• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Want to get a degree in zoology...

ashleynicole

ashleynicole

New member
Ok.. so I am a Registered Nurse with an associate's degree. I know I "need" to get my B.S.N... but I really want a degree in zoology. I used to want to be a vet and then went to a health careers camp and felt a calling to be a nurse. Don't get me wrong I will always be a nurse, even if I got a degree doing something else I would still work as an RN in the hospital a few days a month. I don't really want to be a vet, I'm not really sure what I want to do but I love animals and I love biology. I want to work with wildlife, maybe volunteer when my kids are older.

Any suggestions on good degree choices in this field? What is the most practical route to take? This is a dream of mine and I figure I can afford to take one class at a time working on my BSN as well.
 
I guess i am asking for those on this site that may have degrees in these fields and what you have done with those degrees. I am not asking online simply what degree requirements are, I already have gotten information from colleges and etc and am currently taking classes towards my B.S.N... but I don't know many people in these types of fields so I'm asking those willing to share your personal experiences and endeavors to see if it can help influence my personal interests.... if that makes sense.
 
I'd say put the money into going for the B.S.N or general biology, not the zoology degree. Especially if you're not sure what route you'd go with it.

In my experience most facilities want to see a related Bachelor's degree, but it doesn't necessarily have to be Zoology. Many keepers have degrees in Biology or Psychology, but there have been ones with unrelated degrees who have worked their way through the ranks.

Everyone has a different path, but keep in mind almost no zoo will look at you without some sort of exotic husbandry experience under your belt, and many will only look at experience from an AZA accredited facility. Even if you have your degree. The job is also physically demanding and highly competitive with comparatively little monetary compensation. My best advise is to try it out before you spend $30,000 plus on such a specialized undergraduate degree. Instead of footing the money for one class a semester, hire a babysitter and drive to a local zoo or wildlife sanctuary and volunteer or intern one day a week. Volunteering/Interning will allow you to test if it's a job that you could see yourself doing long term. It will also give you a better focus- maybe your interest lie in wildlife rehab or specialized training. You will also make extremely important connections and gain a reputation with the keepers and hiring staff. Many times entry level positions are filled by in-house volunteers and interns.

There are also other paths you can take with a zoology degree, such as research. Is that something you might be considering or are you focused on husbandry?
 
Angela Ratsncorns has a biology degree and works in the field as an ornithologist. She travels a lot. has no roots.

Josh Airenlow has a biology degree and after a long unemployment got a job looking for beetles in trees.

Jeff Mohr (El Jefe) has a PhD in biology (I think) and is teaching.

At the hospital I work at (Shands, in Gainesville) to get into management in nursing you need a minimum of a masters, now.

Oh- Aaron has a biology degree- what is his user name...And he's working in the field, too.
 
Hi, Ashley,

I'm quite a bit older than you, so things might be slightly different now, but generally a career in zoology, etc. requires an advanced degree (MS, PhD) to be competitive in the market for the few available jobs as a research or teaching biologist, or for work in environmental consulting, wildlife management, etc.

I do know people with BS degrees in Biology, Zoology, etc. working in animal husbandry (daily food prep, poop cleaning, enclosure upkeep) at theme parks, zoos, and aquariums. These jobs are also extremely competitive, and experience gained through internships or volunteering is vital. Most zoos, aquariums, museums, and theme parks with animals also have an education department in which one can volunteer as a docent or, with some teaching credentials or experience gained as a volunteer, be hired as a teacher for in-house and outreach education.

You are making a wise move, in my opinion, having stuck to nursing, since it will give you a steady income and lots of job flexibility, neither of which are easy to come by in the wildlife/zoology/ecology world. You will appreciate this more and more as your family grows.

Volunteering is one of the best ways to get involved and get experience that you need; and keep education in mind as well; it's vital to the future of our wildlife.

Good luck! :)
 
Thank you, your info is right in line with what I have been thinking. Honestly an advanced degree is what I will go for eventually, I just don't think I want my advanced degree in nursing... and who says I only have to have one degree or one career at a time right?

