zoology degree anyone? and what did you do with it?

<p>My d. is finishing college in May with an equine science degree. She has decided she wants further education and does not have prerequisite courses/degree for any master's programs in which she may be interested. At this time she is looking at a 2nd major in zoology. </p>

<p>My question is what career options are there in this field if one is not interested in medicine or vet school? My gut feeling is that she is buying time before she has to enter "real life", but we do support her continuing education, particularly in a broader field than her first major.</p>

<p>So, any zoologists out there?</p>

<p>No zoology majors among all these parents?</p>

<p>My daughter was biology/zoology undergrad. She did a master's in animal reproduction and is now beginning her PhD. She had thoughts of vet school when she started undergrad but, during her repro course, decided that she wanted to specialize and figured that grad school would be an easier admit than vet school.... not to mention that grad school was fully funded. Ironically, the school where she did her master's encouraged her to do their DVM program if she didn't want to do her PhD there She is no longer interested in the DVM and decided that having a couple good schools would make a stronger academic resume and went elsewhere. She is on track to teach and do research at the university level but has had feelers from some companies doing cloning research. She had a real struggle while deciding whether or not to do her PhD. But the money is decent and she is meeting and working with people at the top of her field.
As a side note, she did her biology/zoology at a small 2nd tier LAC, although one known for its biology program and good med school placements. Most of her peers in the master's program came from research universities. She had a much more thorough basic biology background than they did and had done much more research than they had. Writing scientific papers was one area where she was way ahead; her LAC required much more in that regard.</p>

<p>Will throw in my small 2 cents--
Before the kids arrived I worked for the local chapter of a national conservation group. The focus was the protection of ecologically important land, so there were always a number of contract zoologists, herpetologists, entomologists, botanists, etc. working with us at any given time, searching for and identifying threatened species, helping develop protection strategies, etc. Some worked for our non-profit, others for the state Heritage program, and others were local and self-employed.</p>

<p>Also, our niece is majoring in equine studies and has become interested in the nutrition research end of things. Don't know if she'll continue with it, but it was an area I'd never considered before.</p>

<p>My undergrad degree was in zoology with a minor in chemistry. With that I worked in research labs for about 6 years before going to grad school. In grad school I earned a Ph.D. in Immunology and have worked in that field in the R&D department of a biotech company ever since.</p>

<p>A zoology degree gives you a good all-round grounding in biology that you can take in many different directions. Except for botany, I'm conversant in pretty much all branches of biology/biochemistry.</p>

<p>I agree with Coureur. The Zoology B.S. appears to provide a broad foundation for further (graduate) study.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

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<p>It is not unusual for a person to pick up pre-req courses by attending college even after you've gotten your degree. Once you start your degree program, you can take classes to catch up. </p>

<p>Coureur might be able to give you an idea how it worked in his case where he moved from zoology (animal emphasis) to immunology (microbiology/cellular emphasis).</p>

<p>I got my B.A in zoology, then went on to get an M.S. in statistics. I worked for the Game and Fish department for a while analyzing band return data from Canada Geese. Ended up as a QA statistician for a major pharmaceutical company.</p>

<p>My 9th and 10th grade math teacher was a zoology major.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that many graduate programs will allow about 8 semester credit hours of related undergraduate work to count towards the graduate degree, as long as the course is taken at the graduate degree granting institution in which the candidate is presently enrolled. This allows graduate candidates to "catch up" on coursework that they need to continue with the MS/PhD.</p>

<p>Most of D.'s coursework was very equine specific ie, equine nutrition, equine anatomy and physiology, stable management, equine micro, etc. So many of those won't transfer as "regular" bio classes. I think what she may do is take some of the physics, chem that she doesn't have and see how that goes. Then make decision on whether to aim towards masters in animal nutrition or some other type of research area.</p>

<p>Her lack of specific goal direction is driving my two sons crazy who entered college with very strong ideas of where they wanted to end up. My D.s answer to them was "every family needs one child who floats along"</p>

<p>We did put the stipulation on her that the days of private school tuition were over for now. While she was discovering her path--it would be at instate prices ;).</p>

<p>wyograd, the pharmaceutical industry is something she has mentioned as well as nutrition areas (I guess that would be research or feed companies)</p>

<p>All of these areas are so far out of my H's and mine's areas that it was hard for me to envision where the degree(s) would be used. Thanks for all the info.</p>

<p>LakeW, will keep in mind about the hours counting towards grad degree--that may very well apply in some of her options. Thanks.</p>

<p>I hope that I was clear. For example, a Biology M.S. candidate at Georgia Tech could enroll in 8 hours of related undergraduate classes at Georgia Tech, and that would count towards the graduate degree.</p>

<p>Yes, LakeW. you were clear. She is looking at NC State. They have zoology undergrad (which is possibility) or she may take classes towards that and have option open to apply to some of the other grad school majors instead. (I don't know if what I am typing makes sense--but I think we understand each other;))</p>

<p>I understand that North Carolina State has a very strong undergradute Zoology program. Also notable are Michigan State University (The Lyman Briggs School of Life Sciences), Colorado State University, Washington State University (The Honors College is great), U of Georgia and Texas Tech University.</p>

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<p>It wasn't that hard. I mostly had to take some more chemistry prior to grad school and a few catch-up courses once I was in grad school.</p>

<p>Zoology can be studied at several levels: ecosytem, population, organism, and organ (basically anatomy). Below that it merges into cellular and molecular biology.</p>

<p>But your daughter's plan on studying horses is a little puzzling in the context of a zoology program. It sounds to me more like an Animal Science program. Zoology is the study of <em>wild</em> animals. Domestic animals are usually studied in an Animal Science department. An equine zoologist would typically end up studying zebras or some other sort of wild horse.</p>

<p>It's more that she started with horses--her first love. But now she wants to branch beyond the horse industry. Basically, her grandmother was right, we paid for 4 years for her to study her "hobby" and now she wants to get on with her education. Actually, originally she thought she would like to manage an equestrian facility--but the more she learned, the more she has decided that it is not her "calling". </p>

<p>She has toyed with the idea of "zoo management" programs--but they require a bio undergrad degree. She does like "exotics" and would be interested in pursuing that line. So as of now it seems that picking up the stronger bio background will open up doors to avenues that interest her.</p>

<p>She did look at Animal Science program at NC state (remember we required she stay instate for now) and it is another possibility though there is no equine concentration--but does have reproduction, nutrition and genetics that are appealing. </p>

<p>I know she sounds all over the place (and she is my only one that was not diagnosed ADD!) My hope is that with exposure to some other sciences and disciplines she will focus her interest.</p>

<p>MKM - you may want puruse this site - especially the job section - I have been spending alot of time at this site as my gal is taking a direction change from what she originally started out to do. This site has been VERY iinformative!! She realizes she may have to take some zoology courses to get to where she wants to go - as of right now - but we shall see </p>

<p><a href="http://www.aza.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aza.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>thanks JeepMOM. Interesting stuff.</p>