I’ve always enjoyed Earth Sciences. I wouldn’t say I’m terrible at all, but it is challenging grasping new concepts. Then again, that’s what learning’s about right?
Are college level physics, calculus, and chemistry SO painstakingly difficult or can anyone that’s willing to learn be able to?
I wouldn’t say I’m unintelligent. I’ve always made great grades and take great interest in learning and educating myself in general. I’m a naturally curious person, and the Earth and everything natural are a rather large portion of what I contemplate about. As of now, I’m 18 and interested in a local school and have checked out their geology dept.'s example cirriculum list and it looks a bit intimidating! Although, I do have about 8 months until I apply, so I was thinking about taking the time now to learn the foundations of physics, chemistry, and calculus (college-level, anyway).
Does being a field geologist involve a daily intense use of physics, calculus, and chemistry, similar to the work that goes into a degree in the first place?
Or is the schooling a hurtle in a way that is like “Well, you have to learn this just to prove you deserve this title and know what the hell you’re doing”?
There’s no blanket answer for this. For some people, they are very challenging, sometimes to the point of being incomprehensible. For others, they come easily. And of course many find them difficult to some degree, but learnable with some effort. You’ll probably have to take the courses to see how it is for you.
ETA: And easy/doable with effort/impossible can be different for each of those subjects – for example, you may take to physics but have a hard time with calculus.
I’m a geologist who started out from more of a liberal artsy background so I think you’re sort of in the same boat as I was.
If your school only wants you to take the 100-level versions of chem, physics and calculus, yes everyone should be able to battle through those given enough determination. The big thing with all three of them is your grasp of algebra. If it’s not good from your high school classes definitely take a refresher and/or a pre-calc class before you attempt those. For the most part, you don’t need those background classes for your lower-level geology classes, so you should be able to take your time picking those up.
Once you get past those lower-level classes and eventually onto becoming a working geologist, you will most likely use at least one of those skills occasionally but it depends on what kind of geology you focus on. Also be warned that these days, with a bachelor’s degree you can probably getting a job doing grunt work in the oil and gas or mining industry, probably in some miserable part of the world like Qatar or North Dakota, but most of what you would traditionally think of as “geologist” jobs require at least a masters’ degree.
Geology is both a theoretical and applied science so you need background on matkemphysics almost at par with an engineer. Schools vary with how much they emphasize these allied subjects. Your high school performance in those subjects might give you an idea but people change a lot in college. Most important is how much you really want to learn and goad yourself into acing those subjects.
You have the right mindset. Field geology is a specialized ‘field’ in itself. The most important tools here are your basic mineralogy/petrography (minerals and rocks), along with structural geology (your faults and veins and pipes, etc.) and also stratigraphy (rock layers.) No, I don’t think you’ll look to much of your related subjects in the field, unless yours is a specialized branch such as geophysics or engineering geology.
Things might have changed since I was an undergrad but virtually any BS degree in a “hard” science field is going to require several courses in calculus, chemistry, and physics. Beyond that, it depends on what your ultimate goal is. I work in the oil/gas business and we hire scientists and engineers. ( We also hire lawyers and business majors but they don’t really count ) If your degree was in Geology, you would hire on as an Earth scientist and your field geology skills might have you leading field trips to study some outcrop that is an analog to a reservoir that I am exploring. Your skills in chemistry could used in evaluating the components of a hydrocarbon sample I got from a newly drilled reservoir. Your background in physics could be put to use working on creating attributes from seismic data that can better describe the architectural elements of a reservoir so that the well I am planning is placed in an optimal location. Your calculus skills will doubtless go unchallenged, since much of the heavy mathematical lifting is accomplished within some piece of software.
As noted above, a MS or PhD is required to be hired on at most of the big companies but the pay is good ( start at 90K ), the benefits are generous, and the work is challenging. The downside is that hydrocarbons are seldom found in nice locations, so you might be assigned to someplace nice like Calgary or Perth, or some place not so nice like Houston or Luanda.
Another petroleum geologist here. The courses you list were the ones I had more trouble with, calculus, chemistry and physics, but not overwhelmingly so. You just nut up and get it done just like for any other class or deaprtment. Will you use it later? Probably to some degree, although most of what you need to know and concentrate on will come later in the form of company training or simply learning through use. When I started at ARCO I first had SuperSchool, then landed in the GeoChem group where I actively wrote SAS programs. Lots of chem, lots of math. I must say though that when the application of these disciplines is a practical one, when you see tangible benefit and practical application of the sciences it makes it much easier to learn and you’ll even enjoy their use.
