Atmospheric Science, BS

Degree Requirements

120 Credits Required

Curriculum and Degree Requirements for College of Science

A College of Science degree is conferred when a student successfully completes all requirements in their degree program.  Students will complete coursework or approved experiential learning activities to meet the following three degree components:

1. Major
2. Science Core Curriculum
3. Electives

Students may use any of the following options to meet College of Science degree requirements:

• Purdue Coursework
• Ap, IB, and CLEP credit.  The use of AP and IB coursework varies between College of Science degree plans.
• Transfer Credit. Students should consult the Admissions Transfer Credit Resource page for all available transfer options.

College of Science degree programs vary widely in their approval and use of the proceeding options and thus students are strongly encouraged to work closely with their academic advisors and to regularly consult their MyPurduePlan to view the use of each option in their degree plan. 

Most College of Science degree programs contain elective credits students may use to pursue courses that relate to their interests or which support their major area of study. The elective area of a degree plan may also be used to complete minors, second majors and certificates such as the Entrepreneurial Certificate. With the exception of courses on the No Count List, any Purdue course may be used to meet the elective area of a student’s degree plan.

College of Science Core Requirements

All Students starting Purdue University Fall semester, 2007 or later are required to pursue the 2007 Science Core curriculum.

The College of Science Core Curriculum requires the completion of approved coursework and/or experiential learning opportunities in the following academic areas:

• Composition and Presentation  
• Computing   
• Cultural Diversity (Language and Culture)   
• General Education  
• Great Issues in Science   
• Laboratory Science   
• Mathematics    
• Multidisciplinary Experience  
• Statistics   
• Teambuilding and Collaboration    
• No Count List   

Earning Core Curricular Requirements through Experience

Students may meet selected core curriculum requirements through approved experiential learning opportunities. Interested students should contact their academic advisor for more information on this option and incorporating experiential learning into their four-year program of study. For more information on earning requirements through experience, please click here.

Departmental/Program Major Courses (36 credits)

Other Departmental/Program Course Requirements (68-77 credits)

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE CORE REQUIREMENTS

• FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION – Credit Hours: 3.00-4.00 (satisfies Written Communication and Information Literacy for core)

• ENGL 10600 - First-Year Composition or
• ENGL 10800 - Accelerated First-Year Composition or
• SCLA 10100 - Transformative Texts, Critical Thinking And Communication I: Antiquity To Modernity or
• HONR 19903 - Interdisciplinary Approaches In Writing

•  

• TECHNICAL WRITING AND PRESENTATION*- Credit Hours: 0.00 - 6.00 (Select courses COULD satisfy Oral Communication for core; COM 21700  is strongly recommended)

   

  TEAM-BUILDING & COLLABORATION* - Credit Hours: 0.00 - 3.00

   

  LANGUAGE & CULTURE^* - Credit Hours: 0.00 - 9.00 (Select courses COULD satisfy Humanities for core)

                  Language/Culture Option I

                  Language/Culture Option II

                  Language/Culture Option III

   

  GREAT ISSUES IN SCIENCE - Credit Hours: 3.00

   

  MULTIDISCIPLINARY EXPERIENCE^* - Credit Hours: 0.00 - 3.00 (Select courses COULD satisfy Science, Technology, Society for core)

•  

• LABORATORY SCIENCE - Credit Hours: 8.00 (satisfies Science for core)

• Required

• PHYS 17200 - Modern Mechanics (satisfies Science for core) (satisfies Teambuilding & Collaboration Experience for CoS Core)

•  

• Choose one option. (PHYS 27200 or PHYS 24100/25200)

• PHYS 27200 - Electric And Magnetic Interactions (satisfies Science for University Core)

•  

• PHYS 24100 - Electricity And Optics (fulfills Science for core)
• PHYS 25200 - Electricity And Optics Laboratory

•  

• MATHEMATICS - Credit Hours: 8.00-10.00 (satisfies Quantitative Reasoning for core)

• MA 16100 - Plane Analytic Geometry And Calculus I (Student should earn minimum of a C-) or
• MA 16500 - Analytic Geometry And Calculus I (Student should earn minimum of a C-)

•  

• MA 16200 - Plane Analytic Geometry And Calculus II (Student should earn minimum of a C-) or
• MA 16600 - Analytic Geometry And Calculus II (Student should earn minimum of a C-)

•  

• STATISTICS - Credit Hours: 3.00

• EAPS 31000 - Introductory Statistics For Geosciences
• STAT 30100 - Elementary Statistical Methods
• STAT 35000 - Introduction To Statistics
• STAT 50300 - Statistical Methods For Biology
• STAT 51100 - Statistical Methods

•  

• COMPUTING - Credit Hours: 4.00

• CS 17700 - Programming With Multimedia Objects ♦

•  

• GENERAL EDUCATION^ (Select courses COULD satisfy Behavioral/Social Science for core) - Credit Hours: 9.00

                  General Education Option I

                  General Education Option II

                  General Education Option III

•  

• REQUIRED PRE-REQUISITE COURSES

• MA 26500 - Linear Algebra
• MA 26600 - Ordinary Differential Equations (Student should earn minimum of a C-)

•  

• MA 26100 - Multivariate Calculus or
• MA 27101 - Honors Multivariate Calculus

•  

• CHM 11500 - General Chemistry ♦ (satisfies Science for core) or
• CHM 12500 - Introduction To Chemistry I ♦ (satisfies Science for core)

•  

• ^ Labeled as a Science Core Selection in the four year plan of study

  *Requirement may be met with a zero credit experiential learning option. See your advisor for more information

Electives (7-16 credits)

University Core Requirements

For a complete listing of University Core Course Selectives, visit the University Senate Website.

• Human Cultures: Behavioral/Social Science (BSS)
• Human Cultures: Humanities (HUM)
• Information Literacy (IL)
• Oral Communication (OC)
• Quantitative Reasoning (QR)
• Science #1 (SCI)
• Science #2 (SCI)
• Science, Technology, and Society (STS)
• Written Communication (WC)

Additional Degree Requirements

Click for Atmospheric Science Supplemental Information .

Program Requirements

Notes

• 2.0 Graduation GPA required for Bachelor of Science degree
• 2.0 average in EAPS major classes required to graduate

World Language Courses

World Language proficiency requirements vary by program. The following list is inclusive of all world languages PWL offers for credit; for acceptable languages and proficiency levels, see your advisor.

ASL-American Sign Language	ARAB-Arabic	CHNS-Chinese	FR-French
GER-German	GREK-Greek (ancient)	HEBR-Hebrew (Biblical)	HEBR-Hebrew (modern)
ITAL-Italian	JPNS-Japanese	KOR-Korean	LATN-Latin
PTGS-Portuguese	RUSS-Russian	SPAN-Spanish

Critical Course

The ♦ course is considered critical.

In alignment with the Degree Map Guidance for Indiana’s Public Colleges and Universities, published by the Commission for Higher Education (pursuant to HEA 1348-2013), a Critical Course is identified as “one that a student must be able to pass to persist and succeed in a particular major.  Students who want to be nurses, for example, should know that they are expected to be proficient in courses like biology in order to be successful.  These would be identified by the institutions for each degree program”. 

Disclaimer

The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and completing all degree requirements.

The myPurduePlan powered by DegreeWorks is the knowledge source for specific requirements and completion.