education baby!!!!

[Nathan Danger]

Has anyone here gone to school to learn about arachnids, nomenclature, or biology?

i'm looking at different schools and such...i'm either going to unm in new mexico or uno in new orleans....anyway my point is this...if i want to study arachnids....i would major in biology and then go to graduate school for arachnopology right?

i have spent hours and nights looking this stuff up and i'm still lost...thanks for your help.

 

[Jesse607]

I am about to get my bachelor's degree in entomology this spring from Purdue University, which has one of the largest undergrad entomology programs in the country, and the staff is amazing. Entomology would be a good base, then you can get specifically into arachnology in grad school, since to my knowledge there is no place to get an undergrad dgree in arachnology. So doing your undergrad in entomology or biology is a good place to start.

 

[Code Monkey]

You won't ever be able to major in arachnology, per se, merely specialise within the school's entymology department. This assumes the school even has a entymology department, which is the exception rather than the rule. If a school doesn't have an explicit entymology department, then you would have to be a grad student in their biology department and specialise within that.

If you do find a good school with a graduate program for entymology you would apply there after obtaining a B.S. in some form of the the biological sciences and express that you wished to specialise in arachnids. You will also have to soon express a wish to not just study arachnids, but a very specific aspect of arachnids (e.g. exactly what sensory cues play a role in recognition of the male for mating in genus/species "foo").

At any rate, prepare for 8 years of higher education, 2-4 years as a post doc (earning about $10K-$15K a year in this sort of field - and I'm not kidding about that salary), then another 5-10 years moving around the country teaching at various colleges until you can get a permanent position and get down to choosing your own research direction.

Sad but true.

 

[MizM]

Have you looked at schools in CA? University of California at Riverside has entymology.

 

[ceaser68]

That would be an excellent idea !! i hade thought of that as well but it sounded like alot of school ..=D