Coming to grips with geography

Updated on: Monday, December 21, 2009

Geography is a discipline most of us are stuck with if we choose to take it as a Humanities subject in school. It’s a different story once you’ve taken it a step further and chosen to major in geography in college! As your BA years draw to a close, you might find yourself worrying if you’ve taken the right step. After all, what can be done with a BA in geography?
The answer is — plenty!

As a subject, geography encompasses far more than the basic statistics about climate conditions, crops and regional vegetation. What? you ask. Well, it can be anything from seismography to remote sensing. In fact, placement counsellors speak in one voice when they say that geography majors are amongst the most marketable of all those who have majored in the Humanities.

If you’re still not convinced, take a closer look and see if you change your mind. After your 10+2, taking up an undergraduate programme in geography is the first step. With this degree, you are equipped to work in a variety of fields. But if you really want to specialise, then the best option would be to choose a Masters degree in the same field. Concurring with this, a senior lecturer from Delhi University opines, “A Masters degree is very useful if you want to take up something very specialised, such as cartography or even teaching.”

With this in mind, consider your options. If academics is your cup of tea, then a doctorate in geography will go a long way toward fulfilling your dreams. On the other hand, you could look at more out-of-the-box options, such as working as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist, administrator in a government agency, scientist or analyst. Other fascinating fields that lie open to be explored with these degrees in hand include — climatology; environmental geography; remote sensing; international human rights and diversity; environmental studies etc.

Given the fact that global warming and other environmental issues are very nearly bywords today, any of these specialisations will ensure that you have a career in multi-national corporations or private companies, which are big on recruiting graduates like you for their Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and decision making qualifications. And this isn’t all. Geography is a subject that has many, many layers and each layer, as you might have already noticed, will give you the opportunity to be someone doing something very different and very unique. For instance, medical geography is a very hot field these days. With the spread of pandemics like the swine flu and bird flu, the field of medicine requires geographers to work in coordination in order to determine the origin and spread of spatial epidemics.

At the end, a word of caution — be very clear as to what exactly interests you about geography. Remember that there can be a mix up when it comes to geography and geology. What is the difference? Geographers tend to study the surface of the earth, its landscapes, its features, and why they are where they are. Geologists look deeper into the earth than geographers and study its rocks, the internal processes of the earth (such as plate tectonics and volcanoes) etc. Once you’ve cleared your concepts and focused on what really interests you, drop your fears and take the plunge — there’s a world of options just waiting to be explored!

Coming to grips with geography

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