<p>How do I go about comparing the programs at various schools? How do you find out which ones are more highly regarded? How do you know if it's worth the extra money to go OOS or stay in state? </p>
<p>This is what my daughter is looking at for a major and we're all over the place with schools:</p>
<p>Richard Stockton College in NJ (in state)
University of Rhode Island
Texas A&M - Galveston
Coastal Carolina University - South Carolina</p>
<p>As an undergrad, will it really matter? </p>
<p>Honestly, my preference is Stockton -- in state and 2 hours from home. Any of the rest would be a huge additional expense for travel and I'd like to keep down the cost. </p>
<p>1 - You can search CC using the search drop-down above to find previous threads on this topic. I know it has been discussed before.
2 - Nobody is paid to sit here and monitor this site. So you do sometimes have to wait for more than a few hours for people to get home from work, feed their families etc. before they login into CC to drop their pearls of wisdom.</p>
<p>Wow, sorry if I offended you. Since a good deal of the posts on CC tend to be high achieving, Ivy League posts, I was simply trying to keep the thread on the first page where someone might see it.</p>
<p>I found my current institution by asking people in the field what schools they’d recommend. Perhaps you could do the same with area marine biologists. I’d also contact professors at Stockton regarding the availability of research work, either on campus or off, and how many students pursue the option. If there’s a powerful culture of student involvement in various projects, even if its just as a lab monkey, it might motivate your daughter to seek out field work opportunities more so than if she went to a school where only a few students do work outside of school. </p>
<p>I opted to transfer to an OOS school because I wanted the larger state school experience, and could afford to do so. Additionally, my state makes transferring to its better instate schools quite difficult so my only realistic options were to look OOS or continue going to a school that I considered socially and academically limited. </p>
<p>I’d be sure to ask him what grad schools recent marine bio majors have attended. Ideally a school will have some familiarity with sending its grads to top 20 programs, although at regional schools this might be less common. </p>
<p>Have you looked into UNC Wilmington at all? It’s COA is fairly low and its marine bio program is outstanding.</p>
<p>Honestly, as an undergraduate, I don’t think the reputation of the department is going to matter much. I’d go with the best overall experience. Frankly I’d toss Texas A&M unless your D really wants to stay in Texas when she graduates. Beyond that, it’s hard for me to believe the URI or Coastal Carolina travel expenses would be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>That said, Rutgers seems to have a great program in Marine Sciences. Why isn’t that on your radar.</p>
<p>Whenhen, thank you so much for your post. Definitely gives me a starting point. We are going to Stockton for a pre-senior instant decision day in 2 weeks so I’m sure DD will have plenty of time to speak with those in the Marine Science Department. I was impressed with the presentation when we went on a tour and would just like to help her figure our what’s the best program for her.</p>
<p>quilah, you’re right about URI and CCU, I was thinking more along the lines of moving in and out each year and I know it’s expensive to fly from SC during the holidays. URI would just be a drive but again, I can’t always get the holidays off from work to go and get her. As for Rutgers, we’ve been to the campus and DD is absolutely deadset again it and I honestly can’t blame her. We went during Rutgers Day and the labs were filthy. I was honestly appalled that it’s supposed to be a fantastic research facility because I wouldn’t trust anything that game out of those labs. Looked like a frat house, not one clear space on any surface. Empty cups, food wrappers, nothing ever fulled out was put away. It was only two labs but she just didn’t like the vibe of the whole campus; too big, too much depending on buses that are unreliable…</p>
<p>For the record, a filthy lab is actually somewhat normal. That’s what happens when overworked professors and their grad students have to spend all day in a tiny space. So long as the equipment and relevant space are clean, a bit of mess doesn’t matter. If it did, we wouldn’t have any engineering innovations (electrical engineers are notorious for workplace clutter).</p>
<p>This was dirty, not cluttered. I work with lawyers and I’ve seen some pretty bad offices, particularly during a trial. LOL. This was layers of dust on things, spilled food and beverages, dirty rags laying around, stuff piled on the floors so you had to be careful making your way through. Not a good impression at all. Like I said, that was just one reason DD didn’t like it, but thanks for clarifying. I’ve never spent any time in a lab so it’s good to know that they won’t be pristine.</p>
