Humanities & Sciences

Recent advances in our scientific understanding of the brain and a long tradition of studying behavior make psychology an especially interesting field. Psychologists of the 21st century combine technology, behavioral studies, and neuroscience to help us understand thought and behavior.

In our B.A. program you will enrich your coursework by participating in an intensive, three-semester team research project. Guided by faculty members, our teams have studied mental health, social and personality psychology, cross-cultural development, neural activity, human motivation, emerging adulthood, and the effects of the media. 

Minors in psychology, counseling, media literacy, and neuroscience are also available at the College. All advanced classes take place in our modern facility, which houses 10 laboratories and offers specialized equipment and the newest computers.

Our students have gone on to medical school and graduate schools such as Columbia, Harvard, NYU, University of Michigan, and Syracuse University; others have pursued careers in marketing, law, banking, teaching, investment, and many other areas. 

As a student in the Religious Studies B.A. program, you'll learn to think about religious traditions as evolving historical phenomena and a global force in the modern world while developing a more nuanced awareness of different worldviews—including your own. 

You will also:

• Cultivate critical reading, writing, and thinking skills highly valued by graduate schools and employers. In addition, because religion continues to inform every sphere of public life, from art and business to politics and public health, studying religion will make you a better medical care provider, entrepreneur, teacher, civic leader, attorney, or community activist—or whatever you plan to become. 
• Study a fascinating array of texts, rituals, myths, and material culture from around the world. This will transform you into a global citizen who can appreciate the complexity and diversity of cultures and thus contribute to society in a conscious and constructive manner. 
• Become a more interesting person. By immersing yourself in unfamiliar religious worlds, you will develop a more critical perspective on the familiar. This will add a layer of depth to your personality that is one of the hallmarks of a well-rounded liberal arts education.

You may want to pair the Religious Studies major with another major from a wide range of other fields. This will provide you with a comprehensive undergraduate education and give you a competitive edge when applying for jobs or graduate study. One of the many advantages of this major is that at thirty-three credits, it strikes a balance between maintaining a high level of academic rigor and depth while also encouraging students to pursue a double major and thus adopt a more integrative approach to their studies at Ithaca College.

A grounding in the philosophical concepts that have informed so much of the world's history and culture can form the basis for almost any career path, from social work to business to law. The study of logic, ethics, or systems of morality, for example, prepares students for responsible and effective roles in a variety of life situations -- from the boardroom to the classroom. It's not surprising that students from our other schools often choose to take courses or to minor in the discipline.

You'll not only gain a broad knowledge of fundamental concepts, but you'll also develop your creative and critical skills and be challenged to articulate your own ideas through a dialectical process.

Our graduates in English tell us that the skills they acquired in writing and critical thinking, as well as their capacity for a disciplined application of imagination and creativity, have prepared them well for a range of careers. Some students go on for graduate degrees in fields ranging from law to literature.

English majors constitute a close community of literature enthusiasts: poetry readings, informal staged readings of plays, public presentations of students' critical essays, and appearances by visiting writers, for example, are part of the experience. Whether you're studying Lolita or Love's Labour's Lost or writing analyses of poetry, novels, or drama, you'll be in small classes that allow for the easy exchange of ideas. Advanced students are encouraged to undertake independent study and honors projects and can qualify for membership in the College's chapter of the Sigma Tau Delta international English honor society.

In recognition of our high quality and analytic approach our BA program earned a STEM Designation from the US Department of Education. With the BA in Economics, international students in the United States on F-1 visas will be eligible to work for three years in the US.

For more than 50 years our students have been doing hands-on science because we know that's what chemists want to do most: formulate their own answers in the laboratory. In your freshman year you'll begin working closely with your professors in the lab. You might even present your findings at a national conference or publish a paper in a professional journal.

The curriculum systematically takes you through the principles of chemistry and prepares you for research -- and we give you plenty of time for that: many students graduate with more than 500 hours in the laboratory. You may develop new materials to use as synthetic bone, fuel cells, or to convert solar energy to electricity. Whatever the topic, your lab experience will closely resemble the real world of science.

Our facilities are state-of-the-art; recent acquisitions include an x-ray diffractometer, a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, a 400 Mhz NMR instrument, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, and a biomolecular mass analyzer.

Our chemistry majors pursue graduate study at top universities such as UC Berkeley, Caltech, Purdue, Harvard, and Penn State. Others go on to medical, dental, or other health-professional schools. You might instead decide to study law, specialize in forensics, enter the field of environmental science, teach at a high school, or work at a company such as DuPont or GE. With the excellent grounding in both theory and research that our program provides, the choice is yours.

Our biology department fosters a strong sense of community: biology majors work side by side with professors who know them by name. You'll learn from full-time faculty who are committed to teaching students at all levels, in the laboratory, in the field, and in the classroom. Each professor has a personal laboratory where you'll use state-of-the-art equipment: you'll be the one operating the fluorescence microscope or the ultracentrifuge or using the controlled-condition plant growth facility to conduct sophisticated, original research.

In addition to hands-on research, you're encouraged to attend regional and national conferences to present your results. Our biology majors often receive competitive grant awards and national recognition for their work. For example, our students have received awards such as the Goldwater scholarship and the Pfizer undergraduate research fellowship.

Upon graduation, many of our biology majors enter professional schools to study medicine, dentistry, or other health fields. Others are accepted at top graduate programs such as UC Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins. Other options include conducting research for the government or in the pharmaceutical industry.