As a nurse I make good money, I've been doing it for 8 years, and that involves cleaning poop on a daily basis... lol. I work in critical care (ER, ICU) so honeslty animal cleaning and husbandry is a breeze in comparison. Volunteering with animals sounds fun and like a great way to learn. I actually just got contact with a local foundation that has volunteer orientations regularly and they gave me a few dates.

I love my job but the current health care industry is very frustrating. Not to mention people are always ready to complain about something.... I think I enjoy the company of animals more than people at times.
 
I don't have a degree in biology, but I was an LPN for a while before getting my own business started. I also helped my niece through figuring her way through school, deciding what to do and how to do it - and keeping her options open, before she finally became a physical therapist. So I looked into many options for her.

I am wondering if you could get a minor in biology while obtaining your BSN? If you obtained enough biology credits, you could qualify for teaching it in high school or junior high in many states. When I looked into this in Florida a decade or so ago, you could get a provisional 2 year teaching certificate while you took a few more credits of classes on how to teach, and then receive your "regular" certification. I am not sure if things have changed since then, though.

Why would you want this if you don't want to teach in a high school? I am thinking that you might want to work in the education dept of a zoo, or at a nature center. I would guess that being qualified to teach biology would be a good intro to one of those jobs - if you think you might find that interesting.
 
My husband wants to start a business. He wants to breed corns and open a pet specialty store ... sell stuff the big box stores don't. I just don't feel like it's feasible in this economy. I see slowly building up breeding and selling on the side to offset costs of the hobby, but i don't see it as something that could ever pay the bills.

I would love to be able to contribute to wildlife rehab and preservation and eventually research. Teaching doesn't really interest me. I have to try to teach people every day in my job and it's exhausting. Learning is easier... lol.
 
I always thought that by working in the education dept of a zoo, or working in a nature center, you get to both work with the animals, AND see kids get their first exciting interactions with reptiles and other animals.

It is great caring for animals, but after doing nothing but feeding and cleaning for a few years, most people are ready to do something that includes other aspects, too. Feeding and cleaning cage after cage after cage DOES get old, even if that doesn't seem possible when enthusiasm is high in the first few years. Something to consider, anyway.

If you or your hubby envision eventually starting an animal business of some kind, then it may be more important to study business than biology. Most pet shops and breeders have more problems due to the business aspects than the animal care aspects of their pet related businesses.

It is always nice to keep your options as open as possible for as long as possible. As somebody else mentioned, until you actually work in a business, whether zoo, pet shop, or anything else, it is impossible to know for sure how much you like it. While interning is great and introduces you to the basics of the job, a short internship means the job is still a novelty and you have to remember that you may see it a little differently after a few years, once that novelty has worn off. Of course, talking to some of the old timers who like their jobs, but who have been doing the job for at least a few years will give some insight into what it is really like, too. And having that BSN to fall back on will really take the usual anxiety out of working in a field that is often highly competitive, often involves a lot of "office" politics, and is often very underpaid. You won't feel "stuck" when you know you have something else you can do if you are unhappy in the zoo world.
 
I'm going to put on my faculty advisor/parent hat here-as a parent who ended up on snake forums because I have a herp-obsessed child who plans to make them her life career. I hope I don't sound too pessimistic.

Since you want to do research, I'd strongly suggest getting involved with your state herpetological society and going to state and national conferences. Those are the folks who tend to be the heavy hitters in the research department, and that's also what tends to get you in to see the behind the scenes research programs that you don't get to see in zoos and wildlife centers normally, and talk to the people who do it.

I'll also suggest that not all universities are created equal. Some strongly encourage and support undergraduate research and give you a chance to get into the field early. Some focus on preparing a student for a specific path (both of Alli's bio mentors have mentioned being disappointed as undergraduates because the focus was on pre-med and lab biology, with very little field biology). Some are great at the graduate level, but the undergrad program really isn't all that exciting. In general, your best bet is to find someone who does the kind of stuff you want to do, get to know them, and then try to follow and work in their lab.

