General Recommendations

The recommendations below should be viewed only as rough suggestions,
and may not apply to all areas of the department. For example, we have
had extremely successful graduate students who were physics or math
majors as undergraduates and hadn't taken any geophysical sciences or
chemistry courses when they started graduate school.

• Geophysical Sciences: Physical Geology, Earth History, and Basic Atmospheric studies (First Year General Geophysical Sciences sequence) or equivalent
• Chemistry: General Chemistry I, II and III (First Year General Chemistry)
• Math: Elementary Functions and Calculus I and II
• Physics: General Physics I, II and III (First Year General Physics)

Additional Recommendations for Chemistry of Atmosphere and Ocean

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere, Climate Dynamics of the Earth and other Planets, Physical Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography
• Chemistry courses: Physical Chemistry I, II, III (Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics)
• Math courses: Mathematical Methods for Physical Sciences I and II (Including Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Vector Differential Calculus, Ordinary Differential Equations, line integrals, complex numbers, etc.)

Additional Recommendations for Physics of Climate and Circulation

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere, Climate Dynamics of the Earth and other planets, Physical Oceanography, Data Analysis : Application to Spatio-Temporal Data
• Math courses: Mathematical Methods for Physical Sciences I and II
• Physics courses: Intermediate Mechanics, Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism

Additional Recommendations for Paleontology and Stratigraphy

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Introduction to Mineralogy, Introduction to Structural Geology, Principles of Stratigraphy, Introductory Paleontology, Biogeochemistry and Global Change
• Statistics courses: Probability and Statistics for Natural Sciences
• Biological Sciences courses: Ecology and Evolution, Developmental Biology

Additional Recommendations for Environmental Geology

• Introduction to Mineralogy, Introduction to Petrology, Principles of Stratigraphy, Biogeochemistry and Global Change, Environmental Chemistry
• Statistics courses: Probability and Statistics for Natural Sciences
• Chemistry courses: Organic Chemistry (For emphasis in Chemistry)
• Biological Sciences courses: Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Ecological Applications to Conservation Biology

Additional Recommendations for Structure and Tectonics

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Thermodynamics and Phase Change, Physics of the Earth, Origin and Evolution of the Solar System, Introduction to Mineralogy, Introduction to Petrology, Introduction to Structural Geology, Principles of Stratigraphy
• Physics courses: Intermediate Mechanics
• Math courses: Mathematical Methods for Physical Sciences I (Linear Algebra and Multivariable Calculus)

Additional Recommendations for Geochemistry

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Thermodynamics and Phase Change, Physics of the Earth, Origin and Evolution of the Solar System, Introduction to Mineralogy, Introduction to Petrology
• Chemistry courses: Physical Chemistry I, II and III (Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics)
• Math courses: Mathematical Methods for Physical Sciences I and II

Additional Recommendations for Geophysics

• Geophysical Sciences courses: Thermodynamics and Phase Change, Physics of the Earth, Origin and Evolution of the Solar System, Introduction to Mineralogy, Data Analysis in Earth Sciences
• Physics courses: Intermediate Mechanics or Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism
• Math courses: Mathematical Methods for Physical Sciences I, II and III (Including Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Vector Differential Calculus, Ordinary Differential Equations, line integrals, complex numbers, Laplace and Fourier transforms and tensor calculus)