<p>I will be a senior this fall and I am not certain of what I want to do. I know I want to work with and study exotic animals. I have considered being a marine biologist or zoologist-- yes I know very few get to work hands on with animals. I have also considered being a marine mammal vet or exotic animal vet. What would be good to major in for these careers? What colleges have good animal programs? Is there something I can major in to keep my options open to all of these things? </p>
<p>If interested in Marine options, make sure Eckerd College is on your list of places to check out. When we were there visiting, some students were talking in a bit of detail about having recently been “in” on a manatee necropsy.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nova.edu/ocean/excellence/index.html”>http://www.nova.edu/ocean/excellence/index.html</a>
<a href=“http://www.nova.edu/ocean/academics/index.html”>http://www.nova.edu/ocean/academics/index.html</a></p>
<p>New College of Florida is also very strong in those fields. Eckerd offers some very generous scholarships, and NCF is always near the top of every list of “Best Buys” for colleges. They both boast beautiful waterfront locations. University of Rhode Island has a pretty good oceanography department, also. Otherwise, most state universities evolved out of agricultural “cow colleges,” and continue to have superb life science programs. Are you qualified for the most selective tier? Do you want a large or small school? </p>
<p>I have checked out Eckerd, Nova Southeastern, and New College of Florida online. They all seemed to have good programs. I have recently looked at the university of Miami. I’ve read they have a great marine science programs. I have a 3.8 gpa and a 28 on my ACT which I hope to bump up to a 30. Size of school does not matter to me, only the quality of the programs! </p>
<p>Indeed, UMiami does. You’re certainly a candidate at all these schools; if you could bump up the 28 to a 30 you would be in better shape. You might also check out Louisiana and Mississippi schools, particularly LSU, to see how much money is flooding their marine biology programs since the Deep Water Horizon disaster. Money can mean new labs, funded research opps, more professors, paid internships, etc. Not that other marine bio programs didn’t get a piece of the money, but a lot of it went into the states most affected.</p>
<p>I’m a rising senior and basically want to do something in marine biology/ conservation biology (maybe veterinary stuff). I’ve looked into University of Miami, University of Puget Sound, and University of San Diego. </p>
<p>Firstly, be aware that in order to work in the most substantive areas of marine biology/marine science/oceanography, you will need a graduate degree. That’s the state of the field at present. That being said, a lot of marine scientists did not major in marine science at their undergraduate university. In fact, I’ve read articles wherein they’ve emphasized how their alma maters didn’t even have any marine sciences undergraduate major. I think the author was an alumnus of some land-locked college, of all places.</p>
<p>That being said, you should find an undergraduate biology or zoology or ecology department that interests you; almost every American college has a biology department.</p>
<p>Jkeil911 makes a good point in that schools in coastal states tend to have very good marine sciences departments. But again, those departments specialize in graduate studies. There are undergraduate programs of course, but majoring in the life sciences, physics or math would allow you to keep your options open. Keep in mind that there are many summer marine science programs operated by various colleges at several sites, for example;</p>
<p>Friday Harbor, U of Washington
Dauphin Island, Alabama/S Eastern consortium
Woods Hole, MIT
Avery Point, U of Connecticut</p>
<p>After participating at one of the summer programs you would be in a better position to know if graduate study and a career in Marine Science is truly for you.</p>
<p>I think if I did choose the marine science path I would want to double major in biology/marine science. Would that be a good choice? Obviously double majoring is probably going to be tough but I knowi can do it if it is the best thing for me to do. </p>
<p>I wonder if a marine science background and finance or economics or meteorology or engineering wouldn’t be more helpful. With the rise in sea water over the course of your lifetime, a familiarity with one or all of these other fields could be useful. The list is not complete, of course.</p>
<p>College of the Atlantic, in Maine, is another possibility.</p>
<p>My soon to be college freshman (at Eckerd) considered U Miami & Nova Southeastern while looking. He knows he specifically wants tropical, so states north of FL were automatically eliminated. He did consider TAMUG and UH Manoa as well…</p>
<p>He ended up selecting Eckerd due to their not having grad students and having their marine facilities right on campus. UM and NS both have great facilities, but it’s a bus ride away to get to them and there are grad students at both getting to do “all the fun stuff” with upkeep, etc.</p>
<p>He also noted that Eckerd students get FAR more NOAA’s Hollings Scholarships than any other school. UM comes in second, but they also likely have some meteorology recipients as well as marine subjects.</p>
<p>However, if you specifically want Marine Bio, note that Eckerd’s major is Marine Science - you do far more than just Bio there. They have 4 subspecialties you’ll be exposed to.</p>
<p>Then too, they do a ton with coastal issues and similar.</p>
<p>Just some additional thoughts to consider… best wishes on your search!</p>
<p>It’s essentially pointless to double major in Marine Science/Biology. Invertebrate Zoology, Marine Botany, Ichthyology, Mammalogy etc.ARE BIOLOGY COURSES!!!</p>
