What math do you need to have to become a marine biologist?

Answer 1

In my old University, to enter Marine Science you need maths at school including some calculus, as well as fairly good science preparation. If you don't have the maths, you could attend a crash course over the summer before you enter, but that isn't really enough to get people prepared for the first year science courses. You need to be ready to study Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography/Geology at University level and take one more Maths course at Calculus level.

If you wanted to enter as a Biology major rather than Marine Science, you could avoid the physics, though you still need biology, chemistry and maths. The disadvantage is that you might be cut out of some geoscience courses about rivers and oceans because of the missing physics. There would still be plenty of biology subjects connected with marine life.

Check out the websites of a few colleges or universities that offer Marine Biology or Marine Science. If possible, talk to some actual marine biologists. Remember, though, that things change, and if they graduated 20 years ago the requirements might be very different now. Try contacting faculty members directly in a college/university you might be interested in. People will usually respond to a genuine enquiry, or pass you on to someone who will help.

I guess you can afford to be a bit unprepared in one subject, and do extra work in it, but if you are unprepared in more than one, even if you get into the degree, you will crash out pretty quickly. You can't afford to take too many remedial subjects.

Finally, if you like maths and are good at it (not all that common among biology students) you are in a good position to do interesting things in ecology, genetics and even mathematical biology (yes, there is a whole discipline combining biology and mathematics).