I am a Marine and Environmental Sciences (MES) major here at the Academy. I chose my major because I was originally interested in biochemistry and the Marine and Environmental Sciences program is most closely related. There are three tracks in the major; Physical Oceanography, Biological Environmental Science, and Chemical Environmental Science. I had to choose two tracks, so the most obvious ones for me where the biological and chemical, where I am taking classes such as organic chemistry, fisheries biology, marine biology, and meteorology. Personally, organic chemistry is my favorite subject; however, the field trips in the other classes made them equally enjoyable. The most frequent field trips being to the Mystic Aquarium and out on the R/V Michael J. Greeley, a research vessel for cadets.
The most difficult portion of the major are the prerequisites. I love science, but I am not a math person at all so luckily the professors in the math department are amazing and were there to help me every step of the way. There were a lot of long nights working with the professors who stay late about once a week to help students catch up on material that they may be struggling with or those that just want extra practice. I would have had a much harder time getting through calculus, multi-variable calculus, and differential equations, if it were not for the resources available to me. Now, I only need to get through probability and statistics next semester and I am done with math requirements for my major! If you are interested in learning more about major-specific requirements, check out the Marine and Environmental Sciences page on the Academy website. I did a lot of researching on the page looking at not only the major requirements, but also cadet blogs like this one (I hope it helps). I also stayed for an overnight visit with a cadet in my major so that I could ask more questions.
In the end, I chose this major because of all the career possibilities inside and outside the Coast Guard. In high school, I had the opportunity to intern at research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Agriculture. I loved both of those internships and I found that I would love to work in environmental response while in the Coast Guard, and environmental health or environmental justice when I get out of the Coast Guard. My major allows me to take a few electives that I believe will help me learn more about this path. As of now, my electives are microeconomics and emergency management. Next year, I hope to take public policy and environmental policy.
Besides the classes and the field trips, the best part of my major are definitely the professors and my classmates. All of the professors are passionate in what they do. So, if you are thinking about the Marine and Environmental Sciences major, I am here to tell you that it is the way to go, but do your research and see if it is the right fit for you.
