College major bio or marine bio

[Stickboy15]

okay so im a freshman in college and I'm a bio major and my plan has been to go into dentistry or orthodontics as I've been fascinated be teeth my whole life. I really like being a pre dental major but the program is terrible my bio teacher can't teach for crap and thinks a 65 is a good grade. Highest grade is a C which is what I think I have. Class avg is 48 btw has me worried about getting into dental school, parents think I should go into marine bio even tho we don't really have a program for it but I love fish and corals but idk about that because id have to move to the coast prob and kinda a hard field to make some good $. Another option is become a business major and get into the retail coral business. So anyone out there in the Dental, bio, coral business, marine field help me out please. I just don't wanna end up with a degree I can't do anything with. My parents have very high expectations my mom graduated kum lad and was on the presidents list every semester. Don't really want to change schools because of my golf scholarship and Ive met a lot friends and its close to home.

 

[Stickboy15]

Advisor is kinda useless just keeps saying don't worry you'll get into wvu no issue we send good kids they like the prestige of wheeling jesuit and being a West Virgina boy you'll get first dibs too.

 

[saltyhog]

One consideration would be to pad your odds. I don't know about dental school but in medical school there is no preferred major as long as you have the necessary biology and chemistry subjects. You could do a marine biology degree and still pursue dental school.

We had lots of folks in our class that had English and even philosophy majors. They are looking more for a well rounded, intelligent individual.

 

[Stickboy15]

never really thought about that, no one ever even told me that

 

[Conor Vaughn]

Advisor is kinda useless just keeps saying don't worry you'll get into wvu no issue we send good kids they like the prestige of wheeling jesuit and being a West Virgina boy you'll get first dibs too.

Good luck! My advice, school is really hard if you aren't majoring in something that interests you. I went to school for Molecular Biology and Chemistry purely because of an obsession with reef aquariums. That interest later turned into medicine, but the fundamental science courses start out the same.

There are two general tracks of biology, ecology and molecular/chemical bio. A lot of scientists regard the ecology track as a "soft science"- not to degrade it (seriously, ecology discovers some cool stuff!), but it doesn't quite qualify you for dental school. Either track of bio qualifies you for marine biology grad school- albeit different specialties within marine bio.

So my recommendation, do a molecular/chemical track of biology so you qualified for both and leave the decision up to future you. As for grades, I had a lot of courses where most of the class was technically failing. They'll adjust grades at the end- a prof. can't get away with failing everyone. Just have to beat the curve!

 

[Conor Vaughn]

One consideration would be to pad your odds. I don't know about dental school but in medical school there is no preferred major as long as you have the necessary biology and chemistry subjects. You could do a marine biology degree and still pursue dental school.

We had lots of folks in our class that had English and even philosophy majors. They are looking more for a well rounded, intelligent individual.

This is really good advice. You'll have to take enough sciences courses to probably have a minor anyway, but medical schools really are looking for more well-rounded candidates.

 

[Stickboy15]

Thank you guys

 

[Labridaedicted]

Marine bio major reporting in! Tough field to find directly relevant work in. Although, with marine bio, most bio work will be available, as well.

I personally work private sector for a engineering firm doing environmental permitting including marine permitting.

I went that route as pay is lower comparatively and it is waaaaay more competitive in pure marine biologist positions since there is a bit of an overabundance of us looking for those few jobs. It is an incredible field to explore for and should meet the requirements for many masters, etc in the bio field afterwards.

I did work retail in the lfs industry for a while and found it to be veeery tight from a financial standpoint. Not that that should deter everyone, but certainly is something to consider.

All of this being said, I've got friends that graduated with me and are all over the place doing all kinds of cool stuff. Working deep sea research in curacao, working at public aquariums, doing coral restoration in the Caribbean, doing research on NOAA vessels to name a few.

Go into it with an open mind and you'll have a blast!

 

[Stickboy15]

Thank you

 

[AlexStinson]

Average salary for a marine biologist is 51k, for a dentist is 126k. That extra 75k can buy a lot of hobby.

 

[DylanE]

I'm not a dentist, but I am a recently graduated emergency medicine doc. I had a similar struggle when I was in undergrad, and actually spent a few years bumbling around in community college before transferring to a university. I agree with what others have said, which is to find something you are interested in first and foremost. I started out wanting to do marine bio, and actually finished my BA in anthropology. I believe that dentistry school is similar to medical school in that you just need certain prereqs in order to apply, which you can do without being a biology major. I went to medical school with people that had degrees ranging from philosophy to engineering.

