Marine Biology Anyone?

[jkprules]

Hey everyone. I'm a recent biology graduate from UNC Chapel Hill and I'm considering pursuing a PhD in Marine Biology. I know marine biologists frequent this site and was wondering if any out there could recommend good schools to apply to, give some general information about marine biology as a career, or even if anyone has an opening for a laboratory technician early next year. I would appreciate any advice or information anyone has to offer. Thank you very much for the help.

 

[Taollan]

I can speak for the west coast (not so much for the east coast), but some good schools here are:
In my opinion the two best and likely most competitive are:
Scripps @ UC San Diego (http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/)
University of Washington (Marine Biology | Marine Biology at the University of Washington)
Other top-tier west-coast biology programs with marine faculty are:
UC Santa Barbara (Home | UCSB Marine Science Institute)
Oregon State University (Department of Integrative Biology)
UC Berkley (http://ib.berkeley.edu/)
Stanford (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/biology/)
U of Oregon (http://www.uoregon.edu/~oimb/)

All of that being said, don't be afraid to go to an inland school without a marine biology emphasis. Find a faculty member that is doing work in a marine system you find attractive and shoot to get into that lab. There is a lot of great marine biology going on at schools not known for their marine biology work. Honestly, I think this approach will actually prove to beneficial in the long run. You get a lot of experience marketing your research to non-marine biologists and integrating with them as well. Marine bio programs are crazy competitive, not only for getting in as a grad student, but also gaining a tenure-track faculty position. Having the experience of being a "Marine biologist" at an "Ag school" or something similar, and knowing how to make your skill set and research attractive to those institutions will pay large dividends when trying to get hired soon after getting your Ph.D. or post-doc.

I will spare my whole "why in the world would you want to get your Ph.D. in this day and age; are your crazy?!?!" speech for later....