Frequently Asked Questions
1. What do I do if I am having difficulty getting classes I need?
2. How do I get academic advising for the major?
3. What classes can i double-count?
4. How do I switch concentrations?
6. Can I take a class Credit/No Credit?
7. If I get a 'D' in a course will it still count for the major?
8. How do I find an internship?
9. Can I do an internship in the summer?
10. Can I take CHEM 115 or another major course at a community college or elsewhere?
11. How do I get credit towards the major for coursework taken elsewhere?
12. How do I get credit towards the major for study abroad courses?
13. What are my study abroad options?
14. Where do I find information on scholarships?
15. What is the deal with the GWAR writing requirement?
16. What do I do if I can't get required Segment III courses?
17. How do I take a class at UC Berkeley or a semester at another CSU?
18. Which classes require Early Priority Registration?
1. What do I do if I am having difficulty getting classes I need?
Here are some strategies for dealing with difficulty getting classes:
a. Follow the registration guidelines, and register as early as you can.
b. In general, plan ahead to get a sense of the classes you want, and check the advising grids to learn which classes are offered frequently and which classes are offered only rarely. With this information you can then take rarely offered classes opportunistically as you discover that they are offered. For example, if you want the Biology of Fungi and see it is being offered, grab it, because it is not offered every year.
c. Because Environmental Studies majors all require a lot of courses, don't wait until your junior year to start taking major courses - mix GE requirements with major requirements early on. And while we recommend that you complete 15 units of major requirements before beginning your concentration requirements, this is not set in stone.
d. Try to get your prerequisites out of the way early on. This way you can take a larger range of courses and won't get stuck having to wait to get a course until you complete the prerequisites. For example try to take CHEM 115 early on, so that you can take ENVS/CHEM 380, which is only offered in the spring. For NRMC majors – take BIOL 230 and 240 early because they are prerequisites for many other Biology courses that you need to take.
e. If you don’t get into a class you want, attend the first week of class meetings, talk to the instructor, and also send him/her a polite email explaining that you need the course for your major and would like to be added. Explain that you are so many semesters from graduating and if the course is a major requirement or major elective.
f. If you are getting close to graduation, and are having difficulty getting key required courses, there are a couple of options. One, speak with an advisor and propose a substitute course. This is especially applicable if you have tried once or twice to get into the required course and have not been able to. Ask an advisor beforehand about a substitution, rather than just taking a course and assuming that a substitution will be okay. If it is a concentration course ask your concentration advisor. If it is a major course, ask the program director. Second, depending on the course, you may be able to take an equivalent or a suitable substitute at another campus - one of the many nearby community colleges or even UC Berkeley. Course equivalence can be checked out at www.assist.org. But remember, in many cases, the major will except courses that are not exact equivalents, but are similar or are otherwise suitable substitutes. Again, ask an advisor ahead of time.
2. How do I get academic advising for the major?
First, check our website on the For Majors page. Some of your questions may be answered there. For advising about the core requirements and electives, speak to one of the Environmental Studies faculty. Students with last names beginning with A-G are assigned to Glenn Fieldman, last names H-R are assigned to Carlos Davidson, and last names S-Z are assigned to Barbara Holzman. For advising about your concentration, speak to the advisor for that concentration. Contact information for all of the above can be found on the Advising page of the website or on the bulletin board next to HSS 332.
3. What classes can I double-count?
The general rule is that you can never double count units but you may be able to able to use a single course to satisfy two requirements. Here are a couple of examples:
a. ANTH 120: Cultural Anthropology – The course and the units can fulfill the “Human Environment” section of major electives, and at the same time the course can fulfill a GE segment II requirement.
b. You are in the ESSJ concentration and take USP 515 to fulfill the Environmental Justice/Urban Issues section of major electives and PLSI 354 to fulfill the Human Values and Environmental Ethics section of major electives. These two courses will also satisfy the concentration core requirement that you take USP 515 and PLSI 354. However you may NOT use the units in two places. If you count the units toward your major (core plus electives) requirement of 36-45 units (as you likely will need to do unless you take a second course in the Environmental Justice/Urban Issues and in the Human Values elective areas) you can check off USP 515 and PLSI 354 from the concentration core requirement, but you get zero units for each course. And as a result you will need to take an additional concentration elective to bring your total units for the concentration to the minimum of 18 units.
c. The example above holds for USP 515 or 514 in The Urban Environment concentration.
4. How do I switch concentrations?
To deal with the budget cuts, SFSU has put in place a number of new policies. Under the new rules students may not change their major once they have 96 or more units (including transfer units). Because the five Environmental Studies "concentrations" are officially separate majors, the new rule also applies to changing ENVS concentrations. Therefore if you do not yet have 96 units please consider carefully which concentration you would like to be in and be sure you are in that concentration before you have 96 units. Your DARS report will tell you which major ("concentration") your are currently in. To change your major you simply fill out a change of major form, attach a copy of your DARS report, and hand it in to the ENVS office (HSS 210). If you wish to petition for an exception to change your major after 96 units, you must complete the Changing Major (all majors) with 96 units or more completed form. Fill out the form, see an advisor in the One-Stop or Advising Center for part II of the form, before then seeing the ENVS program director, Carlos Davidson. Part One of the form should be filled out for your new desired major. On a separate sheet of paper, please fill out the equivalent of part one for your old major so we can see how close you are to completing your current major. Bring a copy of your DARS report and unofficial transcript to the meeting with the program director.
