What is the best college to go to in Florida for a meteorology degree?

Question

What sort of job could I get that deals with weather if I get this degree? Required courses, GPA, SAT scores, etc?

Answer 1

Florida has two excellent schools for meteorology.  One is the expensive private University of Miami, and the other is Florida State - Tallahassee.  Florida State, although it sounds less prestigious ('State School') is actually a very highly respected school for meteorology, and provides just as good of an education as UMiami but is much much cheaper.

Typical jobs with your meteorology bachelor's degree are:

Forecaster, National Weather Service

Forecaster in private industry (providers like Accuweather, Weather Channel, etc.)

Military Forecaster

A lot of meteorologists make good computer programmers because you'll take computer classes, and some end up in this field.

Some also go into the defense industry as more of a general scientific analyst.  This might be companies like Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc.  The stuff you do may not be weather related, but if you have your weather degree, and especially if you get a math minor or double major which many schools encourage, your resume will be taken seriously by that industry.  You would end up applying your analysis skills to help develop radar systems and such.

If trying to get into FSU right after high school, you'll need to take math through Calculus in high school to have the best shot at getting in.  Also, be sure to take physics.  It'll actually be pretty hard to get in right away if you haven't already proven yourself in math in high school.  So definitely do it if you can.  All is not lost if you can't/haven't.  See below about alternative ways to get in.  

Your GPA should be high, but a lower GPA can be offset by a good SAT score.  Your math and science grades will be important.  You'll apply your senior year which is when you'll most likely take calculus and physics.  So they won't have those grades to go on.  They'll probably look at your other math like Trig and pre-calculus, and possibly other science grades though chemistry and biology aren't really good predictors for how well you can do in physics/math.  But still just try to get decent grades in those.  They'll want to see good grades in your math, decent in science, and they'll want to see that you're taking calculus/physics at the time of your application.

Likewise, you should do well on the SAT, particularly the math portion.

Met. schools want to see at least a 650 math, but they'd prefer 700+.  Verbal could be as low as 500 and be OK, but an extra 50 points on that would go a long way.  I'd say you'd need these kinds of GPA/SAT combos:  3.0/1250+; 3.3/1200; 3.5/1150.  If you are good in math and are on track to take Calculus, the 650 probably won't be any sweat.  If you aren't on track for Calculus see below for alternative way to get into meteorology.

The math and physics gets pretty intense for meteorology, so really understand that that's what it's about.  It's not for some people, just like many meteorologists don't have the talent to be great writers, or financial analysts, etc.  If math/physics are not so hard for you, then go for it.  

My recommendation to improve your verbal score is to go buy Kaplan's Word Builder Flash Book.  I used it when I applied for school and it helped bump me up almost 100 points from what I usually score on practice tests.  The book is about 6 inches tall and 8 1/2 inches wide.  Each page has a word, front and back and when you see a word you already know or have already memorized well, you just dog-ear the page so you don't have to deal with it again.  It's great.

Alternative:  If you are lacking in math/physics, you could do one of two things.  These alternatives also help if your GPA/SAT are not good enough to get in.  You can still get in these ways:

1)  When you apply, pick different major that will be easier to get into for you.  And then once you are already in school, after a semester or two you can just switch majors.  But look at the courses for the major and see if you can handle it.    

2)  The other way is go to junior college first.  It's easy to get into and you can finish up calculus or physics there.  Then after two years you can apply to FSU or UM and you'll be ready for the courses.  You will still be able to graduate on time (after 4-5 years after you've graduated H.S.)  It's also very cost effective, which is good when you think about how much student loan you may have to take out if you don't have the money for school.  Starting salaries for meteorologists aren't great so the student loan bill can be a pain, and going to J.C. will make it that much easier.

Yeah, starting salaries aren't great, but you can move up the ladder pretty quickly, especially in government jobs like the Nat'l Weather Service.  Private industry in the long run, you won't get paid as well.  So the first 3 or 4 years on the job, the salary might be kind of dismal, but you can start earning a pretty good salary after a while (like 75-90K say 7 years into the job) after about.  Starting salary will be around 32-40K with a bachelor's degree.  And you 'll go up maybe 2-3K per year in the early part of your career.  Full promotions which will naturally happen will cause bigger jumps in your salary.

Working in the defense industry, you have the potential to make a lot more.  Starting salary would be more like 50K and you'll also move up fairly quickly.

An advanced degree (Master's specifically) will open up more opportunities and will get you better starting pay.  But in the long run you won't necessarily be making that much more than a B.S. in any of the fields I mentioned.  A Ph.D. is a different animal altogether.  By the time you've decided to get one, you'll know more about what you can do with it.