Insights for Undergraduates Seeking an Advanced Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences

ABSTRACT

In today's job market, having a successful career in the fisheries and wildlife sciences is becoming more dependent on obtaining an advanced degree. As a result, competition for getting accepted into a graduate program is fierce. Our objective for this study was to provide prospective graduate students some insights as to what qualifications or attributes would best prepare them for obtaining a graduate position (M.S.) and to excel once they are enrolled in a graduate program. A survey was sent to 50 universities within the National Association of University Fisheries and Wildlife Programs (NAUFWP) where both faculty and undergraduate students were asked questions relating to graduate school. Faculty rated the importance of various criteria and attributes of graduate school, and students answered the questions according to how they believed faculty members would respond. Overall, undergraduate students shared many of the same graduate school viewpoints as those held by faculty members. However, viewpoints differed on some topics related to admittance and the most important accomplishment of a graduate student while enrolled in a graduate program. These results indicate that undergraduate students may be better prepared for graduate school—and they may understand how to be successful once they are enrolled in a program—than was initially thought.

RESUMEN

en el mercado laboral actual, lograr una carrera exitosa en las ciencias pesqueras y de vida silvestre depende cada vez más de obtener un posgrado. Como resultado, la competencia para ser aceptado en un programa de posgrado es feroz. En objetivo en este estudio es proveer a los prospectos a estudiantes de posgrado de algunos consejos en cuanto a las cualidades y atributos que los preparen de la mejor manera para obtener un posgrado (M. en C.) y destacar una vez que pertenezcan a un programa. Se realizó un sondeo a 50 universidades que se encuentran dentro de la Asociación Nacional de Programas de Universidades en Pesquerías y Vida Silvestre (ANPUPV) en el que se plantearon, tanto facultades como aspirantes, preguntas relativas a las escuelas de posgrado. Las facultades calificaron la importancia de distintos criterios y atributos de las escuelas de posgrado, y los estudiantes contestaron las preguntas de acuerdo a cómo creen que responderían los miembros de las facultades. En general, los estudiantes de licenciatura comparten muchos de los puntos de vista de los miembros de las facultades. Sin embargo, difirieron en algunos temas relacionados con la admisión y con cuáles son los logros más importantes de un estudiante que pertenece a un programa de posgrado. Estos resultados indican que los estudiantes de licenciatura pueden estar mejor preparados para entrar a una escuela de posgrado—y entender mejor cómo tener éxito una vez que entran al programa—de lo que inicialmente se pensaba.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the South Dakota State University ecology discussion group and faculty members within the Department of Natural Resource Management at South Dakota State University for aiding in developing questions for this survey. Most important, we thank those students and faculty members who participated in this survey by providing their input on this topic. We also thank the administrative staff and personnel who forwarded our survey to their undergraduate listservs; without their help we would not have been able to conduct this survey. Thanks to D. Willis, J. Lott, and two anonymous reviewers for reviewing earlier drafts of this article. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Notes

1 This project was approved as exempt from human subjects’ research by the South Dakota State University Office of Research and Human Subjects Committee (approval ∼IRB-1110007-EXM).