Major: Urban Studies
Cities are loud, crowded, concrete jungles, right? But they’re also places full of energy, where great thinkers, artists, and leaders come together and give birth to new and exciting creative movements and ideas.
Urban studies majors learn what makes city culture unique and how urban areas respond to problems and events. You’ll ask yourself many questions as an urban studies major. For example: How do different neighborhoods develop their own identities? How do the buildings and the layout of a city affect its people? What happens when the need for growth clashes with the need to preserve history? How does living close together affect the way city dwellers interact?
Urban studies majors use the tools of sociology, economics, and other social sciences to study city life, government, and services. If you choose this major you’ll learn how city dwellers live and behave. You’ll also study the problems they face.
“What really worked for me about the urban studies program was that I was able to have more flexibility in choosing my courses and in exploring what it is that I wanted to do.”
Michelle, junior, urban studies, University of Pittsburgh
Are You Ready To...?
- Handle a wide variety of courses from many different departments
- Take the lead in planning your own studies
- Find and interview people for a research study
- Write proposals to get backing for projects
- Study problems in health care, education, and other areas that affect hundreds of thousands of people
It Helps to Be...
Good at reading, writing, problem solving, and analyzing data. As an urban studies major, you will be looking at problems and events that affect city residents, so it’s important to want to understand and help people.
College Checklist
- Is urban studies its own major, a concentration in a larger major such as sociology, or is it made up of classes from a variety of other majors?
- Will professors be available to advise you?
- Does the major stress one particular area of study, such as sociology, city planning, or city government?
- Will the department help you find internships?
- Will you have the chance to complete a senior thesis or project?
Did You Know?
- In the early 1900s, 40 percent of the U.S. population lived in cities. By 2000, that number had doubled.
Course Spotlight
There are many different ways to approach the all-important internship. If your interest is in the social sciences, you could assist a professor with a research project. If you want to learn what it takes to run a city, you could work in city government. Another option is an internship with a city-based nonprofit, such as a homeless shelter. You may even go overseas, living the city life in another culture. Whichever direction you choose, an internship is a great way to put what you’ve learned into practice.
Explore this major in more depth on MyRoad™