<p>I'll be attending the University of Florida this fall, and I am looking for some input on choosing a major. During high school, calculus and physics were hands down my favorite subjects; however, I enjoy studying plants and animals almost just as well. I do not, however, enjoy molecular biology at all; I seem to enjoy nature on a very macro scale. </p>
<p>So that being said, are there any majors that would have me petting tigers while solving calculus? Or maybe even teaching a monkey calculus?</p>
<p>So far my search has yielded things like environmental engineering, but I wanted to know if there were any other options!</p>
<p>I’ve met several biomathematics majors in my time. I don’t really know what they do. But it exists.</p>
<p>Also, physics is bleeding into biology at the microscopic level more and more. And I mean physics. Overcoming optical limitations in imaging, for example, or working on neurons where the size scale is such that quantum effects start to matter (like a synapse having a probability of firing rather than a certainty).</p>
<p>Are you interested in the earth and being outdoors or mainly just animals? Geophysics is an awesome way to combine a love for the outdoors with math/physics.</p>
<p>I think it will be very hard to blend your interest of Biology with Physics/Math because of your interest in Biology at the macro scale. Every combination of math and Biology at UF I can think of doesn’t involve nature and animals, but it involves compounds at the molecular level. Biomedical engineering is an example. However, if you confine yourself to math and Physics, you have countless opportunities. Maybe you could major in Physics or some type of engineering and then minor in biology.</p>
<p>Oh, I should mention that many research groups on campus will hire part-time undergraduate researchers. I get emails about this on the time because I’m on the undergraduate research office mailing list for my school. I recall a professor needing somebody to feed and administer medicine to monkeys.</p>
<p>One way you could combine your interests. This is technically a grad program but check out the different peoples backgrounds. Some were purely math, physics, biology, or others. I thought I wanted to do theoretical ecology at one point and just e-mailed one of the grad students from this program and we had a pretty extensive dialogue. He was a pure math major and eventually decided to do something more environmental but he said there was still plenty of math to keep him happy. I suggest you find a project that interests you and ask the grad students themselves what the preparation might be.</p>
<p>This might sound a little ridiculous at first but you could always be a veterinarian. You could specialize in large animals to avoid working with pets. Also, you could work on the research end of it. This would combine your love of animals and calculus. Also, specializing in large animals has a much larger career outlook than for smaller animals. </p>