Study Away: Hood College

The Coastal Semester at Hood College

Frederick, MD | Fall Semester

Hood College Study Away contact: Katie Huy, huy@hood.edu

Hood College’s semester-long, travel-based, experiential learning program is offered every odd-numbered fall semester and provides a solid academic framework for the study of environmental science. Students enroll in four closely interrelated courses that go far beyond traditional classroom and lab settings. Students apply newly acquired knowledge to real world environmental problems that face communities and natural systems along the Atlantic coast, the Chesapeake Bay, and its watershed, which are all located near the Hood College campus. 

Throughout the semester, students will travel to regional field stations where they will engage in co-curricular activities like seminars offered at the laboratories, extended field experiences in natural areas, and day-trips to sites of unique ecological, historical and cultural interest. Students may also attend a professional scientific meeting and hear the latest research in the field. 

During the semester, students will engage in an interdisciplinary research practicum, an open-ended inquiry into environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay region which weaves together scientific, historical and cultural threads to act as a unifying element for a semester-long experience.

Students may earn up to 17 total credits by taking the following five courses as a cohort during the fall semester:

Required Courses (13 credits)

• ENSP 210 Coastal Oceanography (4.0 credits, lecture and lab)
• ENSP 212 Coastal Community Ecology (4.0 credits, lecture and lab)
• ENSP 307 Chesapeake Bay: Human Impacts on a Natural System (3.0 credits)
• ENSP 379 Coastal Studies Practicum (2.0 credits)

Electives (3-4 credits)

• ENGL 368 American Landscapes: Environmental Literature in the United States (3.0 credits)
• ENSP 299 Special Topics in Environmental Ecology (3.0 or 4.0 credits)

Program Prerequisites:

This program is open to students of any major who have taken:

• One freshman-level lab science course
• One freshman-level English writing course

Program Costs for Fall 2023 semester:

• Comprehensive Fee: $375/semester
• Coastal Studies Travel Fee: $1400/semester
• Room: $3450-$4825/semester (depending upon room selection)
• Board: $3295/semester (10 meals/week plan)

Students are required to live on campus.

Application deadline: March 1, 2023