Without question though a career in geology has been emminently enjoyable and worth whatever small sacrifice was encountered along the way.
ETA: Yeah, at least get a masters. You’ll likely not be able to move past an acceptable level without it and the pay and employability difference is quite significant.
Another (long-winded) geologist’s opinion, here. It’s a fascinating field of study that will give you a greater appreciation for how cool and awesome (in the original sense) the natural world is. It also pulls together elements from all the sciences to a greater degree than any of the others.
If you are really interested in geology (or any other subject, for that matter) and you have an aptitiude for it, you will be motivated enough to brute force learn the stuff you aren’t as good at. I sucked hard at math going into college, but was still able to grind out the requisite calculus classes, after taking some lower-level math to backfill what I failed to get in highschool.
The non-geology science and math will not necessarily be a part of your daily job. However, by internalizing that knowledge you will have a better better grasp of geology. For instance, you could probably pick up enough chem and physics in mineralogy class to get a passing grade. But coming in with a solid understanding of ions and thermodynamics will give you a better feel for the material and consequently lead to mastery of it.
Go to graduate school. A BS by itself will generally get you a so-so job as a technician or low-level staff scientist with some companies and state agencies, or a mudlogger if you want to go into the oilfield. None of these are particularly great. Nowadays, a master’s degree is required for a most of the good applied science jobs with the government or industry. A PhD opens the door to academia or a research position at a big company, if you want to go the “pure science” route.
While it is way too early to give it too much consideration, think a little about how much you really want to do field work. There are not all that many non-academic field jobs that involve banging on outcrops out in the wilderness. Much career-type field work is in the engineering and environmental consulting businesses. Lots of soil test borings and water samples in relatively uninteresting places, like a suburban construction site or a garbage dump. And it’s often not terribly well-compensated.
I’ve had field jobs, but I vastly prefer my current (decade+) applied science petroleum geologist office job career phase. It’s not remotely what I thought I’d be doing, but it’s stimulating as heck. The fun “real geology” with mountains and crystals and beaches and fossils, is what happens on the weekends and vacation.
math is needed by most sciences. you may not use calculus daily but knowing its basics will help in learning much of science. you will likely use statistics as a scientist but taking a course may not be needed if you can self learn enough for your coursework and field.
physics and chemistry: everyone should have the basic courses at some level (100, 101) just to get through life without causing damage to yourself or others. it also helps make good social/political decisions if you know some reality.
inorganic chemistry has lots of information that will help understanding soil/earth/rocks.
you will likely use physics in understanding sampling and analysis of rocks.
But if you can find a good course (you should need applied stats more than theoretical stats), please take it. I’m up to here of research designed upside-down because the people involved don’t understand stats.
I took a geology course in college. During one field trip, the class crowded into a cave. The professor told us that this particular type of cave was quite fragile, and often collapsed.
Then he started hacking at the top of the cave with his pickaxe.
Definitely not. You use the geology you learned a lot, but the other stuff, not so much. When I was a working geologist, I only ever had to use the most basic stats to calculate sample averages, and the most basic geometry to be able to map the horizontal extent of an inclined borehole. For everything else, there are specialists and labs. The only chemistry a field geologist needs to know, is that limestones fizz if you drop acid on them. Seriously.
No, the schooling in maths, physics and chemistry is there because it’s highly likely that most of your first-year classmates are going to go on to do postgrad studies, and are going to specialise as geochemists (this started in 3rd year at my uni) or as geophysicists (only started in hons.) or any one of the other myriad subdisciplines. And all of those use those foundation sciences a lot more than “pure” field geology (which usually means either “mine geology” or “mud logging”, BTW) does. Hell, as a mine geologist, my art classes came more in handy than my chemistry ever did.
When I worked in California, a friend of my wife was a Realtor and when we got invited to one of her parties I was given strict instructions to *not *comment on the seismic activities in area. Talk about travel, kids, or sports but no opinions about that crack in the chimney. She had potential clients there and did not want to have me scare them off :eek:
) If your degree was in Geology, you would hire on as an Earth scientist and your field geology skills might have you leading field trips to study some outcrop that is an analog to a reservoir that I am exploring. Your skills in chemistry could used in evaluating the components of a hydrocarbon sample I got from a newly drilled reservoir. Your background in physics could be put to use working on creating attributes from seismic data that can better describe the architectural elements of a reservoir so that the well I am planning is placed in an optimal location. Your calculus skills will doubtless go unchallenged, since much of the heavy mathematical lifting is accomplished within some piece of software.