Undergraduate

Designed for exploration.

All of Northland’s core courses, whether you specialize or stay general in your first year, help you develop skills and foundational understandings that allow you to pursue diverse fields of study and to solve challenging, complex problems.

It’s why Northland College alumni have gone on to become scientists, business owners, educators, and dedicated professionals in almost every field imaginable. The career-focused curriculum developed by our faculty members provides you with the tools, confidence, and vision to be successful in anything you do.

Only at Northland

Take a look at some of the cool classes you’ll find at Northland.

See Our Majors

* Available only as a minor, emphasis, or special program.

See Our Term Structure

A unique element in Northland’s academic program is the calendar. The fall and winter terms are each four months long and consist of a minimum of 65 class days. The spring term (or May term) is one month long and consists of 20 class days. Full-time students must earn 12 to 17 course credits during each of the fall and winter terms.

Fall and winter terms allow time for maturation of ideas in a program of varied courses. The shorter spring term provides an opportunity for concentration through seminars, field experiences, independent study, and internships. It also provides opportunities for off-campus and study-abroad experiences.

View the Academic Calendar

See additional information about the academic calendar.

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Choose your General Education Path

The most inspiring thing about the education you’ll receive at Northland College, and what makes us different from other schools, is the integration of our environmental mission throughout our fields of study.

Throughout the general education program, will be introduced to a wide-range of disciplines. This is key in learning not what to think, but how to think. This approach teaches us all how to be creative, to think critically, and to develop new ideas.

We deliver courses in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities that introduce you to new ideas, to new ways of understanding the world, and we challenge you to make connections—with your interests, with your professors, with the natural world, and with your community.

And YOU get to choose which classes you are most interested in. If you want to focus on a topic and see how it is approached in multiple ways, we offer two first-year programs that are focused on learning outside of the classroom: Superior Connections and Growing Connections.

Growing Connections

Growing Connections takes a comprehensive look at the history, theories, and practices of sustainable agriculture. You’ll work closely with faculty, mentors, and regional farmers in classrooms, labs, and fields to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of food systems and of the role that agriculture plays in human culture and ecological health. Check out the course list.

In order to gain acceptance into Growing Connections, students must have a paid enrollment deposit.

Superior Connections

Superior Connections studies the historic, economic, environmental, and cultural facets of the Lake Superior watershed. The program culminates with a month-long intensive course, circumnavigating the lake by van, canoe, and foot. Check out the course list.

Participation is limited to 15; in order to gain acceptance into Superior Connections, students must have a paid enrollment deposit.

Growing Connection Courses

Fall Term
Food for Thought:
In this course, you’ll synthesize your studies with the Growing Connections program through the medium of literature. Using stories, essays, and poetry you will explore varied current and historical perceptions regarding the consumption of food and those who work to provide it. The focus of work in this course is on written and spoken expressions of the role agriculture has played, and will play, in human life.

The Chemistry of Food:
Through laboratory and classroom investigations, you’ll study sustainable agricultural techniques from a scientific perspective and measure concentrations of both nutrients and contaminants in the campus garden. This course also examines the societal benefits and risks of pesticides to our society, and study the connection between diet and health.

Winter Term
Geology and Agriculture:
In this course you learn about the earth systems, soils, minerals, water, and energy used in agriculture and the environmental impacts caused by the use of those resources. The course focuses on how these impacts can be decreased so that agriculture can sustainably provide for the needs of society.

May Term
Sustainable Agriculture Practicum:
In this field course, you’ll gain hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture either by working on selected farms or by assisting organizations working on food or agricultural policy issues. Students have the opportunity to work in-depth with one farm or organization for the semester, or gain a broad experience with several farms and organizations over the semester.

Superior Connection Courses

Fall Term
Natural History & Conservation in the Lake Superior Watershed:
This course introduces you to the natural history, conservation, and restoration of the region’s natural resources. You’ll begin by studying the general natural history of the Lake Superior region, and then focus on regional conservation biology issues. The course concludes with an examination of restoration from ecological, economic, and philosophical perspectives.

Confluences: Reading & Writing in the Lake Superior Watershed:
In this course you will gather and integrate their experiences and studies of the Lake Superior Watershed using the creative and synthetic potential of dialogue and written expression. The reading of literary and historical texts, the composition of essays, and delivery of oral presentations are integral to the course.

Geoscience Issues of Lake Superior :
You will learn about the geologic processes and history of the Lake Superior basin and how past geologic events established the setting in which the current ecosystem and human society reside. Field trips and laboratory exercises develop their skills in map reading, rock identification and interpretation, and give them an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the natural environment of the lake basin and humans’ relationship to the lake.

Superior Connections Practicum:
Field trips and colloquia discussions are central to the Superior Connections program. The trips and colloquia connect the topics of the fall semester Superior Connections courses and thus provide you with opportunities to integrate ideas from different disciplines. These experiences immerse students in observing, thinking, and communicating about their relationship to the land, water, ecosystems, history, and people of the Lake Superior Region.

Lake Superior Ojibwe:
This course focuses on the various Ojibwe people who have resided in the Western Great Lakes region. You’ll study these cultures from pre-contact time to the present and develop an understanding of and appreciation for the history, culture, and traditional teachings of the indigenous people of the Lake Superior Watershed.

May Term
Lake Superior Circumnavigation:
This trip around Lake Superior connects the topics of the fall semester courses and provides you with opportunities to integrate ideas from different disciplines. The experience immerses you in observing, thinking, and communicating about their relationship to the land, water, ecosystems, history, and people of the Lake Superior Region.

May Term Adventures

Pedaling Around Lake Superior for May Term

Northland College student Liz Downey biked 1,287 miles through wind, rain, sleet and snow around Lake Superior in May—and earned six credits for her efforts…

Pedaling Around Lake Superior for May Term
296 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail

Jane Dahlgren had never camped alone when she decided to hike solo for 296 miles. For college credits.

While the extroverted sophomore was not familiar with…

296 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail
Filmmaking to Impassion, Teach

In her first year at Northland, natural resources student Marissa Olsen enrolled in a film class, that provided a meaningful vehicle for sharing and interpreting her science classes.

For…

Filmmaking to Impassion, Teach
Read. Write. Paddle.

Pens and Paddles is a unique, experiential English course that combines literary study with wilderness fieldwork. In the classroom, students read wilderness literature that includes…

Read. Write. Paddle.