Biology - MA

Build a strong career path in biology with hands-on, advanced research that will prepare you for professional studies, doctoral work or employment in a variety of fields, including medicine, biotech, conservation and education. Choose either a Master of Science (MS) or Master of Arts (MA) in Biology, with a concentration in marine and freshwater biology or cell and molecular biology. Our faculty’s research interests range from cell and developmental biology to parasitology, endocrinology and the scholarship of teaching, so you can individualize your training depending on your interests. 

Our integrative biology graduate programs recognize that today's biology requires an approach that draws on studies from molecules to ecosystems, and therefore that our students need a broad range of experience and breadth of knowledge. Through course work and seminars, students learn how to integrate information from the various biology subdisciplines (molecular genetics to evolution) and levels (sub-cellular to biospheric) in order to understand and ask fundamental questions about cells, organisms, species, and ecology. Graduates with master's degrees pursue professional degrees in the health sciences, continue graduate work at the doctoral level, and find employment as marine, wildlife, and ecology specialists and educators for governmental and nongovernmental organizations and as lab technicians for hospitals and in industry.