Biology or Environmental Science?

warblersrule
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:17:53 +0000

Does your school have a geology major? If so, go for geology instead. Geology can lead to a career as an oceanographer, which is a part of marine biology, and there are more opportunities for geologist than biologists.

Not quite accurate. Oceanography is composed of several fields, among them geological oceanography and biological oceanography (similar to but not quite the same as marine biology). Although there is a fair bit of flexibility and intermixing between the natural sciences, it is more common to go from biology to geology than the other way around. With the exceptions of paleontology on land and micropaleontology in the ocean, few geologists deal with organisms more than tangentially. A student aiming for a marine science graduate program with a biology concentration would need at least the equivalent of a minor in biology.

I strongly agree that geology has considerably better job prospects than biology or environmental science, however. It arguably has the best prospects of any science major, especially for those with only a BS or MS.