Plant and Environmental Sciences: Soil and Water Science Concentration, BS

Program Requirements

The BS degree program in Plant and Environmental Sciences is a multidisciplinary program that educates students with expertise in soils, crop sciences, and applied agricultural biotechnology. It offers students a rigorous, science-based degree with educational opportunities related to management of agricultural commodities and natural resources, as well as soil and water resources. Students can tailor the program to fit their professional and academic goals by selecting one of three concentrations.

The Agricultural Biotechnology Concentration integrates conventional disciplines with molecular advances in plants, pathogens, and biosystem interactions and responds to the educational void between the rapid adoption of biotechnology products into agricultural production and the intermediate- and end-users, farmers, and consumers. Graduates in this concentration will be competitive as scientists in emerging agricultural biotechnology industries, as educators, and as policy makers and officers in regulatory agencies.

Students with a concentration in Agronomy will graduate with comprehensive knowledge to increase farm profits by decreasing the costs of crop production; build soil tilth and fertility through rotations, multiple cropping, and nutrient cycling; protect the environment by minimizing or more efficiently using synthetic agrichemicals; manage crop pests and weeds with integrated, ecologically sound strategies; develop strategies for profitable marketing of agricultural commodities; and create a strong, diversified agriculture that is stable through market and weather fluctuations. Graduates can assume positions as self-employed farmers, farm managers, state and federal natural resource managers, research technicians, agricultural industry employees, greenhouse managers, consultants in pest management and sustainable agriculture, field ecology professionals, agritourism industry specialists, extension personnel, or regulatory officers.

Students with a concentration in Soil and Water Science can address compelling problems such as land application of agricultural and industrial wastes, reduction of contamination of ground and surface waters, establishment of functional septic drain fields, and production of food and fiber crops. Graduates will be able to establish careers in traditional agrarian fields such as soil scientists and conservationists, extension agents, and farm consultants, and in the broader environmental arenas of DHEC, consulting engineering firms, and environmental consulting. Graduates will be well prepared for graduate work in fields ranging from soil science to environmental engineering and law.

Concentration