<p>So, I'm a junior environmental science (BS) major with a ficus in renewable energy and climate change and really would like to pursue my degree in atmospheric sciences, maybe geophysics, after I graduate. I'm currently taking a lot of classes dealing with climate, including atmospheric dynamics and fluid dynamics. However, both were graduate courses since my school has a very small meteorology department. I was wondering if I should continue to take this graduate courses that deal with actual climate science or should I just stick with oceanography instead (I want to go into hurricane research) and take climate change humanities? I really don't know which is the better option... Thanks!!</p>
<p>Graduate level coursework is generally looked on favorably by grad schools. Keep in mind, though, that there may not end up being a lot of overlap between what a meteorology department offers and what you need to study to go into the climate change field. What you’ve taken so far sounds good, but I might pull up the course catalogs of some of the departments you’re thinking about for grad school, and see how much overlap you can find. </p>
<p>“Hurricane research” is a pretty broad goal (Which is great! It’s still early!), ranging from meteorology-heavy specialties that model hurricanes as they happen, to climate modelers who are focused on bigger-scale atmospheric problems related to climate change, to paleoclimate folks who reconstruct hurricane frequencies from things like sediment deposits. For the first, lean towards meteorology. The second, maybe pick up a few more of those oceanography classes, along with some physics. The third, geology, absolutely. Climate change humanities classes would be more helpful if you’re interested in the policy side, but probably won’t count towards your course requirements for an atmospheric science degree.</p>
<p>So the answer is, it depends, but that might give you a place to start.</p>