<p>One of my sons is an expert, truly exceptional birder. He wants to study wildlife in college. He is a sophomore, and he is maybe in the middle academically, I would guess, at a very competitive public high school (does not rank). He probably would feel lost at a huge university, though he might do well at a specialized, more personal program within a large institution. I do not expect high standardized test scores for him. He has a few good ECs (besides the birding). Can you recommend colleges that would be worth his looking into?</p>
<p>That's one of my interests too (hence my screen name). I recommend the College of the Atlantic, although it may be too small for him (~300 students). It's absolutely fantastic for wildlife biology, and it's right next to Arcadia National Park. </p>
<p>Look to the West. Great wildlife and wide open spaces unmatched.</p>
<p>UWYO has a Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and Management Major that is a nice program and decent stats may get you some $$. This is a very wealth university right now and has capped freshmen math and english classes in the 20 student range. It is mid size. Full out of state Tuition is only 10K while instate is 3K. </p>
<p>Wyo is having multi Billion dollar surpluses at the state level right now. Studies in Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and the Colorado Rockies are pretty cool (can be cold LOL)</p>
<p>As my screen name suggests, I graduated from UWYO and studied biology. As a graduate student, I had a research assistantship with the game and fish dept. Therer are many opportunites for wildlife study there, and as the previous poster mentioned money is plentiful in the state right now. It's a beautiful campus of about 8000 students, only about 2 hours north of Denver.</p>
<p>I would second College of the Atlantic - a very unique school - small but with lots of opportunities - very creative in the educational focus - 1 general major - but many options/choices to get there.</p>
<p>I think it is considered the 'greenest' school in the country as well :)</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has majors in Wildlife and Conservation Biology and related studies like Forestry. It is not as competitive as UW-Madison. Take a look: UWSP</a> College of Natural Resources - Wildlife - About</p>
<p>NC State University has a Fisheries and Wildlife major. It is in the college of Forestry and Environmental Sciences. Though NCSU is a very large school, this dept. is very small. S1(a Jr.) is in this dept. He has found all the instructors to be pretty laid back and approachable. His advisor in the dept. has been great about helping him arrange his schedule even letting him substitute in some major electives that were not the ones originally required. The general ed. science classes are huge but the classes in his major are not. He is taking one this Spring with a class size of 12.</p>
<p>Two schools to consider. Michigan State has a very well respected school of Fisheries and Wildlife. My H's cousin and her H both graduated from there and have jobs in their field and are interesting to them. Also Michigan Tech. They have a forestry dept and an Applied Ecology major that he might be interested in. Both schools are not super hard to get into and MTU offers OOS scholarships that could make it affordable.</p>
<p>Consider Whitman and Colorado College. Both very outdoorsy in the west/midwest. Colorado college has a cool block program (1 course/month), which he will either love or detest. They also have a Baca Campus where students often go to with a class to do research. Whitman is harder to get into, but has great academics with a much more down-to earth attitude. Whitman's tree:student ratio is 10:1 (read that quote somewhere, though it's cute)</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at some of the majors in the School of Natural Resources, within the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The Fisheries and Wildlife Management major may lead to work as a conservation agent, for example. Columbia, MO houses a couple of the branches of the MO Conservation Department, a very well-funded and active state agency; I don't know the extent to which the agency offers internships to MU conservation students, but I'm willing to bet there is a close relationship.</p>
<p>The University of Wyoming campus is really very attractive. We visited briefly while on vacation this summer. My daughter is casually looking around at campuses, and her name ended up on their mailing list. There are a lot of steep tuition discounts even for pretty non-impressive statistics. Laramie is not as vibrant a college town as some others, including Columbia, MO (with which I am extremely familiar), but it seemed pretty nice.</p>
<p>Boise State University in Idaho offers a Masters in Raptor Biology, which means many classes from experts in bird biology are available to undergrad bio students: </p>
<p>The World Center for Bird of Prey is also located within a few miles of Boise, and has cooperative learning opportunities for BSU biology students.</p>
<p>My mind is soaring, just imagining all the great Western opportunities. But if you<br>
need to study in the East, there's a SUNY Environmental Science/Forestry program. The physical location makes it seem like it's at Syracuse University, but in fact it's a State University of New York program. </p>
<p>To explore study abroad, in summer or perhaps for Junior Term, check out the Bird sanctuary and program in Israel at Kibbutz Lotan. It's in the south, so it's a desert ecology.</p>