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Marine Biology
utzybuzzy
47 replies13 threads Junior Member
My daughter received a BA in Biology in 2015. She volunteered at an aquarium and is going to be a Protective Species Observer (PSO) this year with plans to attend grad school Fall 2021 in marine biology, wants more field research than lab with hopes to study invertebrates but does not like genetics and has a 2.9 gpa and not the best gre scores. 3 questions. Will the aquarium job (assistant aquarist with jellyfish) and PSO job be good experience? Also, she has to contact a professor first and most do work with genetics. She understands the basics, but doesn't want to concentrate in that area so how would you go about stating that in your letter of intent? Also, anyone know of possible schools she'd have a chance of getting into?
1 replies
Replies to: Marine Biology
I think that the aquarium job will be good experience. I am not sure that it will be particularly unique among students wanting to study marine biology. If she gets strong references from senior people who work in the field that is likely to help. Also, given a soso GPA (or even with a great GPA) having some work experience in my opinion strengthens her application.
Do you have a geographic preference?
Most of the programs that I am familiar with are either very selective (eg, Stanford) or outside of the US. Some that come to mind as possibly worth looking at are the University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, UNH, and two in eastern Canada: Dalhousie (in Nova Scotia) and Memorial University of Newfoundland. I do not know if a 2.9 will get your daughter into any of these. My wild guess is that Dalhousie would be the least likely with a 2.9 but I really do not know.
To me graduate school admissions happens rarely enough that it is hard to know what to expect.