I wanted to do marine biology because I love scuba and reef tanks. I found, however, that that didn't have too much in common with what I'd actually be doing if I became a marine biologist. I now have a good friend finishing her PhD, and she is spending hundreds of hours watching sea grasses flower. She loves it, but it's not something I'd want to be doing.

 

[jabberwock]

The marine biologists that I work with become project managers because that pays better.

 

[count krunk]

i thought i wanted to be a marine bio for a long time. i ended up becoming a biz major at UCF and from there being a project manager.

I love my field, and i still love to drive an hour to the atlantic and go diving whenever i can.

 

[Stickboy15]

Average salary for a marine biologist is 51k, for a dentist is 126k. That extra 75k can buy a lot of hobby.

exactly thats I'm thinking my dentist told me he's well over 200k and has the pics to prove it. Huge beach house, takes trips every few months around the world.

 

[Pauley]

Went to school for marine biology undergrad degree with a sem at Woods Hole, etc. Ended up never using my bio degree. Other than staying in academia, it’s somewhat hard to make baller money in any research bio field (pharm/biomed excluded). Most people I’ve met who are working in the discipline do it out of passion. Whatever makes you happy/content. What are you willing to devote your time and effort to becoming excellent in? If you decide dental, you can probably go the premed track, which may have some different reqs that a life science degree. Probably best to ask your counselor, so you’re covered either way, and have the right credits to graduate and get into your desired PG program.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

West Liberty that is ~15 minutes from you has an incredible biology department/program. Might be worth checking out if you don't like the way things are going at Jesuit. I graduated from there with a Bio education degree (1-2 bio & chem classes I didn't have to take that are required for full bio degree) and really enjoyed the program - small class sizes, professors love what they do, and they actually care about who you are. My wife graduated there with a Bio degree, and now has a doctorate in physical therapy. During her PT program, she always said how she felt she learned a lot more in undergrad that her classmates she was studying with seemed to retain. Also, my sister finished her bio degree there (and really enjoyed it) and just graduated and walked into a job as a Physician's Assistant. If biology is the field you want to pursue and you don't want to travel far from where you're at, you should really consider looking into it. They also just added a zoo science masters if you're looking for something animal-related after a bachelor's in Bio. Feel free to PM if you have any questions or if I can help out in any way!

 

[Indymann99]

Become an Orthodontist... setup shop in an affluent area and work 4 days a week. They make so much $$ its crazy.

 

[fish farmer]

One consideration would be to pad your odds. I don't know about dental school but in medical school there is no preferred major as long as you have the necessary biology and chemistry subjects. You could do a marine biology degree and still pursue dental school.

My university was know as having lots of premed course work. I took lots of chemistry, biology and math classes with future med students and fisheries students. Some of those med students were smart! The fish guys liked to party, haha. I didn't really focus on my core classes for my Aquaculture and Fisheries degree until the last couple of years at college.

 

[Stickboy15]

My university was know as having lots of premed course work. I took lots of chemistry, biology and math classes with future med students and fisheries students. Some of those med students were smart! The fish guys liked to party, haha. I didn't really focus on my core classes for my Aquaculture and Fisheries degree until the last couple of years at college.

Tell me more about your aquaculture and fisheries degree

 

[fish farmer]

Tell me more about your aquaculture and fisheries degree

It was a bachelor of science in Resource Development, Major in Aquaculture and Fisheries from the University of Rhode Island. This school is know for nursing, agriculture, marine fisheries, etc.

Currently they are working with raising tuna, https://www.greenfins.com/ . I went to school with the founder of this program and Dr. Terry Bradley was one of my professors.

When I started in 1987 a lot of the "old guard" poultry farmers were teaching the aquaculture classes, there were some newer professors coming into the classroom when I was part way through school. I took a mix of aquaculture and fisheries classes, both worked toward the degree.

They are also heavy into bivalve culture, one of their graduates runs a local restaurant/oyster farm, Matunuck Oyster Bar. http://www.rhodyoysters.com/

My coursework was intro to aquaculture, genetics, physiology of fish, intro to marine and freshwater sciences, aquatic resourses and ecology, oceanography. There were several general biology, microbiology and animal behavior courses, intro to resource economics and seafood economics courses. Some general chemistry and organic chemistry(which I failed once). Math and statistics. I did do some special projects on site, one was a simple feeding/sampling juvenile salmon in thier aquaculture lab. Another project was a tagging study for Atlantic salmon smolts with one of my professors, we actually had to write a grant for that one.

I rounded it out with some history, art and the must have speech course.