Hey i saw ur reply in the current jjob thread about you being a wildlife biologist ...

I was wondering how you liked it , where a good school for it is , the apy and all that , thats what i have wanted to do for a # of years now , i will graduate HS next spring and wanted to study for that in college , would u recommend it , and is it a hard job to get , and such like that?

Thanks DL55

Hi,

I like the work. It's interesting and I usually get to work out in the field most of the summer. It's also fun to talk to hunters and the public about wildilfe issues. The only thing that I hate is when you have to talk to the redneck *******s in the public who think that you personally are responsible for everything that is wrong with the elk herd, wolves etc etc.

Some good colleges for wildlife I would have to say Humboldt, CSU, Alaska, U of Idaho, University of Montana, Minnesota.

Since I don't know you I can't really reccomend it to you. If your interested in science and you want to work with wildlife I'd say your probably suited for it. Be warned that most people only think about the flashy wildlife jobs like collaring wolves etc.. most of the jobs in wildlife are working with non-game species like endangered birds, rodents etc. I even trapped bats once.

If I were you I would concentrate on getting the best grades possible, do well on the ACT/SAT and pick which college you want to go to. I would start talking to the wildlife agencies in PA right now trying to get summer work or volunteering. That will open up all kinds of doors when you graduate.

thanks alot brutal attack , how is the pay in that field tho ? can u live comfortably?

Yeah it seems like ok pay for me. But granted I grew up with next to nothing and no one in my family has ever graduated college. You'd probably be looking at around $40k + a year with the federal government. Of course when you add up all the benefits you get like health insurance, life insurance, 401k, paid time off, paid holidays etc it adds up to alot more than that. But wildlife majors are on the low end when compared to other science degrees like engineering or law. Plus you could possibly make more if you worked in the private sector like managing a whitetail ranch.

Thanks alot Brutal..

I appreciate the help , i love science , i took double classes of it this year , and put it on my schedule for my senior year when it isnt required , and i love wildlife , i jsut want a job i can wake up every morning and actually want to go to work !

40K+ isnt bad , and you can work your way up as in any field , and as long as your spouse workstoo thats pretty good work in my book! thanks alot , now jsut to look at schools to go to...

I wanted to go to a school that was well recognized for this field as well as was D1 for ice hockey , i want to go play that as well as study!

Do you need to be a math wizz for this in college? cuz im so so in math , it confuses me somewhat!!!

Thanks for your help , once again!

You don't have to be a math wiz but it helps alot in understanding how to analyze your data. I'm not great in math either but I did really well in statistics and that is what matters most. It's somewhat important to understand what you can do with the data you get. And the best thing about calculus and statistics is you can draw conclusions from any data using those tools, not just wildlife related data. You will have to take math up to calculus and at least one statistics class.

My advice: take as much math as you can in high school then you wont have to take as much in college where you don't always have one on one help from the teacher etc. But if you just go to class you will do just fine in hard math like calculus.

Good luck.

Lake Superior State University in mich is a good school for that also.

Minnesota would be your best bet for HOCKEY i am Canadian and WE KNOW HOCKEY
Minnesota, Michigan and North Dakota are definitly some of the top hockey schools!

Canadiangoose.... o man i would love to go play for the golden gophers , i dunno tho if i would be able to get in , im sure ill apply , as i plan to apply to like MSU and PSU and other schools that i have looked at ,...

We KNOW hockey here in PA too , as a matter of fact my cousin used to play in the OHL in canada , played for a few teams around your area...

Do you play ???

o ya i definitly play
the OHL is the top junior league in eastern canada and the top junior league out here for me is the WHL which is Western Hockey League im sure youve heard of it