The requirements for our Bachelor of Science degree closely follow the American Meteorological Society's statement on bachelor's degrees in Atmospheric Science and satisfy federal service positions as a meteorologist or oceanographer.
Requirements for a Degree in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
Total Credits and Their Distribution
A student must complete 120 credits in order to graduate from the University of Maryland with a B.S. degree. Of these, the University requires students to take 40-46 credits of General Education/CORE courses. The AOSC major requires students to take either 69 or 70 credits. Under special circumstances, such as transfer from another program, a waiver may be requested and approved by the director of undergraduate studies. However, AOSC major requirements will satisfy 25 of the General Education/CORE requirements leaving a minimum of 120 – (69+46-25) = 30 credits available for electives.
In order to meet the requirements of the AOSC major, students must achieve a grade of C or higher in all courses applied to the major.
Click the links below to expand the degree requirements
| Calc I | MATH140 | 4 |
| Calc II | MATH141 | 4 |
| Calc III | MATH241 | 4 |
| Differential Equations | MATH246 | 3 |
| Gen Chem | CHEM135 | 3 |
| Gen Chem Lab | CHEM132 | 1 |
| Computer Programming | AOSC247 or AOSC447 or CMSC106 or CMSC131 |
3 or 4 |
| Mechanics and Particle Dynamics | PHYS161 | 3 |
| Vibration, Waves, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism | PHYS260 | 3 |
| Vibration, Waves, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism Lab | PHYS261 | 1 |
| Electrodynamics, Light, Relativity and Modern Physics | PHYS270 | 3 |
| Electrodynamics, Light, Relativity and Modern Physics Lab | PHYS271 | 1 |
| 200 level AOSC course | AOSC2xx | 3 |
| Weather and Climate Lab | AOSC201 | 1 |
| Atmospheric Thermodynamics | AOSC431 | 3 |
| Large Scale Dynamics | AOSC432 | 3 |
| AOSC Seminar | AOSC493 | 1 |
| Senior Research I | AOSC494 | 3 |
| Senior Research II | AOSC498 | 3 |
Choose 4 courses from among the following
| Physical Meteorology | AOSC400 | 3 |
| Climate Dynamics | AOSC401 | 3 |
| Physical Oceanography | AOSC420 | 3 |
| Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Ocean | AOSC424 | 3 |
| Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate | AOSC433 | 3 |
| Air Pollution and Environmental Justice | AOSC434 | 3 |
| Machine Learning in Earth Science | AOSC447 | 3 |
| Synoptic Meteorology | AOSC470 | 3 |
| Mesoscale Meteorology | AOSC472 | 3 |
| Climate System Modeling | AOSC484 | 3 |
Choose at least 6 credits of additional courses inside the department or supporting courses outside the department, not already used to fulfill previous requirements. Other courses not listed but tangentially supporting the field may be accepted with prior approval from an academic advisor.
| Introduction to the Blue Ocean | AOSC375 | 3 |
| 400-level AOSC course not already fulfilling another requirement | 4xx (see options above) | 3 |
| Computational Methods/Introduction to Numerical Analysis | CMSC460 / CMSC466 | 3 |
| Natural History of the Chesapeake Bay | BSCI373 | 3 |
| Biological Oceanography | BSCI375 | 3 |
| Geography of Environmental Systems | GEOG201 | 3 |
| Remote Sensing: Digital Processing and Analysis | GEOG472 | 3 |
| Land Use Climate Change and Sustainability | GEOG415 | 3 |
| Environmental Geology | GEOL120 | 3 |
| Global Climate Change: Past and Present | GEOL437 | 3 |
| Groundwater | GEOL451 | 3 |
| Watershed and Wetland Hydrology | GEOL452 | 3 |
| Linear Algebra | MATH461 or MATH240 | 3 |
| Partial Differential Equations | MATH462 | 3 |
| Applied Probability and Statistics I | STAT400 | 3 |
| Applied Probability and Statistics II | STAT401 | 3 |