So I am all set to go to a university in Scotland to get my B.S. in Biology. However, the program is very different than a U.S. Biology major--All of my classes are biology, no math, no english. It's also incredibly expensive, I'd have to take out about$60,000 in loans, just for undergrad. I feel like that would leave me with a sub-par degree and a huge amount of debt with little to no job prospects. I am currently considering not even going to Scotland at all and just staying in state where I'd be able to finance my whole undergrad degree. I used to want to go to med school but have since realized medicine is not for me. I'd love a job with wildlife conservation but I know how scarce these jobs are. I am really willing to work at any job even remotely related to biology. My question is: if I were to attend CSULB or just a smaller state school would that offer me better job prospects? I am also doubting my decision to major in biology. I love biology so much and am good at understanding the topics I've studied so far, but I feel like it's a very hard field to succeed in. I'm thinking about looking into engineering or just something that is more secure. I'd no doubt work as hard as I could if I majored in bio but I'm just not sure that would be enough to get me a well-paying job, especially if I were to go to an international school and get $60k in debt just for my undergraduate degree. I'm interested in learning more about different degree options in the STEM area, possibly ones that still relate to biology but are more secure in terms of future job opportunities. Thank you!
Which Scottish university? Some of them are well-regarded, so there would be the name-recognition thing. The loan debt would likely be a deal-killer for me. I don't know how somebody could do a biology major without supporting classes in things like chemistry and math. When I was a biology undergraduate, we had to do the introduction to chemistry sequence, organic chemistry and biochemistry. They told us that if we wanted to go to graduate school, we needed to do the introductory calculus sequence too. I can't imagine that a Scottish biology major can avoid those things. I received my bachelors and masters degrees from California State Universities, paid my own way working and studying part-time, and graduated with no debt. One area where graduates with bachelors degrees in the sciences are in demand is high-school teaching. The CSU's are very closely involved with teacher education and with California teacher credentialing. So earning a single-subject credential in biology teaching would be rather straightforward at a place like CSULB. They will have biology department advisors who specialize in helping students with that, setting you up with student-teaching positions and stuff. The Scots will probably only be able to advise you on preparing for Scottish teaching (which is no doubt fine for Scottish students but maybe not for you). An emphasis on science education might be useful for getting a job at a science museum, park district or any place that presents science to the public. Another thing you might want to check out are the various health professions. Medical school admissions are very competitive, but fields like veterinary medicine or pharmacy might be additional options for people with a biology bachelors. My impression is that there's a lot of demand for nurses, though becoming an RN usually involves completing a nursing undergraduate program and not a biology major. And of course there's the option of enrolling in a doctoral program and going for a university teaching job or a position in something like biotech research. But tenure-track university teaching jobs are hard to find and the competition for them is intense. I'm less familiar with biotech research hiring, but believe that it has a lot to do with who one studied with at the doctoral level, one's research interests, experience and dissertation topic, and on whether a company needs somebody with cutting-edge expertise in that particular area. Given that people have to devote something like ten years of higher education to earning a doctorate, it's a crap-shoot.
Thank you for such a detailed response, I appreciate it! I've decided to go with CSULB just because it's so much cheaper and definitely a better choice for my future goals. Thanks for your help!
