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[quote=Anonymous]My kid is in grad school for that now.

Yes, to be competitive she should have wotked in the field, hopefully presented research and ideally published peer reviewed research. Any kid seekng graduate study in a field should want this exposure anyway, to be sure they will like it.

It is a difficult time for marine scientists ( what with NOAA cuts and climate change denial). But perhaps by the time your daughter graduates, voters will have installed leaders who are more sane.

Here are some tips that helped my daughter. First of all,  look up the Hollings scholarship out of NOAA if that program has not been cut. It is amazing opportunity . Highly competitive, yes,  but it gives recipients a summer job  of your choosing. A partial scholarship junior and senior years of undergrad, and expenses to present their research at two marine biology conferences senior year.  It is really fantastic but kids can only apply for that scholarship when you are a sophomore in college so again, make sure you look it up. ( It also available to kids studying other things that NOAA focuses on such as meteorology.)

Be careful because this is a field that has a lot of experiences that in fact, our money makers for nonprofits or travel agencies, so your kid should really try to only work with organizations that are academically oriented (ie, affiliated with the university).  The other prestigious thing that your child could try to get on her resume is an REU award (Research Experiences for Undergrads). Those are funded research opportunities with scientific mentors around the country. You can Google it.

Last,  I will say that when your child applies to graduate school they’re going to have to find a scientist (at least for PhDs) studying they aspect of marine biologist that interests them, and they’re gonna have to contact that scientist in advance to get him or her to  endorse their application. For funded programs at least, schools won’t accept applicants who cannot identify (on their application) a scientist who is willing to work with them. So that’s another hurdle that your child will have to overcome to find a slot in grad school or at least that was my daughters experiences.

(PS she was successful ultimately, and got into two schools, but it I was challenging —and is probably even more so given the current political environment. Good luck though. )[/quote]

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