I know this doesn’t directly involve fishing but I think its close enough and maybe I can get some good advice around here. I am finishing up my degree in biology and looking now at grad schools. I am hoping to get a masters in fisheries or ecological conservation or something along those lines. I am just throwing this out there to see if there is anyone who may have gone somewhere or has good advice on grad schools in these areas. Thanks for any help
Humboldt State University but its in california
The University of Montana in Missoula offers an MS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology.
I was sitting, eating dinner at one of the restaurants on the Clark Fork and I looked out the window and watched as a fly fisher caught a trout of at least 20". There are many other good fishing streams close by as well. But … if you hate snow, don’t go.
Good luck in your quest.
Bob
There is a fine line between fly fishing, and standing in the water waving a stick.
[This message has been edited by Sawkill (edited 08 December 2005).]
The University of Missouri has one of the finest fisheries/wildlife programs in the world. And we have great trout fishing all over the Ozarks.
Mississippi State University also has great graduate programs in forestry/fish/wildlife, but I think they’re strongest in forestry.
Texas A&M is very good.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Another Texas option is Texas State University in San Marcos. Their Aquatics Center offers masters degrees in Aquatic Biology and Aquatic Resources. The campus will also soon house the Texas Rivers Center at Aquarena Springs, the headwaters of the San Marcos River. The Aquatics Center has done studies for our Trout Unlimited chapter and is well regarded in the fisheries field.
I’m not sure if its exactly what you’re looking for or how far you’re willing to travel, but Ohio State has an excellent Environmental Science graduate program. There isn’t a whole lot of trout fishing in central Ohio, but we do have some excellent warm water fishing. Plus, the Olentangy River, which runs through the campus, has some excellent carp fishing for those days where you absolutely have to fish and don’t have the time to travel 
Tennssee Tech University
Cooperative Fishery Research Unit
Cookeville, Tennessee
Supporting multiple tailwaters and over 600 mountain streams.
U.S. Geo Survey
The weak may not apply - extremely hard course with exceptional instructors.
Although it is a ways from Georgia you should check out the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. It is located in the center of Wisconsin right in the middle of some good trout and warm water fly fishing spots.
By the way, they have a hockey team. Best of luck, RussB
PiKapp,
Don’t look at schools and their reputations. Look at their professors and the projects that they are working on and have money for, because that is what you will be doing. You may end up going to the best school for that topic in the country and end up working on a crapy project with a crappy major professor and dropping out or you can go to an obscure school and have a great major professor and love working on your project and get more out of it. Chances are you will be doing a thesis for biology or ecology and you will performing hardcore research on one topic, so you better like it. Grad research involves working on research projects that are funded and just because you want to work on a particular project doesn’t mean you will, because there has to be money for it.
I am finishing up my Master’s thesis right now on a topic that I really am not crazy about, or care about and it is not going well because I can’t really get involved in it; 80 pages so far that I feel say nothing really important. I was talked into it by my major professor because it was funded and I wanted to stay at my current University.
All I am saying is do your homework and look for a place that best suits you, not because it is close to good fishing or has a good program.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
great advice all. I am not too concerned really how far I go away or really what kinda fishing there is around. I’ll find fish anywhere I go
Micro…awesome advice. Today I am gonna spend most of the day on the horn and calling different programs. Thanks all and keep the advice coming if you have any to share!
I was going to suggest Humboldt State in California also, and I’m going to recommend Oregon State University in Corvalis, Oregon. They have a great Natural resource program at that college. My husband is a graduate of that school, majoring in range management, so I feel confident recommending OSU.
Hey PiKap, where do you live. Look at you’re states schools for money savings. Also think about where do you want to live becuase there is a good chance that you will find job prospects near the university you choose. Look at Penn State. The best fishing and a great area to live and work.
Nick has it right. Graduate school is not like undergraduate education. You need to get hooked up with the best faculty member that you can. The value of your degree will have to do with the quality of your research project and the reputation of your faculty advisor. That said, the University of Washington has one of the best academic fisheries programs in the nation. I have also been very impressed by the quality of the University of Montana programs. If you can get into either one you will get a first class education. The difference is kind of a salmon vs trout thing.
David
I agree with Sawkill…University of Montana in Missoula !!! Plus you have the greatest lab in the country (what a rough way to get a Masters Degree…Wish music had been that easy; still at Greeley, Co.
I still managed to escape the practice room for some fly fishing thereapy lol) !!!
