the scary realms of chemistry or physics. I mean, biology is just so much more interesting! If you are interested in applying to the Yale School of Forestry, I would recommend taking as many of the following classes as possible:
Calculus, Political Science, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Statistics, Physics
Possible additions: Anthropology
I know that sounds like a lot - and this is just to be on the safe side. What is so exciting and demanding about environmental studies is that it requires knowledge from a wide variety of fields.
There are other schools besides Yale which have programs aimed at addressing environmental concerns in similar, multidisciplinary ways. For example, the University of Columbia has a graduate school program called, "The Earth Institute." The Director of the Earth Institute is the well known Jeffrey D. Sachs (whom I actually got to see speak at Yale once). Jeffrey Sachs is famous for arguing that it is possible to solve world hunger through the application of economics - and copious amounts of foreign aid from developed nations. He also has worked on sustainable development and prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS. His most famous work is The End of Poverty. The Columbia program has more options than its Yale counterpart, and includes 8 masters options. To see all of them, check out:
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/education/articles/view/7
One of the newest of these degree programs is called "Climate and Society", there is another in scientific journalism and a third in conservation biology.
Just to gloat a bit...I am in Washington DC, my home town, on spring break! Two weeks off, never mind that I have so much work to do the first week that I might as well be at school. But the second week, I am going to a little island in the Caribbean (no worries...I can blog from there too..)
Emily
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