<p>I'm a college sophomore triple majoring in Marine Science, Biology, and Math at the University of Miami. I'm currently undergoing a research internship program, and one of the goals of the program is to essentially recruit undergrads to a research career. One of the pieces of advice that I've received is that I should start looking at grad schools now. I'll be looking to go straight into a PhD program in some field of Marine Biology (leaning toward a career as a research professor). My question is, how and where should I start looking at potential programs? I've looked a lot into my current institutions options (Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science), and it looks like a very good option, but obviously I'm only digging at the surface layer right now. So are there any suggestions you guys have in terms of searching for schools?</p>
<p>Asking professors at your school might be a good place to start, or a simple google search for marine biology graduate programs will likely give you many programs to look at. You can start to narrow it down when you know more about what you are looking for in a program or what sort of research you would like to do.</p>
<p>My daughter when straight into a PhD track program from undergrad. She didn’t look at schools until her summer/1st semester of Sr. year. At that time, she had a good idea of her qualifications and what her specialization was going to be. She had some idea of the level of programs she could get into. Many recommendations came from her upper division professors who knew her fairly well.</p>
<p>You should direct your questions to the person who gave you the advice, if you don’t know how to implement it. I’m sure they will elaborate.</p>
<p>I think for now, focusing on your grades, and research projects and getting to know your profs is the main importance. And getting familiar with schools in general. Find out where grads of your program often go. As you read research papers that interest you, find out where those researchers went, or where they are teaching.</p>
<p>Some top schools would be MIT-WHOI, Scripps, UWashington, the big UCs, UOregon, OSU and Hawaii.</p>
<p>Get opinions from professors you admire, find people who are doing what you want to do (or something close) and find out where they and their collaborators work. You’ll also be able to narrow things down depending on your areas of interest. No school is top in every aspect of marine bio.</p>