New for Autumn 2025 and Beyond: ESRM is now a Minimum Requirements Major

As of Autumn 2025, Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management (ESRM) is no longer an Open major and is now a Minimum Requirements major.  Because of this change, there is a new required process for how students become ESRM majors.

Declaring the ESRM Major

The B.S Degree with a major in Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management is a “Minimum Requirements” major, which means that all current UW students who meet the Minimum Requirements for Admission, who have completed any outstanding UW Admissions Deficiencies, who are not on Academic Probation, and who can complete the degree within the UW’s Academic Satisfactory Progress restrictions are admitted.  Students can request to declare the major at any time by submitting our online major declaration form.

Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management Minimum Admission Requirements

To be able to declare the ESRM major, students must have completed all of the minimum course requirements with the minimum grade requirements as listed below.

Minimum course requirements: one of Q SCI 291, MATH 124, or MATH 134 (First Quarter Calculus); one of Q SCI 292, MATH 125, or MATH 135 (Second Quarter Calculus); one of CHEM 120, CHEM 142, CHEM 143, or CHEM 145 (First Quarter Chemistry); one of CHEM 220, CHEM 152, CHEM 153, CHEM 155, or OCEAN 295 (Second Quarter Chemistry); either BIOL 180 (First Quarter Biology) or both BIOL 161 and BIOL 162 (Credit for scoring high enough on the pertinent AP/IB/A-Level Biology exam); 5 credits of UW English composition.

If you are completing these courses at a Washington State Community College, please be sure to consult the UW Equivalency Guide to make sure you are completing the correct courses.

Note about the CHEM requirement: If you are completing the two quarter CHEM requirement at the UW, here are the common pathways.  Choose 1 of the following:

• CHEM 120; either CHEM 220 or OCEAN 295
• CHEM 142; either CHEM 152 or CHEM 220
• CHEM 143; either CHEM 153 or CHEM 220
• CHEM 145 and CHEM 155

Minimum grade requirements: Minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA in courses required for admission

These courses must be completed, and all the grades must be listed on your UW Transcript, including any transfer credit or AP/IB/A Level/AS Level exams.  Please note: this means that incoming UW students will be eligible to declare this major if they completed all the credits elsewhere once their transcripts/exam results are received by UW Admissions and recorded to the student’s UW Transcript, which first happens right before an incoming student’s New Student Orientation.

Planning the Completion of your Minimum Admission Requirements

• In order to be on track for on-time graduation in ESRM, it is very important to be completing all of the Minimum Admission Requirements in your first two years of study, plus all additional courses normally completed in year 1 and year 2, which are detailed on the 4-year academic plan found at this link.
  • Calculus and Chemistry should be completed in year 1 and Biology completed in year 2 if you are completing the BIOL 180, 200, 220 series.  In particular, if you are completing the ESRM General Biology graduation requirement via BIOL 180, 200, 220 (rather than BIOL 161 and 162), you should be completing BIOL 200 and BIOL 220 immediately after you complete BIOL 180, so all three are done at the end of year 2. 
  • At the UW, you need to have the Chemistry ESRM admission requirement completed before you can take BIOL 200.
• If you are completing the General Biology series at a Washington State Community College (WSCC), please note:
  • at virtually all schools you must complete (1) all three General Biology courses (2) at the same Community College in order to have the General Biology series transfer correctly to the UW as BIOL 180, 200, 220; if your series transfers incorrectly you will not receive credit for BIOL 180 and you will have to complete the whole series at the UW.
  • To see how your WSCC Biology transfers, please consult the UW Equivalency Guide.
• If you are completing the Chemistry Admission requirement at a Washington State Community College, both the CHEM 120-220 and CHEM 142-152 courses are commonly available.  However, please note that at many WSCC’s, you will only receive transfer credit from the UW for CHEM 152 if you also complete the third course in the series.  The 3rd course in the series is not an ESRM major requirement but certainly will count towards your UW General Education requirements (if needed) and will count as a General Elective towards the 180 credits required for the degree. For details about how CHEM will transfer from your Community College, please consult the UW Equivalency Guide.

Declaration Dates

We review declaration forms as they are submitted, and students should hear back from us within 10 business days. The deadline to declare the major for the following quarter is the last day of Finals week.

Winter 2026: Now Open. Closes December 12, 2025

Spring 2026: December 13, 2025-March 20, 2026 Declaration Form Open

Summer 2026: March 21st, 2026-June 12, 2026 Declaration Form Open

How to Declare the Major

The application consists of this list of components, which you should gather/prepare/check before you access the online major declaration form. You must be signed in to your UW NetID account to access this form.

1. 1. Your Personal Statement, answering the following questions in approximately 300 words total:
      1. Why do you want to be an ESRM Major?
      2. How will completing this degree help you complete your professional and academic goals?
   2. Your UW Student Number, your UW Email address, and how you first learned about the ESRM major.
   3. Reviewing each of our 5 major pathways for completing the ESRM degree, available on the left side menu at https://sefs.uw.edu/students/undergraduate/esrm/major-requirements/ .
   4. Download and save a copy of the ESRM: General Degree audit that shows completion of all ESRM: General Minimum Requirements courses with the necessary GPA, and does not indicate that you have any uncompleted UW Admission Deficiencies from the Degree Audit home at https://myplan.uw.edu/audit/#/degree.
   5. Make sure your Unofficial UW Transcript doesn’t show you are on Academic Alert, Academic Warning, or Academic Drop.
   6. Make sure you will be able to finish an ESRM degree within UW Satisfactory Progress rules, which are available at https://registrar.washington.edu/register/policies-procedures/.
   7. UW Students who are applying to ESRM as a second or third major/degree should also be aware of the UW Financial Aid rules regarding Satisfactory Academic Progress, which are detailed at https://www.washington.edu/financialaid/receiving-aid/satisfactory-academic-progress/

ESRM Major Declaration Form

Statement of Non-Discrimination

The University of Washington prohibits discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct in any education program or activity that it operates. Individuals may report concerns, make complaints, or direct inquiries to the Civil Rights Compliance Office. The statement of nondiscrimination is located at: uw.edu/civilrights/policies-and-guidance/statement-of-nondiscrimination/.