Is majoring in Biology difficult?

Majoring in biology

• I am currently an undergraduate student at UF and was thinking about majoring in biology. I have heard some say that getting a job as a biologist was difficult with only a bachelors degree. I was wondering how you felt about the job oportunities out there as a biologist. I am also thinking of geology, but I feel as if it is too specialized, and that biology is more broad.

• Answer:

  Hi! Thanks for the question. Choosing a major is a huge deal because it will affect your entire life. I started as a nursing student and had to take a microbiology core class. I loved microbiology so much that I changed my major to biology so that I could study microbiology more indepth. Biology is fascinating but it's a lot if hard work. As far as jobs are concerned, I posted a link at the bottom that you should check out. It's somewhat true that biologists with a 4 year degree have trouble finding work but I have plenty of friends that have good jobs with a B.S. degree. These jobs include: teaching high school, research labs at universities, jobs at the CDC and NIH, the zoo, wildlife specialist as well as many others. The biggest challenge will be to find a biology related job in your area. Most people with a science degree have to move to another location to work. If you really like geology then you should go for it, actually a big field in geology right now is GPS. You could always major in biology and minor in geology. You may even decide to get a master's degree; that would open up even more jobs for you. Here is an interesting fact. The CDC is hiring people with a B.S. degree in biology and they start out at 50,000-70,000 dollars a year. Not bad. I hope I helped you, if you have any more questions feel free to ask. http://www.emporia.edu/biosci/carebiol.htm