Becoming a marine biologist...

simple;105798 said:
I have a question for the marine biologists on here: what university/college did you attend? and what do you feel they are looking for in terms of prior experience, and grades?
Thanks.

I missed this part, thanks for pointing it out Nancy.

I attended Mount Holyoke College and received my Bachelor's Degree in Biological Sciences. I did an undergraduate honor's thesis on S. officinalis. I should point out that this is a women's college. They have a great biology department.

I received my Master's Degree in Zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I also did research on S. officinalis.

As with any college, the more experience and higher grade point average, the better... I was able to do marine biology internships every summer during college. I think this helped me get into a Master's program.
 
Oops, I meant to respond to this earlier too. Sorry!

I was lucky enough to have a one-semester marine bio course offered in high school, which I took my junior year, and that started to get me hooked. For college, I went to Wellesley (another women's college - hi Cuttlegirl :razz:), which is near Boston, and I interned at the New England Aquarium one day a week for three years. During that time I majored in Environmental Science (and German - super important and relevant :roll:... but helps me read ceph papers in German when needed!), which at that time was a do-it-yourself major. Basically my supervisor advised me to take some core science papers, which I hated at the time - 3 semesters of chemistry, though I did weasel out of doing physics in the end - but has actually been very useful. Hate it when they're right! :wink: On top of that, I took every marine course I could get my hands on (marine bio, oceanography, biology of marine mammals - offered as a course at a different local university but allowed cross-crediting, which you may have to do if you want to collect marine credits), plus a bunch of other related things - ecology, zoology, environmental philosophy. I did one semester of my junior year of college at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
After college I went back to MN and taught German for a year. Go second major!
Then I had to come back and get another NZ fix, was already interested in cephs and had made my auspicious debut on TONMO by asking Steve pointy questions (:oops:), met him in Wellington, and now (five years later) I've almost finished my PhD on ceph systematics. Almost. So... close... :bugout:
 
I went to Texas A&M at Galveston where I got my B.S. in Marine Biology. The school is not too hard to get into as long as you have decent grades. There are good and bad sides to the school but mostly good. The school focuses on marine subjects (marine biology, marine science, fisheries, wetlands ecology ect). Over all it is probably one of the best marine biology schools out there but because it focuses so much on marine biology you miss out on some of the other humanities and therefore you are not as well rounded. The entire time I was down there I worked for the NRCC. After I graduated I worked at the University of Southern California's marine lab as a lab tech. and have just started working for the University of Hawaii as a lab manager and will probably skip a masters and go straight to a ph.d. As far as jobs in marine biology there aren't many, most new jobs in the field are fisheries, wetlands, and aquaculture related. Most of the work I've been doing is in experimental mariculture which I 've never had a problem finding a job and when I have time I do ceph research on the side.
 
brock -- in response to your last question:

"Also, what are some careers that a marine biologist can look for?"

I would suggest also seeing examples of job opportunities that exist once you have completed school: i.e. job sites that post openings that one can look at to see what is being offered.

Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile:
 
sammccoy;114591 said:
brock -- in response to your last question:

"Also, what are some careers that a marine biologist can look for?"

I would suggest also seeing examples of job opportunities that exist once you have completed school: i.e. job sites that post openings that one can look at to see what is being offered.

Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile:

:welcome: to TONMO.

Are you sure that's the link you meant to post? It seems to just go to a GoDaddy parked search page for "jobs." I also see it's in your signature, not the post. This seems to fit the profile search engine optimization spam, but I'd love to be proven wrong by hearing what kind of job you have, and how you found it there...

sorry to be cynical, but I get frustrated dealing with the spammers that get paid to post useless content.
 
I am currently in college taking courses in photography and coastal biology. I plan to transfer out after next year though, any recommendations? Hawaii is an open option, as is UNCW.
 
Another thing to think about is what type of research do you want to do? study of the anatomy or life cycle, genomics, medical applications, aquaculture. That could effect what collage or university would be best for you and what minor or concentration you may want to add to your degree.
And don't hesitate to look at places that may seem out of the way. The University of Maine, where I go, has a School of Marine Science with hands on facilities and connections to Woods Hole.
 
What type of aquaculture are you interested in? Food stock, ornamentals,...? I'm interested in the ornaments and if my funding goes through for summer I'm going to be working with marine ornamentals in the aquaculture research facility at school.
 
My main goal is to do behavioral resaerch on cephs, with aquaculture as a sideline. But if I could, I would want to do more underwater photography. So basically, I want to do underwater photography the most, but aquaculture ia an open route too. I would (and do) do reference work for local marine fish stores. I get paid minimally, but I could max out, with my transpo and set up sidelines.
 
I've done all my tertiarty education at the University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ. I have a BSc in behavioural psychology and behavioural zoology, a postgraduate diploma in marine science (this diploma is peculiar to Otago, somewhat similar to an Honours year), an MSc in Marine Science and a PhD in Marine Science (squeaky new :biggrin2:). Currently I am working as a teaching fellow in Marine science, teaching marine ecology, earth and ocean science and field marine science (although today I helped out with a coastal marine geology trip....fun!!!). Plus I do work for our aquarium as an educator (but having a break right now!) I am looking for more permanent work in my field (Steve...any Post Docs up your way :biggrin2: ??????????)

Check out www.otago.ac.nz/marinescience

J
 
LOL. Jean, I've been considering throwing it all in and doing another PhD - probably on polychaete or octocoral systematics. Let some poor other soul deal with the administration!

No postdocs right now I'm afraid; it'll be a few years before I offer one of these again; my funds are being directed towards infrastructure/equipment, facilities, and the occasional starving student.
 
Steve O'Shea;114973 said:
LOL. Jean, I've been considering throwing it all in and doing another PhD - probably on polychaete or octocoral systematics. Let some poor other soul deal with the administration!

No postdocs right now I'm afraid; it'll be a few years before I offer one of these again; my funds are being directed towards infrastructure/equipment, facilities, and the occasional starving student.

Hmmmm admin :goofysca: tell you what, I could send you some marking :bugout:

Ah well back to the drawing board............

J
 

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