5. How do I graduate?
A year before you think you want to graduate, fill out an advising grid and see a concentration advisor or major core advisor and check how you are doing. To graduate you need to fill out a graduation application, and get it signed first by your concentration advisor and then by the ENVS director. The applications are available in the Student Services building or online. Once the application is complete with signatures, take it to the Bursar’s office and pay a filing fee (currently $40), and then hand it in to the Student Services building. On the form if you have non-SFSU courses that you will use to satisfy major courses, list the courses with the original titles and course numbers rather than with the SFSU equivalents. Make sure to list any work-in-progress classes on the front page of the application, or if you will be graduating in summer, list here any summer courses you will be taking. Deadlines for submitting graduation applications are typically around the third week of the semester in which you want to graduate – late September for fall graduation, and late February for spring and summer graduation. Note: there is no Fall graduation ceremony. If you graduate in the Fall you may come back in the Spring for commencement. In May, the ENVS Program has its own celebration just for ENVS graduates – usually in the morning before the campus-wide commencement.
6. Can I take a course Credit/No Credit?
Yes – the major has no rules about whether or not a course is taken for a grade or CR/NC. However, SFSU has an overall limit on the number of courses taken CR/NC: “No more than 30% of the units earned at this university, and applied toward an undergraduate degree, may be taken for CR grades.” See the SFSU bulletin for more info on the C/NC grading option.
7. If I get a ‘D’ in a course, will it still count for the major?
Starting with the Fall 2009 bulletin, majors are required to earn a grade of C or better in ENVS 300 and ENVS 450. You can not continue in the major with a grade below a C in these courses. For all other courses the major has no minimum grade requirement. A grade of D- counts, but an F grade does not. University rules require that you earn an overall major GPA of 2.0 or better.
8. How do I find an internship?
Check the ENVSList to see updated job and internship openings available to all majors. Visit the Job & Internship page on the ENVS website. This page has a database with a list of environmental organizations in the Bay Area, and links to environmental job sites. A similar database is on the ENVS 680 webpage which shows internships held recently by other majors. You can also check with the Student Resource Center, HSS 239.
9. Can I do an internship in the summer?
Yes – you can do your actual internship during the summer and take the internship course, ENVS 680, the following fall. However, you need to do certain homework assignments for the internship course during the summer. You must get a signed work agreement from your supervisor; you must keep a log/journal – ultimately a total of 8 pages, single spaced, total length; and if your internship ends during the summer you should have your supervisor complete an evaluation of your work. See the Information about the course link on the ENVS 680 webpage for course information including a draft work agreement form, supervisor’s evaluation form and details on the log/journal assignment.
10. Can I take CHEM 115 or another major course at a community college or elsewhere?
Yes, that is a good way to take classes that are difficult to get into at SF State. Check out www.assist.org for equivalent courses.
11. How do I get credit towards the major for coursework taken elsewhere?
If you have coursework from other colleges, there are several routes to getting it to count toward the major:
a. If you took equivalent courses at a California community college, CSU or UC these courses should show up on your transcript when you get your transfer evaluation. You can check www.assist.org to see course equivalents. Anything indicated as an equivalent to our major courses automatically can be used for the major. You do not need to see an advisor to get approval for use of equivalent courses.
b. If you have non-equivalent courses that you believe are similar to major courses, you should see either the program director (for major core and electives) or your concentration advisor (for concentration courses). In general the best way to proceed is to come to the advisor with a proposal in the form of “For course xxx in the major I would like to substitute course yyy taken at such and such school.” Have the course number and full title, along with how many units (semester or quarter). It is also helpful if you bring course descriptions for the courses taken elsewhere.
12. How do I get credit towards the major for study abroad courses?
The ENVS director can approve study abroad courses to be used to meet major requirements – that is you can be exempted from a course requirement in the major based on your study abroad experience. This does not mean you are granted SFSU “credit” for your study abroad work – if you want official SFSU credit you must go through the Office of International Programs.
13. What are my study abroad options?
Check out the Study Abroad page on the ENVS website.
14. Where do I find information on scholarships?
Check out the Scholarship page on the ENVS website.
15. What is the deal with the GWAR writing requirement?
The old JEPET exam is being phased out and from now on majors will get writing in the curriculum in ENVS 450: Environmental Law and Policy – GWAR. This course is not new but from now on it will be taught as a GWAR (Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement) course. It will teach Law and Policy through intensive writing, and (along with ENG 214 which is now a prereq) will serve to satisfy your writing requirements. You will not have to take JEPET if you take and pass ENG 214 and receive a C or better in ENVS 450 - GWAR. If you took a non-GWAR version of ENVS 450 you still have to take JEPET. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO TAKE ENVS 450 EARLY ON IN THE MAJOR. (Note that passing ENVS 300 with a grade of C or better is now a prerequisite for ENVS 450.)
16. What do I do if I can't get required Segment III courses?
With the new budget cuts, they have instated a new policy for Segment III clusters. Students may now take one of the three courses for a Segment III cluster from outside of the list of required courses. The course must still be an approved Segment III course from any other cluster, and one of their Segment III courses must still meet CESD Put another way: At least 6 units of Segment III must be completed within the same cluster. Of the total 9 units in Segment III, one course must meet CESD. A maximum of two of the three can also be used to satisfy major requirements.
17. How do I take a class at UC Berkeley or a semester at another CSU?
As an SFSU student you can cross-register for a class at U.C. Berkeley. There are also special arrangements to allow you be a visiting student at another CSU campus for a semester. For more info on these and other special enrollment programs see: http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/current/spenroll.htm
18. Which classes require Early Priority Registration?
This is a hard question because it may change from semester to semester. Here are some rough guidelines: Definitely need early priority registration to get in: ENVS 300, USP 514 & 515, PLSI 354, BIOL 230 & 240, and CHEM 115. Possibly need early priority registration: ENVS 450 and ENVS/CHEM 380. Definitely do not need priority registration (there are many classes in this category, but here we list only one):ENVS 680 Internship – all interested students will be let in. Comments on these guidelines are always welcome – please send them to envs@sfsu.edu.
