Hi folks - my son is a future marine bio major / National Ocean Science Bowl champ and marine worm fan. He’s been admitted to UW and UCSD. We live on the east coast, visited UW, may or may not make it to UCSD in person before May 1 (COVID put a damper on a lot of our college visits last summer).
Which program would you choose, and why?
Checked a lot of ranks. Uw showed up on just one. I put it below. UCSD none. Surprised honestly. I’d have thought UCSD would be near the top with its Scripps Institute. This is a major where the most reputed nationally overall are not necessarily the best for the major. There are other majors like this. Supply chain. Sports etc.
Different schools. Sports, life, weather, beach access, etc.
Do a virtual tour at UC San Diego and ask to speak to a student at both.
Did your student love UW?
San Diego is the nicest city in America. UCSD is within distance of beautiful La Jolla.
Good luck
Not a fan of paying OOS rates to attend a UC. What are his other options?
The list you linked to has some great options, but it’s missing a lot of the usual suspects (e.g. URI, UNC Wilmington, College of the Atlantic, FSU, TAMU Galveston, etc.). The omission of U Miami is especially odd. I wouldn’t put too much weight on a college not being included.
In any case, academically you can’t go wrong with either. Marine biology is a field that requires a PhD to get anywhere, and UW and UCSD both provide fine preparation for grad school.
@bluebayou brings up a good point… these schools are not cheap for OOS students, and there may be better and more affordable options depending on where you live.
agree about “The U”. If son got into UCSD as an OOS, he likely would have received merit money at Miami.
There were lots of rankings I looked at. That was just one where I found one…UW.
Growing up in San Diego I always thought UCSD was a leader.
Living in TN now I know kids look to Coastal Carolina of all places.
UCSD/Scripps is a leader for its doctoral program, but so is UCSB and Santa Cruz.
Since you lived in SD, you then know that the UC campus is in La Jolla, surrounded by multi-million dollar homes, and far away from SD proper; not exactly a student community. Between only those two colleges, I’d recommend my kid choose U-Dub for the overall campus life.
Yeah I write in my first note it’s within distance of La Jolla. There are many areas of San Diego…not just downtown just like UW is a few very ‘traffic’ed’ minutes from downtown Seattle.
My son didn’t love Red Square at UW. OP said they may still get out to UCSD so will be helpful for them to compare (if possible).
Are both comfortably affordable (since you are apparently out-of-state for both)?
For this major, access to research is important. Have your child reach out to professors in the department and ask about opportunities on campus and their labs. Have him look at what research is active now with certain professors. You have different climates to do field work in as well. Does that matter to him?
Some campuses have their grad school marine bio labs hours away. Like in the list posted - I laughed at Duke. Great for grad school but those facilities are in Carteret County a couple hours away. Their undergrad students go and spend a semester there.
At least both of these options have salt water close by.
Setting up getting a masters and possibly a PhD with grants and TA money is what undergrad is about for this. Try to come out with as little debt as possible as pay is not great at the state level. Better at feds and at universities.
Duke is exceptionally strong in organismal biology and environmental science, so one could certainly do a lot worse. Additionally, it’s not uncommon for classes to take weekend field trips to the marine lab on top of the year (or year plus a summer) that marine bio students typically spend there. Duke students tend to do very well in terms of grad school placement.
Of course, I’m probably biased since I did my undergrad at Duke majoring in earth & ocean sciences.
Duke is absolutely a wonderful academic experience with top researchers in the field. The Duke Marine Lab is just a long way from the campus for those looking for flexibility in doing hands-on field work or lab work. It is geographically closer than the connection between UChicago to Woods Hole or Cornell to Isle of Shoals (a partnership with UNH which is also ranked in the top for this major and is by the coast).
The schools’ marketing material always worries me when they show things that are really hard logically to access for undergrads.
The OP’s child has some great opportunities close to the ocean. That is all I was saying. Go Coach K!
Yes - my son also got into U Delaware with hefty merit aid – but the marine research facility is in Lewes, not Newark. The faculty he talked to were great, though. There’s a lot of interesting marine research at UDel.
He also got into Eckerd with merit, but we’re nervous about sending him to a small school with limited options beyond marine bio.
Eckerd has more majors - I know a poli sci there - that said, it’s not robust or pre professional.
I’ve only heard good things - but yes it’s a far cry size wise from a big school.
Please don’t get me wrong - Eckerd is a great school! And there are big advantages to going to a small, undergraduate-focused school with a caring administration and a close-knit community. There are different advantages to going to a large research university with lots of different departments and student organizations, and my son is becoming more interested in that option.
If you don’t mind me asking, where did your son end up going? My S23 is in the process of making a decision on which college to attend as a Marine Biology major and UW is one of his options.