Two interests, two dreams, what major?

[Marconis]

I am having a sort of mental conflict. I am a biology major (freshman) at University. The reason I chose this is because, well, I love the science, and in the future I would enjoy doing disease research...but is that all? No. I also have a massive interest in aquatic life, having kept three of my own aquariums throughout high school. Here is where the conflict arises...my school offers a zoology major, one of the very few on the east coast or something like that. It is very tempting to switch over because of my great interest, however my interest in general biology (and eventually geared more towards disease and whatnot) is still great.

 

So, the question I ask is the following:

 

If I stick to the route of a biology major, choose courses related to both of my interests, and decide what I want to do at the last minute (say, in the end, I want to work with fish) then is a degree in zoology more suitable? Another way of asking is, do you think I'd have a greater chance of getting employed somewhere with a degree in zoology as opposed to biology in relation to that interest?

 

Dumb question? Perhaps, but it's late and I have been pondering.

[bromonium]

Without knowing the specific details of the two programs at your school, I think that either degree would actually provide you with a great deal of flexibility. Whichever one you pick, you may be able to choose electives which will give you additional competencies. For example I decided to do my school's cell bio emphasis rather than cell & molecular biology & biochemistry, but I'm also taking extra chemistry classes; in essence, I'm making the cell program a little more like the cell/molec/biochem emphasis and trying to find a balance that suits my interests.

 

What you should do is look at the specific classes offered at your school, the similarities and differences between the two degree programs, and the requirements of various graduate programs in marine biology and other areas that you are considering. "Aquatic life" is a pretty broad topic and depending on what you want to study, a different knowledge base and skill set will be required. A detailed understanding of inorganic chemistry and geology will be critical for some areas of oceanography or marine biology. Subjects like botany, microbiology and community ecology may have varying degrees of utility depending on your specific interests.

 

I hope this doesn't seem like a non-answer, but the truth is that either degree program could prepare you for a variety of careers and advanced studies in biology. And anything that you learn from one area of biology can be applied to another. A zoologist's understanding of animal physiology might be useful to a disease researcher, and a microbiologist's understanding of unicellular organisms can be applied to multicellular animals (in fact studies on yeast and E. coli have helped answer many questions in human biology). Bacteria, Archaea and unicellular fungi and protists are found in—and essential to—all ecosystems, including aquatic ones and to studies of human disease, so courses in microbiology would be useful to you in either field.

 

Most undergraduate majors in the life sciences are built on a common core of coursework in foundational topics like ecology, evolution, cellular and molecular biology, biodiversity, etc. and supporting classes in chemistry, math and other fields. At many schools, you'll be able to round out your major with electives that expand your training. Your choice will depend on how specialized the various programs at your school are. If you're not sure what you want to do, I would recommend going for the less specialized major, which in this case sounds like it would be the general biology program. Since you are a freshman, I recommend taking as many of the courses that these two majors have in common as possible. Keep exploring biology and choice might become more clear to you. Talk to professors and other students, and people from other schools that have graduate programs in zoology, marine biology, microbiology and other areas that you might be interested in. See if your school hosts seminars where scientists come and talk about their research and this might give you a better idea of what you're interested in. At my university, the chemistry and biology departments both host weekly seminars, and many of these are on topics in biochemistry and molecular biology, at the interface of the two disciplines, and attending these has helped me see what I'm really interested in, and what my strengths are.

Edited September 25, 2009 by bromonium
additional info

[Marconis]

A great answer. I actually talked to my bio professor today and he said pretty much what you said: to stick with general bio for now, and then take classes closely related yet specific to what I want to study. My school does in fact offer weekly seminars, and I am going to try to attend them as much as possible if they seem interesting.

 

Thanks a bunch