I’m looking to major in Natural Resources with a wildlife emphasis Montana has Wildlife Habitat Ecology and Management and UNR has wildlife ecology and conservation. What has the better program?
Paging @ski_racer
To the best if my knowledge, Montana State is better academically.
Hi, I can’t speak for MSU but I know lots of people who are Wildlife majors at UNR. All of them are very satisfied with the program. They get super great internships and their department chair is very involved. She sends out internship and job announcement emails almost daily, which is awesome! I know people who have gotten summer internships at wildlife refuges, summer jobs on trail crews, and part-time jobs as remote research assistants.
UNR as a school is also great. People like to bash on it and say the quality of education is bad or whatever, but those Nevada gambling taxes fund it out the wazoo. The campus is gorgeous, complete with east coast-style tree-lined quad. All the buildings are of matching red brick. The course selection is incredibly broad, both within the Natural Resource department and as a whole. I genuinely feel like my professors care. When I was on crutches last year, the professor of my 300-person general chem lecture approached me after class and asked if I would be more comfortable taking an upcoming test in his office, without any promoting from me. My classes feel small, even when they aren’t.
There are tons of departmental and research scholarships that aren’t advertised, so as long as you fill out the right forms you might get a happy little surprise in your financial aid.
It’s super easy to get involved on campus and there are tons of clubs, including the UNR Wildlife Society chapter. There are a lot of other natural resource clubs as well. You can check out the full list at the ASUN website.
As for Wildlife as a major, it can be hard to find permanent employment after graduation. Organizations will often hire on a temporary basis for the duration of a project. Therefore, permanent positions can be pretty competitive.
Let me know if you have any other questions and feel free to PM me!
(Thanks @Twoin18 ! I’m a little late but I made it!)
MYOS I am just curious if you have any reasons as to why MSU is better academically because on Forbes UNR is ranked higher.
Why do you say MSU has better academics? Forbes ranks UNR higher than MSU by a lot of places.