Colorado College can be great for geology, because the Block Plan allows immersive field work that’s harder to accomplish on a traditional calendar. And they’re good about facilitating student interests. But the number of hydrology-specific courses offered at small LAC’s like this is likely to be limited. At Smith and MoHo, the ability to cross-register at UMass could be a helpful enhancement.
Not a small university, but I note that the University of Washington allows students majoring in Science of Environmental Engineering to focus on Hydrology and offers a Masters in Hydrology.
I tend to agree with an earlier poster: when you have a passion for a specialized niche subject, I suspect it will be fairly easy to connect with the people doing that work even at a large school.
Look at Washington college in Maryland. Their enviro program has some classes that include hydrology (although no admittedly, no major specifically for that). The nice part is you can double major and they will work with you to create minors. My child goes there and got an internship over the summer with USGS doing hydrology and now has an REU this summer. The education is good and prepares you well for internship interviews and REU interviews. Very close relationship with professors who want to see you succeed. You can also do your own paid for research through the Cater society there and could focus on hydrology. Don’t look at sticker price, they give good merit.
Degree: physical or natural science, or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in any combination of courses in hydrology, the physical sciences, geophysics, chemistry, engineering science, soils, mathematics, aquatic biology, atmospheric science, meteorology, geology, oceanography, or the management or conservation of water resources. The course work must have included at least 6 semester hours in calculus (including both differential and integral calculus), and at least 6 semester hours in physics. Calculus and physics, as described above, are requirements for all grade levels.
The degree requirement seems like it would be fulfilled by most physical science and engineering majors almost automatically. However, some majors and in-major elective options would be obviously more applicable than others.
CSU has Watershed Science, that’s why you don’t see it under hydrology.
Also, for those suggesting marine biology, marine biology is a life science, hydrology is a physical science. They are very different and lead to very different career options.
A field like this is where large schools will shine over small ones. OP, it’s not hard to develop relationships with professors in your major at a large school. Upper division classes are relatively small.
Michigan Tech and Cal Poly Humboldt seem to fit my intereet and I will be looking into them. Thanks for the mention of taking courses at UMass for Holyoke and Smith as well.
Do you have any preference with respect to selectivity? At this stage you appear to be considering colleges with acceptance rates ranging from 12%, as at Colgate, to over 90%, such as at Colorado State.
You might like to check out Warren Wilson near Asheville. It doesn’t have a dedicated hydrology major but is super hands on and they do have water classes in the Environmental Science major. Very small, very hands on, also very LGBTQ-friendly with a hippie vibe if that’s of interest.
Parents want me to apply to atleast one school in Georgia so I chose Berry as they are small, have a large and ecologically diverse campus, and have good environmental programs and connections.