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I just don't feel smart enough to study animal behaviour.

I'm hoping to go on to study animal behaviour at university as of next year but I'm finding myself going into it with zero confidence.

I'll start off with a bit of my background firstly; Without sounding too cliche, I have always taken an interest in animals and can remember the very day that interest branched off into welfare and behaviour. I spent most of my childhood writing letters here and there to different places urging them to stop animal testing, stop circusus, stop abuse and so on and so forth. My dad would drive me up and down the country to different rescue centres to meet my sponsored dogs, to visit zoos and to visit animal welfare organizations.

Education wise things have not been good for me in recent years due to a pretty bad situation I went through at 16, I will not go into it, but it caused me problems psychologically which in turn affected my education a great deal. When I first went to college, I only came out with a subsidiary diploma in animal management at pass grade, I couldn't carry on the course as I was too sick at the time though I am now receiving help. To this day my grade in animal management bothers me a great deal because it is in a field I care so much about. I'm now back in college and studying psychology, sociology and biology with hopes of going to university and then becoming a clinical animal behaviourist or animal welfare officer but due to my bad few years, I'm not feeling very confident and don't feel good enough for this whatsoever. I feel as though everyone there will know exactly what they're talking about and I will just be the idiot.


The main reason I'm posting here is because I wanted to ask a few questions about animal behaviour at degree level.


How science based is the course? Is there laboratory work involved?

How many days per week do you attend lectures?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you knew nothing about initially?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you honestly had no interest in? For example In all honestly have no interest in reptiles, birds or farm animals.

My main area of interest is the domestic cat and the big cat hence my user name, do you ever get to chose what types of animal you want to study (eg for research) or is it set?

Stupid question I know: how hard did you find it?

Did you find other students to be very knowledgable in the subject and all the terms or where they pretty new to it all?



Thank you so much.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by Felis.Catus
I'm hoping to go on to study animal behaviour at university as omf next year but I'm finding myself going into it with zero confidence.

I'll start off with a bit of my background firstly; Without sounding too cliche, I have always taken an interest in animals and can remember the very day that interest branched off into welfare and behaviour. I spent most of my childhood writing letters here and there to different places urging them to stop animal testing, stop circusus, stop abuse and so on and so forth. My dad would drive me up and down the country to different rescue centres to meet my sponsored dogs, to visit zoos and to visit animal welfare organizations.

Education wise things have not been good for me in recent years due to a pretty bad situation I went through at 16, I will not go into it, but it caused me problems psychologically which in turn affected my education a great deal. When I first went to college, I only came out with a subsidiary diploma in animal management at pass grade, I couldn't carry on the course as I was too sick at the time though I am now receiving help. To this day my grade in animal management bothers me a great deal because it is in a field I care so much about. I'm now back in college and studying psychology, sociology and biology with hopes of going to university and then becoming a clinical animal behaviourist or animal welfare officer but due to my bad few years, I'm not feeling very confident and don't feel good enough for this whatsoever. I feel as though everyone there will know exactly what they're talking about and I will just be the idiot.


The main reason I'm posting here is because I wanted to ask a few questions about animal behaviour at degree level.


How science based is the course? Is there laboratory work involved?

How many days per week do you attend lectures?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you knew nothing about initially?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you honestly had no interest in? For example In all honestly have no interest in reptiles, birds or farm animals.

My main area of interest is the domestic cat and the big cat hence my user name, do you ever get to chose what types of animal you want to study (eg for research) or is it set?

Stupid question I know: how hard did you find it?

Did you find other students to be very knowledgable in the subject and all the terms or where they pretty new to it all?



Thank you so much.

hi very late reply. Did you ever apply in the end? I'm beginning Animal behaviour and welfare at the University of Lincoln in September and coming from the animal management route :smile:
Original post by Felis.Catus
I'm hoping to go on to study animal behaviour at university as of next year but I'm finding myself going into it with zero confidence.

I'll start off with a bit of my background firstly; Without sounding too cliche, I have always taken an interest in animals and can remember the very day that interest branched off into welfare and behaviour. I spent most of my childhood writing letters here and there to different places urging them to stop animal testing, stop circusus, stop abuse and so on and so forth. My dad would drive me up and down the country to different rescue centres to meet my sponsored dogs, to visit zoos and to visit animal welfare organizations.

Education wise things have not been good for me in recent years due to a pretty bad situation I went through at 16, I will not go into it, but it caused me problems psychologically which in turn affected my education a great deal. When I first went to college, I only came out with a subsidiary diploma in animal management at pass grade, I couldn't carry on the course as I was too sick at the time though I am now receiving help. To this day my grade in animal management bothers me a great deal because it is in a field I care so much about. I'm now back in college and studying psychology, sociology and biology with hopes of going to university and then becoming a clinical animal behaviourist or animal welfare officer but due to my bad few years, I'm not feeling very confident and don't feel good enough for this whatsoever. I feel as though everyone there will know exactly what they're talking about and I will just be the idiot.


The main reason I'm posting here is because I wanted to ask a few questions about animal behaviour at degree level.


How science based is the course? Is there laboratory work involved?

How many days per week do you attend lectures?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you knew nothing about initially?

When you first started the course, were there areas of study that you honestly had no interest in? For example In all honestly have no interest in reptiles, birds or farm animals.

My main area of interest is the domestic cat and the big cat hence my user name, do you ever get to chose what types of animal you want to study (eg for research) or is it set?

Stupid question I know: how hard did you find it?

Did you find other students to be very knowledgable in the subject and all the terms or where they pretty new to it all?



Thank you so much.


Don't worry about it mate. You can be whatever you want to be.

I felt the same in the past. I was really stupid as a kid, or at least I was always told I was.

I managed my passes at C grade mostly at gcse, and messed up my A/s levels with C,D and an E. I then took a course which I was interested in at college (ndip) sports science. I tried incredibly hard at it, and got the highest grade possible.

That got me a place doing psychology, which I didn't know that much about, but I did it due to my interest in the human body.
I watched lots of lectures before starting the course and found the transition challenging, but managed fine.
My current position is I am about to graduate, with a 2.1 (hopefully) and have a place on a cognitive neuroscience masters degree.

To summarise my point, all that it takes is a little determination and stubbornness :smile:

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