Founded in 1870, the University of Akron is a public, 4-year university with more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The college's Bachelor of Science in emergency management degree is a step-up program, designed for students who already hold a 2-year associate degree in a fire science, criminal justice, community services, environmental health and safety or emergency medical services. The program requires 2 years of full-time study to complete and includes coursework in terrorism, statistics, disaster response, casualty recovery, geographic information systems, land navigation, cultural studies and natural sciences. All students participate in an internship prior to graduation. Around two-thirds of all students at the University of Akron receive some type of financial aid, reports the 2009 Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.
University of Akron
302 Buchtel Common
Akron, OH 44325
330-972-7077
uakron.edu
In 2010, U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Florida 47th among all universities in the United States. Situated in Gainesville, the public college is home to more than 51,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The college's emergency management program concentrates on fire science and emergency services and culminates in a Bachelor of Science degree. Like the Akron program, students typically complete the first 2 years of their undergraduate collegiate career in community colleges completing classes in statistics, sociology, psychology, biology, government and meteorology. Among the classes required during the final 2 years of study at the university are labor issues in emergency management, integrated operations, capital and facilities, leadership, financial management, multi-agency incident command, management of mass casualty incidents, design of disaster exercises and public policy and administration. Students in the program have the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad in places like Australia and East Asia.
University of Florida
201 Criser Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611
352-392-1365
ufl.edu
A public institution, West Texas A&M University is in the small town of Canyon, approximately 17 miles south of Amarillo. One of the courses of study open to the college's more than 6,200 undergraduates is the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Science in emergency management administration. Admissions requirements include an associate degree in an emergency management field, current employment in emergency management and have at least 5 years of experience in a field related to emergency services. Students in the program typically spend all 4 years at West Texas A&M, taking classes in English, communications, mathematics, natural sciences, humanities, political science, behavioral sciences, risk management, applied economics, administrative law, municipal government, public administration finance, human resources, organizational theory, ethics and public relations. Approximately half of all students at West Texas receive some form of financial aid, according to the 2009 Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.
West Texas A&M University
2501 Fourth Ave.
Canyon, TX 79016
806-651-2020
wtamu.edu