Largest Enrollment of Geology and Geophysics Majors in History of Department
Snow’s Mineralogy Course Hits a Record High of 176

The 176 UH geology and geophysics majors enrolled in the lecture and lab-based course, mineralogy, taught by Dr. Jonathan Snow (standing in the bottom left corner of photo).A record-setting 176 University of Houston geology and geophysics majors are enrolled in the lecture and lab-based course, mineralogy, taught by Dr. Jonathan Snow in Fall 2013. The size of the mineralogy class is a proxy for the number of undergraduate majors since all new majors are required to take this core course. The size of the class necessitates the employment of seven graduate teaching assistants to help run the course’s lab portion.

UH Mineralogy Enrollment 2006-2013.The explosive growth in the numbers of undergraduate geology majors is linked to the popularity of the geology/geophysics major as preparation for careers in the rapidly growing oil and gas industry in the Houston area, the so-called Energy Capital of the World.

The study of mineralogy is a basic skill for understanding geology and is the second undergraduate core course in the major following physical geology. The graph shows the rapid growth of the number of students in mineralogy beginning with about 30 majors in 2006 to the present number of 176.