Recently I have been thinking about colleges that would be good for a CSI/forensic-based job, but I don’t know what courses are best for this job. I don’t even know what college I would like to go to. I have great grades and am at top of my class, I am set to get into a few dual enrollment classes for criminology, chemistry, and such, but I am still a little lost. My counselors at my school aren’t helping me either. Could I get some advice for my college path?
There are many colleges with forensic science majors and masters programs where you can specialize if you want to.
It is a great field to go into with cross curricular applications. You will want to have a lot of science courses, especially chemistry and physics.
Data science and management is also a huge part of the work for those interested in that side of things.
The college search engine with college Board has some great variables to plug in to narrow down the list of colleges with this major. College Search - BigFuture | College Board
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, there are forensic accountants, forensic chemists, forensic computer examiners*, forensic materials engineers, forensic photographers*, forensic psychiatrists, forensic psychologists, forensic science technicians*, forensic social workers, and forensic surveyors. For all but the asterisked professions, it then says see non-forensic version of profession (accountants, chemists, etc.). For the asterisked careers it says to look at forensic science technicians.
The education section for forensic science technicians says,
Forensic science technicians typically need at least a bachelor’s degree in a field such as physical science, biology, or forensic science. Forensic science programs may specialize in a specific area of study, such as toxicology, pathology, or DNA. Students who enroll in general natural science programs should make an effort to take classes related to forensic science. A list of schools that offer degrees in forensic science is available from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Many of those who seek to become forensic science technicians will have an undergraduate degree in the natural sciences and a master’s degree in forensic science.
Many crime scene investigators who work for police departments are sworn police officers and have met educational requirements necessary for admittance into a police academy. Applicants for civilian crime scene investigator jobs should have a bachelor’s degree in either forensic science, with a strong basic science background, or the natural sciences. For more information on police officers, see the profile on police and detectives.
So I guess it depends on what kind of forensics you’re thinking of. Forensic accounting? Major in accounting. But otherwise, forensic science sounds like a good bet.
ETA: If you’d like some help with developing a balanced list of colleges, just let us know. Sharing information about your GPA, test results,leadership & awards, areas of the country you would like to be in, climate, type of location (rural/suburban/urban), size of school, budget, extracurricular interests you want to continue in college, etc would be very helpful.
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