Marine Biology

[Eve]

..anyone with a child doing this as a degree.

DS2 has always expressed an interest in this and I haven't paid much attention. However with A level selection getting close he's thinking more about what to do.

What a levels are needed...and what did they end up doing afterwards as a career ?

Not as good as hearing from someone with personal experience, butnthis website is a good general introduction.

www.plotr.co.uk/careers/marine-biologist/overview/

One of my old friends did this, she now has a PhD and works in academia. Nothing else useful to add as we only see each other a couple of times a year so I can't ask her directly.

She has travelled all over the world in the course of her work, very very happy with what she does.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/undergraduate/courses/marinebiology/f7c1bscmarinebiologywithoceanography.page?#entryrequirements%0A_

My ds applied to do marine biology with oceanography at Southampton. He ended up just doing oceanography and graduated last year. His feeling is that as well as biology it would be best to have maths and either chemistry or physics A levels.

Very limited jobs market at the end unless you are prepared to do unpaid intern/volunteering stuff or have made connections through dissertation work. Almost everyone I know who did mb is now a teacher or lecturer. Interesting course though and is a solid science qualification for the future.

I did it - I did ib not a levels and did higher biology, chemistry and maths and subsidiary French, physics and geography.

It is a really limited job market - most of my cohort are teachers or work in completely unrelated fields. I had a dream of working in research boats and now work in they city in real estate....

If you do get lucky and get a job in the field it's really not compatible with family life either so you have to come back and get a 'proper' job at some point anyway.

My DD was vaguely interested in this prior to choosing A Levels, and I remember she told me that Southampton ran interesting sounding summer courses. She didn't apply/do one, but it might be worth checking if they still run them.

My DD1 is sitting her A levels this year and hoping to get into Plymouth or Swansea to do a Marine Biology degree. She is doing biology, chemistry and environmental science but you actually only need two sciences at A level for the undergraduate course (I think Southampton asks for 3 for the MSC course). We visited quite a few unis and were impressed; the course is a good mixture of academic and more applied. I think it is important that in addition to the research expertise the department also offers good wet lab facilities and a research vessel. Exeter, Southampton, Plymouth, Swansea, Newcastle and Bangor all offer this. It is a niche area but we are hopeful it will be a good degree choice for DD1.