<p>If you google marine science undergraduate colleges, you will be directed to sites that list the schools by state. Check to see if the professors have terminal degrees in their field. Do the courses start as freshmen or juniors. What is the quality and availability of the field work. Where does the field work take place. What is the opportunity for research as a freshman. Are there study abroad programs. How large are the classes and labs. Are they taught by professors or grad students. Are they affiliated with grad programs, do they work with the EPA or NOAA, are there Hollings scholars? Are there different tracks for marine science. How do the credits transfer to another major if she changes her mind? Is she assigned a mentor in her field? Does the institution encourage/and/or require undergrate participation in research. My daughter looked at the list, and first crossed off landlocked and extreme northern colleges. She wanted to be able to be doing research outside all year. We visited large universities and smaller LAC’s. She then crossed off large universities, kept the smaller universities and LAC’s. She did extensive work on looking at class size, research availability, study abroad, mentor programs and whether or not the classes and labs were taught by grad students. She was able to cross more off her list. We talked finances, looked at merit, scholarship and financial aid awards and her chances of admission based upon her stats. She crossed more off of her list. We revisited some and made first visits to others. She applied to 7 schools and was accepted to all 7. She chose not to apply to reach schools, only match and safety. She ended up at her first choice which also gave the largest amount of money. It cost less than sending her to our state school. The entire process took a year.There are some marine/environmental school threads on CC. Try to search and you may see them listed. There are wonderful schools, large, small and in state. It takes a lot of leg work to sift through. I’m sure parents will be willing to share insight when you get a little farther along in the process. Best of luck.</p>
<p>ECmotherx2 - You and your daughter did a great job of researching schools! Could you list some of the schools that she thought were good choices? That might help the OP.</p>
<p>The schools that she applied to were: Hawaii Pacific University, University of San Diego, University of Miami, Eckerd College, Florida Institute of Technology, URI, University of Hawaii.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It takes a masters or PhD degree to get a substantive job in Marine Biology, Oceanography etc., so where one obtained an undergraduate degree is not critical to a successful career in the field.</p></li>
<li><p>People in the field often say that interested undergraduates should major in a different discipline before pursuing a graduate degree in Marine Biology, since many of the marine studies courses taken in college may likely need to be repeated at the graduate level.</p></li>
<li><p>There are a bunch of solid programs, mostly located in the coastal states, as you can imagine. Some programs of note include:</p></li>
</ol>
<p>U of Washington
Oregon State University
U of Rhode Island
U of N. Carolina-Wilmington
Duke University
U of Miami (FL)</p>
<p>I looked at the undergraduate program at Richard Stockton College a few years ago and thought it was quite rigorous. Check out their partnership with the Seal Rescue project.</p>
<p>Another school (though it may not have a Marine Biology major per se) is the U of Alabama-Birmingham, a school that is otherwise strong in the life sciences. UAB is a member of the marine studies consortium at Dauphin Island, Alabama. Students from all over the U.S. study during the summer at Dauphin Island (if hurricanes permit, LOL). As a plus, UAB is a tuition bargain.</p>
<p>Take note of the Sea Grant colleges, a marine education designation modeled after the Land Grant college idea. Two that I visited with Lake Jr. were UNC-Wilmington and U Massachusetts-Dartmouth. However, I wouldn’t pass up a program in my own state to pay high tuition rates at a similar marine biology program elsewhere.</p>
<p>That being said, I like the credentials of the marine biology faculty at the U of South Carolina-Columbia. A few USC professors did their PhD or post-doc work at places such as Woods Hole and Friday Harbor and at Scripps in San Diego.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all your responses. Exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for and very informative. I’m very appreciative of everyone taking a moment to share their thoughts and experiences.</p>