Research is kind of a pyramid scheme, where a majority of work is actually done by students and interns who are either paid very little or are, in some cases, actually paying for the privilege in the name of education. It isn't odd to see people who's research project to get their PhD spans 5+ years-during which they probably were having to do most of the work and writing to get the grants to pay the bills. You also should be aware that you may or may not be able to completely pick and choose what you want to work on. My DD's herp mentor is a lizard behaviorist/ethologist, but has spent most of her professional career researching farm run-off and counting dead frogs. If it's what you want to do, that's wonderful, but it definitely should be something you go into with your eyes open. If you can get into helping with some projects, I'd do so-it's a good way to see the dirt, tedium, and sometimes downright grossness that research can be.


I'll also say that I don't know of many research jobs that don't involve education as well. At minimum, you're probably going to have to present what you're doing to potential funders and others in the field. In many cases, you'll also need to teach students and/or do children's programs as well.

If you don't love reading and writing, you shouldn't go into research. You do a lot more reading and writing than you do actual work with the animals. If you don't write well (and, frankly, if you're not able to BS a single simple sentence into a long, fancy sounding paragraph) you probably won't make it in academia as a career.

If you'll be happy as a nurse who has snakes as pets, maybe breeds a few, and participates in citizen science projects, I'd go that route, maybe getting a few business courses along the way to help with your husband's goal of owning a pet store.

If, on the other hand, you go to a herp conference and come home thrilled with the ideas that it engenders, then the research route may be for you.


Good luck, whatever you decide.
 
I have a B.S. in Zoology. And can only speak regarding my experiences and point of view.
I have not done a lot with just that facet of my education, for many of the reasons elucidated above. (Teaching or research will never make you rich. I have only done the latter.)
But,...it was my intended and beloved degree when I first started college at 18. I wanted to sail the seas with Jacques Cousteau and name new species. Lol. It is still one of my favorite subjects.
The Zoology degree does give one a foundation of understanding regarding genetics, chemistry, classification, cellular biology, ecology, anatomy, reproduction (the many many types), animal behaviour, embryology, evolution, nomenclature, etc., that one would otherwise never possess, without much and dedicated reading.
Such that wonderful vistas will be unlocked and revealed to you when reading scientific papers. Even when watching television.
(For example, Shakespeare can be, more or less,...awkward and difficult,...unless one has studied Shakespeare. Then it is often an eye-opening pleasure.)

I can empathize with your range and number of interests.
Some days I wish I taught literature (university). Some days I wish I taught philosophy (university). Someday I _will_ take more classes in both those subjects...and others. (I'm close to minors in both of those.)

You might be surprised at how many courses a Zo- degree and an RN degree have in common.
Nanci is correct about the Master's degree. One needs that to rise above a glass ceiling in just about any/every field nowadays.

My advice, follow your dream and do what you love.
Secondly, get what you need to make a good living...so you can afford the luxury to follow your dreams and do what you love. Lol. :D ;)
 
Last edited:
I have a degree in zoology, but post-graduation I didn't do much with it. When considering jobs I'd want, often times the cons outweighed the pros for me at the time. Went back to school for medical lab science and work in a lab now.

If I had enough money to live off of, I'd love to go back to school in a heartbeat either for furthering my microbiology education or some sort of zoology/wildlife with masters or PhD track (just offhand I think it would be awesome to work with the bobtail squid lab at UW Madison, which would encompass wildlife and microbiology).

My suggestion if you do go somewhere along the lines of bio/zo is to get as much experience as possible outside of the classroom. If you want to be on the lab side of things, start contacting the faculty about getting work in a lab. If you want field work, start contacting faculty about field work opportunities.
 
vetusvates said:
My advice, follow your dream and do what you love.
Secondly, get what you need to make a good living...so you can afford the luxury to follow your dreams and do what you love. Lol. :D ;)
Click to expand...

I know a great lady who goes on my University's trip to the Everglades every year as a sort-of 1 week faculty member for the field class. She told us her life story, about how her father (a pharmacist) pressured her into going into pharmacy and so that's what she did. She made plenty of money, of course, but discovered her love was in biology. So she went to our university 20 or 25 years ago and got her masters in biology just because she loved it. This woman knows her butterflies and birds like no ones business She remained working as a pharmacist, and retired a couple years ago right after one of my trips to the Everglades. This lady has so much energy and wildlife knowledge, so they make her an honorary faculty member for a week for our trip. Interesting life.
 
