Our adaptable major offers broad training in biological systems with the flexibility to choose a more specialized track. You can take classes in a variety of topics, including:

• Cancer Biology
• Genetics
• Human Anatomy and Physiology
• Marine Mammals
• Plant Biology
• Virology
• Zoology

Perfect for Pre-Med Students

A biology degree from Portland State University is an excellent choice for pre-med, pre-dental, pre-pharmacy and other healthcare career pathways. Our curriculum provides the scientific foundation, hands-on research experience and clinical exposure needed for medical school and beyond.

Hands-On Learning: Labs, Research and Fieldwork

Our urban location in the heart of Oregon means you’re minutes away from Oregon Health & Science University, the Oregon Zoo and Hoyt Arboretum. You’ll take classes at the waterfront campus in the Robertson Life Sciences Building, a learning and research space shared with OHSU’s School of Dentistry and Oregon State’s College of Pharmacy. Our focus on career readiness and hands-on experiences means you’ll be ready when opportunities come up. 

As a Biology student at PSU, you’ll also enjoy hands-on lab, field and research experiences as part of your biology courses. For example, The Center for Life in Extreme Environments (CLEE) is housed at Portland State University and includes faculty members and students who study organisms from some of the most extreme habitats on Earth. 

Learn from Expert Faculty and Engage in Cutting-Edge Research

Our expert faculty are active in their field and collaborate with fellow researchers and institutions locally, nationally and internationally. From the depths of the ocean to Antarctica, their research interests span ecology and evolution, molecular and microbiology and life in extreme environments. They bring real-world perspectives into the classroom. Selected students join them to do biology research at PSU or for community partners. 

Connect and Engage: Student Clubs and Events

You can build your skills and connections outside class through clubs and student-focused events. You’ll engage with peers in the Bio Club and Plant Bio Science Club and learn more about current research through the weekly Lester Newman Seminar Series.

Portland State University is ideally situated to provide the opportunities and connections you need to succeed in the environmental engineering industry. 

From our downtown campus, you’ll find yourself in the center of the systems you seek to improve, giving you the chance to take your studies to the streets and gain hands-on experience in the field. 

In recent years, PSU’s environmental engineering students have leveraged our location to:

• Gain valuable industry knowledge interning with top companies in Portland, including PBS Engineering and Environmental, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Portland Water Bureau.
• Collaborate on resume-building projects to make an immediate and lasting impact in nearby communities.
• Work with faculty on real-world research, using the city as their testing ground.
• Develop relationships with professionals in private companies and government agencies, leading to job prospects and future employment.

With so many opportunities available to you, you’ll find your path at PSU and build connections that will prepare you to work as an environmental engineer or continue your studies in graduate school.

Our program is set in the heart of Portland, a city that looks to the future of integrated transportation and land-use planning. Portland is our research lab, offering world-class biking, transit design and operations, and a commitment to safety for all road users.

You will take courses under the guidance of the world’s foremost transportation research faculty at PSU - from both the (CUPA) Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning as well as the department of (MCECS) Civil & Environmental Engineering.

In many courses, students work on real projects with partners in our community—the organizations helping to make our transportation system work for all users. These partnerships lead to internships and rewarding careers after graduation. Wherever you see transportation innovations in urban centers, you’ll find PSU students and alumni.

The Department of History at PSU places a strong emphasis on its curriculum on world history and has many faculty with expertise in this field. History students at PSU are able to build strong relationships with faculty members through coursework, departmental and community events, and student groups. These connections are further supported through opportunities for career and academic advising, directed research, and internships in the local community.

You’ll graduate from one of the nation’s top 10 “most innovative” universities with a Master’s degree from a program established in 1959.

Our diverse campus is located in the center of downtown Portland, one of the most vibrant cities on the West Coast. Our deep community connections give you unmatched opportunities for hands-on learning and research.

PSU anthropologists have compiled a long record of research, teaching, and community involvement. Among its distinguished former faculty was Wayne Suttles, the premier 20th-century ethnographer and linguist of the Northwest Coast.

Our department is committed to research and scholarship in “applied anthropology” – where anthropological scholarly products address “real world” problems; and knowledge is returned to the peoples and places where the research is conducted. Our work contributes to public policy and answering questions about significant cultural, social, and environmental issues.

The Women's Studies program seeks to expand feminist scholarship through a combination of:

• academic critical analysis;
• community practicum; and
• feminist activism.

The women's studies program has developed a close connection to the Portland community. Women's Studies majors are active throughout the city. They use their interdisciplinary coursework to support marginalized populations on and off-campus.

Women's studies majors are exceptionally active in the Portland community. Our students volunteer at the Women's Resource Center or Queer Resource Center on campus. And, they intern at women's shelters around the city. Our students also organize educational and social events on campus. Students majoring in Women's Studies gain real-world experience through their connections with the community.

One of the requirements of the program is through the practicum. Students connect with the community and campus to illuminate the relationship between feminist theory and practice.

