College for this stuff

[Fishieness]

me too! i am in the middle of the application process however
my plan is go to to school somewhere for bio and then go to grad school somewhere for marine bio, possibly PhD but maybe masters and then become a professeur
that way i can call my fish tanks research
haahahaha
(that isnt the only reason though)
anyways, good luck
just about any school offers a BA in bio, and a pretty good number in marine bio. go to the www.collegeboard.com site and check around with a college search and you will find a bunch in the area you want to go

 

[Rudy]

less stressful, more rewarding, and less time consuming than my undergrad program. My experience in this particular program may not be all that typical, but I feel that overall it has been easier for me and on me than getting my B.S.

Your experience is the very different than my expereince. I guess it depends on the field of study. In my case Medicine, a field in which studies and internships become infintiely more challenging the further you proceed. The nice thing is the expeiecnes also become increasingly rewarding, which I believe you also emntioned.

 

[Tommy Gun]

With the management programs I have been through, I would have to agree that the master's is a bit less stressful and based a slight bit more on personal opinions and situational ideas than pure memorizing facts and all that. As a matter of fact, while I think that college has its unique challanges, I found spitting back facts in high school much harder. Then again, the older I get, the more I can read and actually understand things. It may have something to do with all the girl chasing and car racing I did back then though!

 

[Liz]

I'm looking at a "College of Marine Science" near me and it says the core courses are a year each of General Biology, Chemistry, Phsyics, Geology, and Calculus (I never made it past geometry... ouch). I'm thinking those are the classes I will take at Community College. And then I could transfer, get a B.S. in Biology, and then a Master's in... I don't know what my options are. Marine Science? Marine biology?
Here's the school I'm looking at...
http://www.marine.usf.edu/prospective-students/degree-requirements.shtml

I'm taking my placement test at the community college next week hopefully. I'm nervous because I haven't REALLY been to school since 10th grade (switched schools and was in mental hospital for a few months in 11th grade, got my GED in february in 11th grade last year). I used to finish all tests like half an hour before anyone else did, and I always got a 90%+ on them (and then failed the classes because I didn't care)... but I am so out of practice I doubt that will be the case beginning school again... I will probably get discouraged if I'm not the first person done every test at first...

 

[deg40]

While I'll agree that if you can get yourself through your undergrad education and you are willing to apply yourself you can get through graduate school - just be certain that you are willing to commit yourself to that many years of schooling.

In my experience I haven't found my graduate schooling (masters of public administration, now law school) particularly more "difficult" than undergrad (history and political science) just vastly more time consuming. If you are willing to do it, then you probably will be able to.

I think one of the important things to think about though is if you are willing to be in school that many years. 4 years for undergrad, plus 2 on average for a masters, or 4 or 5 for a PhD. Thats a long time. If you hit year 4 and get your BA/BS and realize you don't want to be in school any longer you need to be able to get a job. I don't think its always true that a BA will always earn you more money (not to say that I don't think there is inherent value in the education). The first thing the political science advisor says to every student at my school was learn how to say "would you like fries with that." Some degrees are just very hard to get a job in the field with if you only have a bachelors. Marine Bio, like political science is one of them.

I work weekends at a pet store - one of those absurdly large national chains. There are probably a dozen employees at the various stores in the region that have a BS in biology or marine biology. All with intentions of working for a zoo, a public aquarium or doing field research. Its just very hard to find a job in the field (at least in my area) without the post-grad degree.

I don't mean to discourage. School is good, in general more school will always tend to help, just remember that its no guarentee.