RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE
COLLEGE BOUND METEOROLOGY STUDENT

If you are in high school:

Take as much math and science as you can!  Math is especially important since the study of weather uses many calculations and equations.  Take pre-Calculus and Calculus courses if your high school offers them.  They will prepare you well for what lies ahead in meteorology.   I did not have that advantage back in the late 1970's... high schools did not offer Calculus until the 1980's.

If you are interested in broadcast (TV) meteorology, take as many speech classes as you can fit in without squeezing out the math. Offer to do the weather on your school's P.A. system during morning announcements. Join your school's local radio station or TV station staff and learn the ins and outs. Sign up for plays. Theater performance will help you down the line with feeling comfortable performing a weathercast on TV.

If TV meteorology is your focus, be prepared to move away from home for your first job.... which will be in a small market. You'll move up in market size and closer to home in time.

Start looking into the colleges of your choice in your junior year. See what is out there and what their cirriculum includes. Some colleges and universities are more geared for research meteorology while others concentrate more on applied meteorlogy (forecasting). Some even specialize in broadcast meteorology (like my alma mater, Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, Vermont).

Looking for a college?

Here is a partial list with links to some of the colleges I routinely recommend to students interested in meteorology as a profession (in order of my preferences):

Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, VT

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Penn. State, State College, PA

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

SUNY, Brockport, NY

SUNY, Oswego, NY

For a complete list, you may write to the American Meteorological Society, 45 Beacon Street, Boston, MA.