The practicum allows students to get professional training and experience as an undergraduate. This means they will graduate with a sought-after resume and job skills.

Many practicum placements take place at campus resource centers and local nonprofit organizations. All geared toward empowering women and disenfranchised populations. Women’s Studies majors have interned with a variety of organizations:

• Houselessness Resource Centers: Rose Haven, New Avenues for Youth, Outside In
• Domestic Violence Shelters and Resource Centers: Raphael House, the Sexual Assault Resource Center
• Queer Resource Centers: Q Center, Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center
• Women's Health Care Organizations: Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon
• Arts and Media Organizations: Bitch Media, Advance Gender Equity in the Arts: AGE

Through their practicum experiences, students work in a variety of roles:

• providing direct services to clients
• designing and executing media campaigns
• maintaining databases, donor lists, and other organizational tasks
• developing outreach campaigns
• offering mentorship and academic support to other students.

The practicum program provides students with professional experience as undergraduates that prepares them for rewarding careers.

We offer two types of practicum experiences:

1. Work with an off-campus organization
2. Work on-campus with a program, and/or choose to serve as a teaching assistant/mentor for courses within the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department has established relationships with practicum sites across Portland. Students also have the opportunity to develop a practicum with an organization of their choice, in consultation with an advisor or with the department practicum coordinator.

Thanks to its urban location, Portland State University is ideally situated to provide the opportunities and connections you need to succeed in the mechanical engineering industry.

From our downtown campus, you’ll have the chance to take your studies to the streets and gain hands-on experience in the field.

In recent years, PSU’s mechanical engineering students have leveraged our location to:

• Develop relationships with professionals in private companies and government agencies, leading to internships and future employment.
• Collaborate on resume-building projects to make an immediate and lasting impact in nearby communities.
• Work with faculty on real-world research, using the city as their testing ground.

With so many opportunities available, you’ll find your path at PSU and build connections that will prepare you to work as an mechanical engineer or continue your studies in graduate school.

Portland is known throughout the country as a city of the arts—a place where students can add to a flourishing culture and work in thriving local creative industries. Our students have the added advantage of being able to take part in student-edited publications and student writing services:

• Pathos Literary Magazine: A creative publication, staffed entirely by students, that exclusively publishes student work in three issues per year.
• Vanguard: A weekly print and digital newspaper distributed for free throughout the Portland State campus area. Entirely student-run, employing about 60 paid student reporters, multimedia contributors, photographers, graphic designers, and editors, its publishing body is the Portland State Media Board, consisting of four students, four faculty members, and one community member. The newspaper and its staff have earned several collegiate journalism awards, including the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association General Excellence Award and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Circle Award.
• Ooligan Press: An award-winning nonprofit general trade press that publishes books honoring the cultural and natural diversity of the Pacific Northwest. Ooligan Press is a teaching press staffed by students pursuing master’s degrees in the Department of English.
• The Writing Center: A service to help students improve their writing and understand strategies to gain critical thinking skills they can adapt to all their writing projects. Writing center staff support students by acting as consultants rather than copyeditors, guiding students through their work by asking questions rather than editing specific text, with the goal of ensuring that the student-writer maintains agency over their writing.

Portland State offers many opportunities for students to engage in the broader creative community in the city through internships and jobs. Our students are able to work and carry out internships while they’re in school, allowing them to build relationships and add experience to their resumes.

Portland State’s Computer Science Department is closely connected to working in the tech sector, which will inform your coursework. We are situated in the heart of the City’s dynamic Silicon Forest, a terrain that is dotted with technology companies as large as Intel and as small as start-ups, along with an array of hospitals, universities, and businesses that need strong cybersecurity. Through your cybersecurity coursework, you’ll also acquire professional fundamentals that are needed in the workplace.

PSU's program prepares you to develop a complex understanding and expertise in environmental science using a foundation in natural sciences, social sciences, and geography.

You'll take courses on relevant topics such as freshwater resource and management, forest resource and management, the urban environment, ecology and conservation, environmental policy and land use, and nature and culture. You'll develop skills in quantitative analysis, visualization of spatial data, and field methods and writing, and have the opportunity to apply them in real-world settings through fieldwork, internships, and research assistantships in the Portland area.

Our students have interned with some of the state's largest environmental organizations, including the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Port of Portland, City of Portland's Water Environmental Services, the United States Geological Survey, and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council.

PSU’s engaged student body has many student-run groups focused on Environmental Science in addition to other Green Student Groups:

• Association of Environmental Science Students: Advance student curiosity and engagement in environmental science through interdisciplinary interactions. They hold regular social events and outdoor activities that allow opportunities to discuss, analyze and tackle issues related to environmental science.
• PSU Environmental Club: Unite students in the common interests of a variety of environmental issues and projects and make connections within and outside the PSU community.

Students who want to continue their education and go on to graduate school can work with environmental science faculty to find the right program and apply for graduate school.