Do Earth Science programs have a common core that everyone has to pass?

[InquilineKea]

I know that atmospheric science departments generally do (so most atmospheric scientists have to at least be somewhat good in math+physics)

But what about earth science in general? Here, you have such a wide range of backgrounds that not everyone might be expected to pass the same set of courses. Is this right?

And could it affect admissions? A lot of physics/astro students are weeded out because even if they have fine research, there is still a big question around their ability to pass the core physics/astro courses. In this case, admissions may be more biased towards whether or not you share the same research interests as a professor or not (at least compared to physics/astro programs)

[UnlikelyGrad]

In my (geochemistry) program most everyone comes in with either a geology or a chemistry background...the people with no geology background are usually required to take mineralogy and petrology as remedial courses. I had a general geology class as an undergrad, which definitely gave me a leg up over my fellow chemists...it's kind of hard to understand petrology without the context of an intro geology class.