<p>By the way, two very good undergraduate programs are U of South Carolina-Columbia and Richard Stockton College (New Jersey). The faculty at USC is particularly strong as many faculty members earned their PhD from some gold standard Marine Science programs; U Washington, MIT-Woods Hole, Oregon State University. Also at the very top, I think Scripps Institute-UC San Diego has an undergraduate program.</p>
<p>As usual, LakeWashington gives terrific advice. Wherever you go, get a strong background in the basic sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, and geology) with a bit of math (both calc and stats) and computer science mixed in. Marine-specific courses can wait until graduate school. </p>
<p>First, be aware that your interests will quite likely change, despite how set on it you think you are. I’ve been posting about marine biology on this forum for almost a decade now, and MANY of the students on CC who entered college fascinated by marine biology switched majors fairly quickly after getting hooked on a subject they’d never been exposed to before. Before choosing a college for marine science, make sure it’s a college you would still want to attend if you switch majors.</p>
<p>
Be aware that most such jobs are in oceanaria, and there are very, very few of them. Vet school requires hundreds of hours of animal handling and veterinary experience, including both small animals (cats, dogs, rabbits, etc.) and large animals (cows, sheep, horses, etc.). Exposure to marine labs or marine science research might be nice if you’re interested in that, but it would be of comparatively little importance to your application. </p>
<p>Schools with a vet hospital on/near campus (i.e. not elsewhere, like Tufts’) are typically the best bet for a pre-vet because they offer a lot of animal handling experience and the specialized courses (e.g. animal nutrition) that some vet schools require. The US has only 28 vet schools, and they are all very difficult to get into – it is more difficult to get into vet school than medical school.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Education/Accreditation/Colleges/Documents/colleges_accredited.pdf”>https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Education/Accreditation/Colleges/Documents/colleges_accredited.pdf</a></p>
<p>Land grant universities often have animal science programs and are also a good bet for pre-vet students.</p>
<p>
I second majoring in an unrelated discipline. </p>
<p>Getting teaching certification is one option; private schools especially pay pretty well, and many schools are desperate for good science teachers. There are many other practical majors – statistics, geography, public policy, econ, business, etc. – that mesh well with both marine biology and medicine.</p>
<p>
LakeWashington, Zapfino, and I have written a lot about marine science and zoology programs over the years. Two past responses:
</a></p>
<p>If you’re a California resident, I’d be happy to discuss the program here at UCLA with you.</p>
<p>Stepping away from marine biology for a bit, take a broader look at the selection process. </p>
<p>(1) Think about what you want in a college.
[ul][<em>]What are your stats? (GPA, class rank, ACT/SAT scores, etc.)
[</em>]What can you afford? How much merit or financial aid will you need?
[<em>]Small (<3000 students), small-medium (3000-7000), medium (7000-12,000), medium-large (12-20,000), or large (20,000+)?
[</em>]Big city, small city, suburban, rural…?
[<em>]Which part(s) of the country? (Pacific Northwest? Northeast? California? Southeast?)
[</em>]Co-ed or single-sex?
[li]Any other factors you deem important - must offer a particular language, offers LD support, has gender-neutral housing, big Greek scene or no Greek scene, DI or DIII athletics, etc.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>(2) Use search engines to create a preliminary list of prospective colleges based on qualities you’ve determined are important to you.</p>
<p><a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search</a>
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/</a></p>
<p>(3) Narrow down further. Read books like the Fiske Guide to Colleges and the Insider’s Guide to the Colleges. Your local library should have copies.</p>
<p>(4) Narrow down based on your interests in biology. No college, even among major research universities, excels in all areas of biology. Haverford is excellent for biochemistry, for example, but it’s much weaker in anything else. Other examples of LACs with particular strengths include Amherst (neuroscience), Conn College (botany), Ohio Wesleyan (zoology), and Eckerd (marine science). Check course schedules - NOT the course bulletin, which includes courses that haven’t been taught in years - to see if courses in your areas of interest are taught regularly. Other things to look for:
[ul][<em>]How much research funding is available? How competitive is it to get?
[</em>]How good are the college’s research opportunities? Are freshmen encouraged to participate in research? (Be wary of people who brag about freshmen “working in labs.” Too often this is simple grunt work.)
[<em>]Have students been published? If so, as what author (1st, 2nd, etc.) and in what journals? [</em>]How many students have received NSF or other post-graduate fellowships?
[<em>]What graduate programs do students attend?
[</em>]Does the college offer field and lab-based seminars?
[<em>]Are there faculty members in your area(s) of interest?
[</em>]What special facilities does the college have? Herbarium, vert/invert research collections, SEM, phytotron, mass spec, flow cytometry…?[/ul]</p>
<p>Once you’ve done all of this, you should have a list of about 20 or 30 colleges. College visits can help you cull the list further.</p>