Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Core curriculum ranges from molecules to ecosystems
• Student focus on elective courses in area(s) of interest
• Research experiences begin in the first biology course and continue throughout the major
• Field research in the St. Olaf natural lands and Weaver Dunes in Southern Minnesota, to India and Costa Rica
• Breadth of our courses and faculty expertise are reflected in the concentrations and area of studies we support: neuroscience, environmental studies, biomolecular science, mathematical biology, and education

• American Chemical Society-approved major
• Multiple entry points, depending upon background and interest
• Early hands-on access t0 research facilities and equipment, providing documented experiences and opportunities to earn publication
• Active learning pedagogies, including team-focused and “flipped” upper-level courses
• Active student St. Olaf Chemistry Society group providing opportunities to host seminar speakers, socialize with professors, and share the excitement of doing chemistry with local school groups

• Introductory courses designed for first-year students exploring the major
• Rigorous general physics curriculum combining theory and experimentation
• Student-centered orientation
  • designed to develop the skills of thinking like a physicist, working from fundamental principles
  • computer programming and simulations, hands-on experiments, Newtonian mechanics in a modern context, and relativity and particle physics
• Opportunities for cutting-edge research with faculty
  • robotics, micro/nanotechnology, biophysics, atomic physics, many-body dynamics, and phase transitions
• Strong support for engineering and applied physics
  • student teams work on design problems from regional businesses
• After St. Olaf: Students go on to graduate school and a wide variety of careers in engineering, technology industries, architecture, medicine, teaching, and more

• One of the country’s largest undergraduate mathematical sciences programs, and a top undergraduate origin of Ph.D.s
• Mathematics, statistics, and computer science programs cooperate to link our disciplines to each other and beyond
• Opportunities for disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, internships, and overseas study, including two programs in Budapest
• Support for a wide range of student interests resulting in customized individual majors
• Welcoming atmosphere, with social activities, clubs, and many beyond-the-classroom opportunities
• Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR) engages students in interdisciplinary, collaborative research with collegiate or non-profit partners
  • In past projects, students have investigated operon pairs in the tuberculosis genome, the impact of hospital closings on surrounding hospitals, college admissions yield models, and voting trends in Reconstruction-era Alabama

St. Olaf’s Computer Science (CS) curriculum offers a breadth-first introduction to CS and develops the analytical thinking skills needed for later courses. Starting with the first course, the program emphasizes a hands-on approach to teaching, which emphasizes learning intellectual concepts through concrete exercises. The courses span national expectations for CS curricula, and the CS program embraces its liberal arts context in the organization of its major, its emphasis on teamwork and communication skills, its involvement in interdisciplinary projects, and its distinctive, integrated interest in ethical issues in software design.

Whether you major in CS or simply take a course or two, you will gain the thinking skills, ethical analysis, empowering concepts and learning experiences that will prepare you to make lifelong contributions to the 21st century world.

• Courses in the major cover the breadth of the discipline from natural science to social science aspects, from cells to society, and everything in-between
• Research in the laboratory, the library, and in the field through internships in clinical and community settings
• Strong emphasis on the science of psychology—research is important at all levels of the discipline, from proposing theories to explaining behavior, to developing effective clinical therapies, to designing the internal structure of organizations