Program Overview
SUNY Oneonta's five-year combined B.S/M.S. Biology program gives students the opportunity to delve deeply into the field, increase post-graduation employment prospects, and do so in a time efficient manner.
Designed as a 5-year, two-degree, program, students begin research with a faculty member in their second or third year, developing the project into their M.S. thesis. Students have more time to focus on learning state-of-the-art techniques and technologies to bring those competencies with them into the their careers.
Students from the M.S. Biology program have gone into private industry, forensic science, work with NGOs and non-profits, higher education, and secondary education.
The program emphasis is in ecology, conservation, and environmental science. Students have earned an M.S. in Biology from SUNY Oneonta performing theses across a range of topics from control of invasive species, management of endangered species, population genetics, and population modeling.
Facilities
Program quality is particularly enhanced by the facilities, opportunities for study, and research activities at the Biological Field Station in Cooperstown, NY.
This site provides students with a research complex that contains several multipurpose and analytical laboratories, two lakefront docks, boats, sampling equipment and access to over 2,600 acres of woodlands, bogs, marshes, and ponds.
Thesis Advantage
A thesis prepares students for undertaking doctoral studies at university centers and to train technicians for specialized career opportunities in the biological sciences. Students focus on an independent research topic and develop a research thesis that is presented in written and oral forms to the SUNY Oneonta community.
How to Apply
SUNY Oneonta students who expect to graduate from their B.S. in biology program can apply for admission to the combined program in their junior year.
- Contact and make arrangements with a faculty member in the Biology department willing to serve as their graduate advisor.
- Submit a completed application (the application fee is waived for SUNY Oneonta students).
- Submit two letters of recommendation, one of which must be from their potential graduate advisor.
- Submit a written statement explaining the purpose/goal for seeking the degree.