Generally speaking, the programs with the best reputations have the best reps because they are the best funded and attract the best professors. So, start with the top programs in the field you want and THEN get specific with those schools about current and near future research and faculty. Life isn’t all about what’s the most fun/interesting. Sometimes…like when paying for a degree with time, effort, and money in the hopes that degree lands you a great career, you need to suck it up and do what it takes to get what you want down the road.
If we knew more specifically what you plan to do with the degree, we might be able to help more. For example, if it’s marine biology you’re interested in bcuz you love the ocean, then San Marcos is a GREAT choice. And there are a few more. If you want to live/work in the mountains somewhere, then you should go somewhere and study trout/salmon, etc. If you want to live in the Northeast, then a school up that way is a good idea cuz those folks are kinda snooty about their institutions of higher learning. If you have a particular state agency you want to work for, then you should probably go to that state’s best public program. That’s where you’ll be the most visible to the state folks from that agency. I could go on and on, but my best advice to you is to figure out where you want to be and what you want to be doing 5 and 10 years from now and then pick a school.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Oregon State University also has a Marine Biology dept.
I assume that you are a Georgia resident. Your profile shows Macon, so I futher presume you are at Mercer. That and all other private schools are very expensive. I have friends that went there for undergrad and law, and a couple that went to Med and Pharmacy at the ATL campus.
I got my first law degree here at cut-rate public school tuition, them got a masters of law in environ/natural re law in Portland at a private school at high-rate private school tuition. So believe me, I have learned to appreciate the benefits of GA’s public school tuition rates.
You won’t make much money with that degree, and you will need a PhD. more than you’ll care to admit at this stage of your life. So first, be committed to do what is necessary to be employable. There are more people interested in fisheries work than there are good paying jobs in the field.
Second, because of the expense of grad level work and low income jobs for post-grads, you need to keep the state schools in Georgia in mind to keep debt/investment and the returns in check. Starting your life loaded down with debt is not a fun thing. Georgia has good public schools and the price is right. Paying out of state tuition and private school tuition when good programs are available for an absolute deal on tuition is not a great use of scarce funds. My alma mater, UGA, for example, controls the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, and that is a good place to conduct research, albeit mostly saltwater. Students from Tech, Southern, and other places go there as well. A friend with whom I grew up in N. GA got his PhD from Tech a few years back and is a prof in Alabama. While in school, he did a good bit of work at Sapelo and I went down and visited several times. There were some bright and capable people there.
If you just have to get away, there are a lot of schools out there with fisheries programs, and you can literally get as far away from Macon as you want. I’ve known people to go on to the school in Moscow, ID (Idaho or Idaho St. in Moscow?) after doing lower level in GA and Sapelo. Apparently Idaho has some good programs, and they got good assistantship programs to go there. I’ve also known people that went to Florida Tech in Melbourne, which has some good programs in Marine Biology, and is close to good fishing for freswater (bass) and inshore (indian river inlet).
[This message has been edited by Rawthumb (edited 10 December 2005).]
University of Rhode Island - top notch Marine and Environmental programs. The Graduate Program in Oceanography is as good as it gets and there are also excellent programs in Fisheries and Aquaculture if you want to stay on the freshwater side of things.
[url=http://omp.gso.uri.edu/urime/:952ca]http://omp.gso.uri.edu/urime/[/url:952ca]
Plus there is easy access to good trout fishing (Wood River) and phenomenal salt water action right off of the Narragansett Campus shores. (I should also mention that you cannot avoid running into the species Babia majora.)
I will be mailing my applications to biology graduate programs this week. I’m not sure how masters program admissions work, but for PhD’s it is a major pain in the ass to apply. I had to line up specific professors to accept me, as opposed to just applying to a program. This means the major factor in getting things rolling is not your qualifications, but instead whether you can get a busy prof to return your emails and phone calls.
Anyway, I would recommend looking at specific professors just as much as the programs. Search school websites and find a prof who’s research you find interesting. For fisheries programs on the West Coast, I’d look at UC Davis, OSU, and UW school of fisheris and aquatic sciences.
I’d also recommend checking out a book on applying to graduate schools and talking a lot with your profs. Make sure you take your prof’s advice over those of books. The grad school essay books will try to get you to write cheesy essays that might be over the top for many science programs.
Lastly, start early so you’re not in a state of panic like I am right now, with my apps due on Thursday,
Good luck
Thanks so much to everyone and all the advice. Its really put alot into perspective. I got lots of work left to do I suppose, so thanks again