I’m currently an environmental science major and I am really fascinated by the ocean and ocean life, conserving marine animals, etc. I would love to be a marine biologist, but my school doesn’t offer that as a major. There are classes like wetland ecology, marine ecology, conservation biology, stream ecology, but those are about it.
I do have a faculty adviser that I could go see, however, she is on sabbatical right now and there is someone taking her place, but I’ve heard he is awful and is not experienced in the sciences at all. He simply is an adviser. I also have a general adviser, but he answers questions more about what classes I need to graduate, helps plan out my classes until graduation and that’s about it. I guess I could go see him, but what do you think?
-Take all the classes that are offered at your university in marine biology. Honestly, many times a major in marine biology is simply a regular biology major with some extra elective courses anyway.
-The teachers who teach the classes on marine biology are probably marine biologists themselves; so after you take their classes and do well in them, you may approach one of them about acting as a research assistant and/or doing an independent study under their tutelage.
-Look up some student exchange, study abroad and/or summer research programs that will allow you to study marine biology. SIT Study Abroad is a unique program in which you take classes and spend the last month doing an independent study program; they have marine biology programs in Australia (rainforest, reef, and cultural ecology), Tanzania (coastal ecology and natural resource management), and Panama (tropical ecology, marine ecosystems and biodiversity conservation). There’s also one in Madagascar that’s biodiversity and natural resource management, but not specifically marine. The National Science Foundation has a list of REU sites in Ocean Sciences (https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=5053). The School for Field Studies also has a Marine Resource Studies study abroad program in Turks and Caicos (http://www.fieldstudies.org/tci).
Go to your department chair and discuss this. They should be able to suggest courses that would help to prepare you for admission into a masters program in marine science. You should have a background in marine botany, invertebrates, marine mammals, bio, chem and geo oceanography, genetics, cell bio Are you a environmental science or studies major? Do you have courses available in core sciences and math, chem 1 and 2, physics 1 and 2, Calc 1 and 2, and organic chem?
My daughter is at a liberal arts college and is majoring in biology within a conservation track. Her advisor said to not specialize too early. A solid foundation in biology is fine. She has had to be very strategic in planning her internships.
What are you planning on doing for the summer. Program applications are underway now. What year are you in college? Would you want the information on programs that I hoarded up for my daughter?
For example: building upon your enviro science background, the limnology research station at University of Wisconsin hires a bunch of student workers. Skills built doing fresh water research will transport well to marine sciences. The application for this coming summer will open in Feb. Take a look at last year’s listings and see if any of those jobs look interesting. http://limnology.wisc.edu/Ugrad-Job-Main.htm My daughter had a job offer from them a couple of years ago…
But took this instead http://www.marinetech.org/internships/ Applications for that open in Feb as well. My daughter really likes hands on work, not lab work, and worked her butt off at this. Not for the lazy.
Both of those were paid. Last summer she took an unpaid internship taking care of penguins at a zoo. This was connected to an independent study class she took where she focussed on penguin conservation.
Sea Education Association has some great courses. http://www.sea.edu I know they have been trying to beef up their financial aid, especially for students who need a lot of it.
If you do some brainstorming I think you can find a route to creating some good opportunities.
Also, look at the requirements for entry into grad schools at a variety of places. Within a hour of googling and reading you should be able to construct a list of courses you need to take. At minimum, 2 semesters of organic, and I think 2 semesters of physics - based off my recollection. Also read the course descriptions of the grad classes.