Greening the World - Diane Cole

For graduate students, it's getting ever easier to be green, thanks to an interdisciplinary newcomer called sustainability science by some and sustainable development by others. Whichever label you use, the challenge of figuring out how to keep the world in balance "is a boom area," says Jeffrey Sachs, executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, where master's and doctoral students typically integrate environmental, biological, and social sciences with government, economic, business, and policy studies.

Similar approaches that both cut across disciplines and bring them together are offered at a growing number of grad schools, including the University of Wisconsin, Arizona State University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Yale. They join established programs, often multidisciplinary, in ecology or environmental science at the University of California-Davis, the University of North Carolina, and elsewhere, including at several prestigious European universities.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth brought many urgent challenges to public consciousness, but the environmental issues he addressed have long been a focus of academic research. Jonathan Foley, head of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, or SAGE, cites the launch of Earth Day in 1970 as the original catalyst. But until recently, he says, "we've had an artificial separation" between the study of the natural environment and our human impact on it. Sustainability studies views the two as an inextricably connected whole. It addresses predicaments whose impact can be felt both locally (Greenland's melting ice field, in one well-known example) and globally (the resulting potential for rising water levels and changing ocean currents).

How do grad schools prepare professionals to grapple with the complexities of climate change, energy use, pollution, emerging diseases, and native cultures caught in cultural transition? The short answer, says Foley, is a "transdisciplinary" approach. "We want folks to get rooted in solid disciplinary depth and skills in one or two areas," he says-marine biology, for example. Additional courses then put those studies in a broader context, and students are coached in "translating" knowledge between, say, researchers and policymakers.

Crossroads. Many students are eager to bridge that gap. Holly Gibbs enrolled at SAGE after "working at a national lab in Tennessee and realizing that doing science by itself wasn't enough," she says. "I want to be able to interact with policymakers." She's about a year away from earning her Ph.D., working at the crossroads where land use, tropical deforestation, and the effect on climate change all meet. Rachel Licker, who is in her second year at SAGE, hopes to acquire skills that will allow her to "address global issues at the local level because I think that's where things can get done."

Despite its popularity, the newness of the field explains why, depending on their university, students won't necessarily see the word sustainable on their diploma. SAGE, for instance, does not issue graduate degrees on its own; instead, students receive advanced degrees from particular departments (often from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies) with a "minor" or certificate in sustainability on top of that. That helps embed the concept of sustainability throughout the university, says SAGE's Foley. Similarly, Stanford's interdisciplinary sustainability programs are housed within the School of Earth Sciences.

By contrast, Arizona State University at Tempe has just opened an entire school of sustainability, issuing its own bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees. "Sustainability science is a new box because the old boxes are just too limited," says ASU President Michael Crow. "We're pushing for a course in sustainability for everyone in the university."

Green light. Yet in the same way that the emergence of separate schools of public health and agriculture did not do away with their underlying disciplines a century ago, individual disciplines with a connection to sustainability are also here to stay, predicts Vaughan Turekian, director of the Center for Science, Innovations, and Sustainability at the American Association for the Advancement of Science: "Programs with ecology and environment in their names will remain vibrant and important in and of themselves," he says. In other words, academia seems ripe for all things green, environmental, and sustainable.

And so does the job market. "There is a large demand for people with an ability to analyze these issues from multiple perspectives," says Pamela Matson, dean of Stanford's School of Earth Sciences. Graduates of programs at Stanford and elsewhere, she says, are finding positions with governments, businesses, and nonprofits here and around the world. "Because they are not narrowly focused and will be able to manage complexity, they will have advantages in the job market," says ASU's Crow.

All indications are the field will continue to grow. Navin Ramankutty, one of Wisconsin's first sustainability program graduates, is now an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, where he is helping launch a new undergraduate Earth System Science initiative. Is there a graduate program down the line? "We're talking, but one thing at a time." His students are interested-and so are others, around the country and the world.

Smart Choices

HISTORY. Think globally when it comes to growth areas. Scott Jaschik, editor of Insidehighered, says departments need more experts in Asian, African, and Latin American history-and comparatively fewer in U.S. and European history. SOCIOLOGY. The American Political Science Association says the hottest jobs in this field are in American politics, international relations (think global, once again), and comparative politics.

Insider Tip

Anyone weighing the words "I do" against the letters "Ph.D.," listen up: Rather than being an either-or proposition, the two complement one another, according to a study by CORNELL UNIVERSITY economics grad student Joseph Price, who is married with three children. Why? A committed support network is crucial to motivation. Meanwhile, as college teaching openings continue to increase, there's a caveat: The American Association of University Professors reports a continued trend toward hiring for "contingent" or non-tenure-track positions.

Reality Check

Good news: Full-time faculty paychecks increased 3.1% in 2005-06.

Bad news: Adjusted for inflation, the buying power of those salaries declined 0.5%. Universities awarded a record 43,354 Ph.D.'s in 2005, compared with 42,117 in '04 and 40,740 in '03.

Universities in 9 states accounted for 54% of those degrees: California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan.

REALITY CHECK SOURCES: AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

Getting In

STUDY UP. This fall's revamped GRE (article, Page 4) re-emphasizes the need for test prep, says Lois Beecham, assistant dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School. If you haven't taken such tests since you applied to college-especially if you've been in the working world-your test-taking skill set could be rusty. Sharpen your pencils, set the timer, and take some practice tests-now!

TIMELINE IT. Yeah, it's tiresome, but it's the only way to keep track of all those deadlines-from taking GREs to getting recommendations to filing applications. And once you get to grad school, time management will be crucial.

ASK QUESTIONS. Quiz faculty, current students, recent grads. Does the department emphasize research over practical applications or vice versa? Where do graduates end up? If you have spouse or kids in tow, find out about schools, housing, and job opportunities for your better half.

THINK LOCAL. Judge a program on the merits of the department, not the university as a whole, says Beecham. Your degree gets its prestige from the department.