That’s meant to be a rhetorical question. Please don’t answer it 😂
I finished by B.S. in February but COVID caused closures of the few places to volunteer here and gain experience. Because of this, I have started looking at master’s degree programs that offer field experience. I found one that looks interesting and is pretty darn affordable. It’s through Project Dragonfly.
There’s actually 2 options for getting a MA in Biology. Yes, it’s weird to get a Master’s in Art for a science but I understand it’s pretty normal. It’s geared for people who don’t intend to go for a PhD. Both options are done through Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Who knew Miami and Oxford were in Ohio 🤷♀️
The Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) offers online courses and then hands-on experience through the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The Global Field Program (GFP) offers the same online courses but with field work in a choice of about of countries. It would be 10 days once a year for the 3 years of the program. First year you’d have a choice of Baja, Belize, or Brazil. Then 2nd and 3rd years the choices would be Amazon, Australia, Borneo, Costa Rica, Galápagos, Guyana, Hawai’i, India, Kenya, Mongolia, Namibia, Paraguay, or Thailand. This might be the more viable of the 2 options since I can just take vacation time for those 2 weeks. With the AIP, I may have to go to the zoo on a regular basis. I’ve found someone on FB who is in the project so I am trying to find out which program she’s in. I’ve also signed up for a Zoom webinar about how the programs and such work. That might make the decision easier. There’s an equal amount of pro and cons it seems at this point. The biggest cons are a) the money (though it’s cheaper than just about any other master’s program I’ve found) and b) my age (I’ll be 55 by the time I’m done if I start next year).
So I guess I’ll see what answers the webinar brings and if it sways me one way of the other.