Monday, July 16, 2007

The Dream Job

Since I have been interning in the Weather Center, several questions have come into the station regarding what it takes to be a meteorologist. Some of the questions that were asked were related to the schooling required and what types of classes are necessary to land this dream job. Currently pursuing this type of career, I feel that I can accurately answer some of the questions.

To become a meteorologist takes a large amount of math and science courses. The further you can get ahead in high school math and science the better. I wish I would have known that when I was in high school! The general requirements for most undergraduate meteorology programs are two semesters of chemistry, two semesters of upper level physics, three semesters of calculus, and lastly one semester of differential equations. After the general requirements are fulfilled you can then take some real meteorology classes! This classes range from synoptic and dynamic meteorology to instrumentation and tropical meteorology. Some univeristies even offer broadcast meteorology classes.

Several universities and colleges all over the country offer meteorology programs. Currently I attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, Ava attends Kansas University, and Lisa attends Penn State. If you are wanting to stay in Colorado for college the only two colleges that offer an undergraduate meteorology program are Metro State and University of Northern Colorado. Colorado State and University of Colorado do offer graduate programs though. With climate change being such a hot topic in the news today, becoming a meteorologist is not a dead end career, at least in my opinion. My motto is if you have a dream, nothing should stand in your way (not even hard classes!)