schools to look in to for meteorology?

[Glen Romine]

As an OU grad, I can't say there is anything bad about getting a Meteorology degree from there. But, the focus in class is on preparing you for research, not operational forecasting. That said, the math program at OU is really not all that great, despite the great many courses you will have to take in it. So, the program is certainly not without flaws. But, the real bonus imo is that you have access to some of the best scientists in the business, and many opportunities to intern at great labs and facilities. Chasing, as Mike said earlier, should not dictate your choice. Really, the best time of year to chase is after the end of the semester anyway, so you can still have a great season no matter where you go to school. While it will seem eons off, because of the overcrowded conditions in met jobs these days, you need to really think about where you want to be when you finish your degree. Pay for forecasting jobs is horrible, and research jobs salaries are better but you spend a long time in school without much reward. Best paying jobs are generally fringe to meterorology, such as weather derivatives, where you are mostly just doing statistics. Jobs where you get to study severe storms for a living are extremely rare (only 1 or two open up a year) If you just like to chase - you may find it more rewarding as a hobby than a profession.

Glen

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Mr. Prichard,

Congratulations on one of the most exciting points of your life -- and -- one of the most important decisions you will make to this point.

Let me offer you some advice from the point of view of a University of Oklahoma graduate and an employer of meteorologists.

The two schools very good but in different ways and you would not go wrong with either. How to decide? Valpo is probably the stronger choice if you want to go into forecasting or another area of applied meteorology. The University of Oklahoma may be the better choice if you wish to focus on severe storms or get a PhD.

No matter how much you may enjoy chasing, the location of a meteorology school should not be a significant consideration. This may seem like a contradiction from the above comment about OU, but it is not. If you wish, for example, to specialize in severe storm meteorology, OU is a fine choice...but the university chosen should flow from your interests, not the other way around. The fact OU is in the center of the "tornado belt" is a bonus.

Like everything else in life, a university education is what you make it. Go beyond the classroom. Get an internship at the NWS, at a private sector weather company, at a research institution in different summers. Find out what YOU like and at what you can excell, not what a professor gently pushes you toward (can't tell you the stories of woe I have heard in this regard over the years). Once you find what you really like, you will be in a position to excell. Success, no matter what area in which you chose to specialize, follows from excellence.

Again, congratuations!

This is another reason I considered OU more strongly. As for a post college career...I was hoping to find something in the research area, not forecasting, preferrably severe storms research. Something about that catches my eye more than actually being a forecaster or something along those lines, not that I am about to turn that down. At this point...I am all about anything weather, but obviously, my emphasis is on severe storms...and to be redundant, severe storms research.

 

[Blake Michaleski]

I started at the University of Louisiana-Monroe in the fall of 99. I now go to the University of South Alabama which I will touch on in a bit.


I met many great friends at ULM that now work in the NWS, private sector, and military as well as some that are about to finish up their degree. A few former/current students that I know are on this board as well but will leave names out just so that any of my opinions dont get attached to them whether i think they would agree with me or not :wink:

ULM offers a bachelors of science in atmospheric science. ULM had some absolutely top notch professors when I got there but IMO the emphasis was on theory and research and less on the operational aspect. The addition of a new professor last year will really contribute to this rapidly growing program. It is an excellent choice for a degree in the meteorology field. However the lack of intern opportunities (which they have since greatly increased) and the fact that I really wanted to get back down by the coast led me to explore my options as far as transfering. Of course now that they have began a partnership with the NWS with summer internships, the chance to gain operational experience is greater.

I looked into the University of South Alabama (USA) in Mobile, AL. They offer a Bachelors of Science in Meteorology. I made a visit in Dec of 03 and absolutely had to come to this place. I love the location as inshore saltwater fishing is one of my other hobbies. The town itself is clean and very easy to get around with campus conveniently located outside of town just a little. The facility at South Alabama for the MET dept is top notch. EXCELLENT professors and an extremely grueling synoptic program (6Cr/sem). You would think that with the school being on the coast that the primary emphasis would be tropical weather, not at all the case. The emphasis on tropical weather, severe local storms, and general operational meteorology is so evenly balanced that its amazing the amount of real world/useful meteorological knowledge you gain overall.

So if you are truly interested in Operational meteorology with arguably one of the best synoptic programs out there then I cant say enough about the Met Program at USA. I love it here. The SOO at WFO MOB has recommended to the AMS that our synoptic class become the standard for all programs. The feedback we get about our graduates from the NWS is outstanding!

If you are trying to figure out why I started college in 99 and I'm still in, then yes I am absolutely horrible at math, but i am slowly making it through. After this semester I will be done with all met classes. jsut goes to show that if you are determined enough you can make it no matter how bad you are in math. Yes it is very hard but well worth it.

Oh another thing, I really like how the classes here are small enough (the break synoptic up into two classes of about 6 students each) that you get plenty of one on one opportunities with the professors. They know everyone by name and are always available to discussclass work or even jsut the weather in general.

If you have any more questions then let me know.

here is a link: http://southalabama.edu/meteorology/

 

[Blake Michaleski]

Also USA offers a mesoscale class, radar, satellite and a great severe weather class. The Radar final was fun, you basically are put into teams representing a group at NWS. You are fed a radar image every 5 minutes form an actual archived event (all products and slices are available) and you make observations and issue warnings as your test. You are graded by actual warning verification from the event.

 

[Melissa Moon]

I don't know about other schools, but if you're interested in Oklahoma, please send me a PM and I will me more than happy to give you all sorts of specific details and answer questions. I'm sure the other OU folks wouldn't mind talking about OU either...we all love our school (and our football team hehe)

 

[Scott Udell]

A bit late to this thread, but I would be another voice for North Dakota (okay, I'm biased--I'm a computer science grad from there, class of '89). One thing that was interesting about the North Dakota program (at least when I was there) is that it was tied in with the Center for Aerospace Sciences (now the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences), the big aviation program they had there, and the met program had some interesting research aircraft access. Of course, that was a long time ago now, and I'm not too familiar with the state of the program now. Here's the program's home page: http://www.atmos.und.edu/