There is a lot of great information and I really appreciate all of the input. As far as reading and writing? Yes I am fine with that. I can write a paper overnight and get an A on it. I've enjoyed my literature classes as well and have always been an avid reader. When I was in high school I was a science fair enthusiasts making it to state and regionals each year, and my senior year I went to the international science and engineering fair with my project "Are We in Danger of Supebugs?". It was a hot topic in 2002 and I spent each year working on my science projects in the microbiology lab at a local hospital, doing cultures and sensitivities. In addition of course I had to presnet my findings at the fair and on the state and international levels it was a great learning experience. Sometimes I wish I had a job in the lab away from the patients, but with the need and demand for nursing, especially since I am certified in critical care, I know my bills are paid and my family is provided for. And I do enjoy my job and get a lot of satisfaction from it which is why I will always be a nurse. That's the great thing about nursing. Hospitals will let a nurse work "prn" with flexible schedules so if I can hack away at the course work and get a degree while my kids are young, I will have time when they're older to pursue the other things.

Maybe your right, maybe I would be satisfied working as a nurse and doing some moonlight volunteering form time to time but I know in my future lies an advanced degree and I already have a lot of science classes under my belt. Microbiology was one my favorite classes as well and surprisingly I enjoy and excel at math as well. I clept college algebra and have taken statistics and precalculus algebra. I have a good foundation of classes for any of these areas and I'm not afraid of the challenges. Like I said, not sure exactly where this will lead but I know it's one of my passions so I'm gonna give it a go.
 
ZoologyGirl said:
I know a great lady who goes on my University's trip to the Everglades every year as a sort-of 1 week faculty member for the field class. She told us her life story, about how her father (a pharmacist) pressured her into going into pharmacy and so that's what she did. She made plenty of money, of course, but discovered her love was in biology. So she went to our university 20 or 25 years ago and got her masters in biology just because she loved it. This woman knows her butterflies and birds like no ones business She remained working as a pharmacist, and retired a couple years ago right after one of my trips to the Everglades. This lady has so much energy and wildlife knowledge, so they make her an honorary faculty member for a week for our trip. Interesting life.
Click to expand...
I love this! Its so encouraging!

I worked with some doctors and nurses who went to med school/nursing school later in life as second careers when they discovered their passion. I'm going to be 30 in a couple of weeks, I have time!
 
My co-worker (we work in a vet clinic) got her BS in Biology majoring in Zoology and unfortunately can't find a job in that field to save her life...I believe part of it is our location (Southern Idaho) and the lack of jobs available to her. She doesn't want to/can't move from here so she's basically stuck in the clinic (part time) which she's ok with mostly, but I can tell she struggles with her decisions on a regular basis. I'm not trying to dash anyone's hopes but just throwing in my 0.02.
 
A degree is a diploma of certification, primarily meant to serve as means to enter a certain field of occupation.
This is, I feel, a very economical decision, which should not be mixed with personal desires for self-fulfillment...

I'll do my best to explain, since what I said seems cut and dry.

You can, in today's world, become HIGHLY educated in just about anything, without attending a university. There is really very little need to spend thousands of dollars on a degree which will not contribute to your financial welfare. If you're at a point where money is of no consequence, than by all means... learn whatever you want... but since it is a world of limited resources we live in, I do not see the point of getting a degree unless it serves a purpose... I am not saying you need to study only what's practical... but if you do not have the intention of investing towards the higher degrees and actually practice this knowledge, I fail to see what you'll accomplish by having a diploma, versus learning whatever you want from books/online courses/scientific papers etc- it is the learning that provides us with self fulfillment, not the diploma.

As I said before, if money is not an issue... than forget what I just said. If you're still young and planning your life ahead, I think that investing several years, and allot of money(isn't education in the US very expansive?) for mere interest at this point in your life....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top