Anyone Do an Earth Sciences Degree (Zoology, geography etc.)

Zoology is a life sciences degree not an earth science degree.

Earth science is geology/planetary science, geophysics, oceanography and meteorology.

If you’re interested in palaeontology then why wouldn’t you apply for a geology degree?

You forgot Marine Sciences!

Zoology is a life sciences degree not an earth science degree.

Earth science is geology/planetary science, geophysics, oceanography and meteorology.

If you’re interested in palaeontology then why wouldn’t you apply for a geology degree?

You forgot Marine Sciences!

I am about to go into year 12 and am certain I want to do a degree in the field of Earth Sciences. Is anyone doing a degree in this field, and if so, do you have some advice about it, especially which universities you'd recommend. (I plan on doing a Zoology degree and then completing a masters in Palaeontology) Thanks!

have you looked at this course? You could do an msci in it also which is way cheaper than doing a separate masters degree.

Thanks! Yes, I have been looking quite a bit at Bristol University, as they do palaeontology as a degree as well. I've just done a bit of research on a Msci and apparently it is not quite a masters but above a Bsc. Do you know if you have to do a masters as well to be able to do a PhD (I want to work at NHM and am pretty sure they would help you get a PhD, but I am not sure if you need a masters separately to qualify).
Sorry to bombard you like this

not my subject area I'm afraid. My understanding is its normal to do a masters before a phd, and most British students select the Msci or equivalent rather than a separate masters course. What is NHM?

This is a video by someone who did the course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeaLID6tQ_I

I suspect she would respond if you mailed her.

If you want to go into Palaeontology, be careful as it really limits your options if you decide further on not to go down the PhD route, or if you aren't accepted. I decided to specialise in Palaeontology and now that I want to change careers it's taken a toll because I focused on Palaeontology rather than a role which is more suitable for a working role (e.g. Geotechnical or Geophysics).

There is, with any PhD also a lot of competition so best advise I can give you is get as much experience as you can, even if its helping out current PhDs with their research (they'll never say no to free help!) I didn't get enough experience during my degree and this definitely affected my chances so I'm just sharing with you things I wish I'd have known/taken seriously when I started my degree!

Good luck!

Oh goodness, that sounds terrible 😣
Thank you so much for the advice, I’ll definitely try and keep my degree extremely open until then. Would I be ok with zoology do you reckon? Then I guess I could change route if things don’t work out 😁

I couldn't say with Zoology as it's not quite the same as Palaeontology. I'm not saying that it would be a bad experience to do Palaeo but just saying they are some things to keep in mind when you do go into it, I think you have to fully have your heart set on Palaeontology research if you do decide to go for it!

You could always check the Internship/Jobs on the Natural History Museum website and then see what they are asking for in terms of degrees and experience. That way you have some idea of what they are expecting you to have should you wish to apply there.