Ellinwood

Neither the article nor the link to the data in the article specify whether the employment is within the actual field of study or not... I would venture a guess that it applies to any employment and not just within the field.

Chasers caught the beginning of the tornado: WARNING: NSFW language

This. I haven't seen anything indicative of an EF-5 yet... should be able to get some quick shots in this morning before the next storm rolls through.

Can we get this OP in the Mid-Atlantic? We desperately need it Great set of rules, and from what I hear/see you have been using it well. If only I was still in Raleigh...

No love for the UAlbs?

Double-check the course requirements to do an Atmos/Comp Sci double major... not sure about Lyndon State, but in SUNY Albany I was a year in before I decided to try the same thing... would have had to stay in school for 4.5-5 years to accomplish the double-major at that point. As it is, I had to take a Comp Sci class in the summer to make up for the time I lost by not doing Comp Sci freshman year. If you do want to go into the world of broadcast, I would suggest taking at least one broadcast/journalism class that works on vocal training and composure for when you're in front of the camera.

Indeed. Avoid Kean at all costs!

inb4lock This thread... had it's moments. Unfortunately, it has crashed, burned, the fire has gone out, and plants have started to grow over the ruins.

Like Isohume said... wow. I'm starting to really question Kean at a B.S. in Atmos. program, as its major requirements seem lax compared to the other colleges I went to and looked at.

I just went for the one semester of grad school before I got a job But yeah it's a pretty good school for undergrads and grads alike, and it's great for most kinds of meteorology. As for all of the people who say "I like it as a hobby and I'm glad it's not my job" ... I laugh. If you love meteorology and forecasting it will never get tiring. I was able to get something very close to my dream job (I need to do more severe weather forecasting! ) from an entry level position! Even if I was getting paid horribly, I wouldn't care because I love my job and it doesn't really feel like work at all.

Yeah, the paid positions at SUNY Albany went from 12 down to 6 for fall 2009. Don't know what it was this year. 3.5 should be more than enough. I applied to four schools in total (NC State, SUNY Albany, Penn State and Univerisity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and only got accepted to NC State (without funding no less!). It was a tough year for met majors. Thanks for sharing the info, catocin. Networking does help a lot as well if you can talk to the right people

The grad classes can be easier or harder, depending on what kind of study habits and mental retention you have. Most of it is old stuff rehashed and more deeply investigated. The classes you take can also make a big difference, which are tailored to which part of meteorology you want to concentrate in. What kind of GPA got you into your grad. program, if you don't mind me asking? I only ask because I had a 3.31 GPA (and something like 28 or 29 GRE), and I struggled getting into grad school. Of course, part of it was the fact that last year was one of the hardest years to try to get into grad school. When I applied in fall 2009, most colleges had cut back on the number of paid graduates. For instance, SUNY Albany cut their incoming RA/TA positions in half, and I was 2nd in line on the waiting list, so I got screwed over there Any other year before that and I would have gotten in.

I also have to LOL at all of the C/D grade discussion going on... I would have abandoned ship if I was getting those kind of grades in calc. The last two years of your met degree involves quite a few advanced calc-based atmos courses, so you'd better know how to do it! Sure, you use very little of it (if any at all) once you're out forecasting, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to walk away with Cs and Ds in core classes and expect to be favored in the job market. EDIT: Also, it CERTAINLY won't fly if you go on to grad school (if you can even get in with those grades). Most colleges require that you maintain a B average in your graduate courses... at least in atmos.

There is a LOT more to private forecasting other than just predicting the temperature and precipitation, etc. weather elements out to 7-10 days. There's a lot of value in extended range forecasting, as well as client-specific forecasts that are tailored to their needs, whether it be power, trading, production, risk and safely, agricultural or anything else that the clients need a weather forecast for (both nationally and globally). Imagine if the thousands of companies that receive specific discussions and get daily client calls all decided to call the NWS for more information.

I had that link but the one I bookmarked is broken now I'm sure a quick search on PSU or Google would yield the correct page.

Out of the 9 people who graduated with me with a B.S. in Atmos. Sci., two of us have full-time jobs and one has a part-time job, all as forecasters. Two of the atmos. people that went the B.A. route (out of about 6-8) have broadcast met jobs. The rest of the B.S. graduates are all in graduate school or just finished. And this was the group that graduated in one of the worst times to get into the real world in recent history. I'm sure it's different at other schools, but that's what happened at SUNY Albany. I did start looking in March, so it took about 10 months in total. Virtually no one was hiring entry level from March-June. I took a job-hunt hiatus for the most part in August-September, but then the job market started to open back up in October so I went for it and got in. I stopped applying to the NWS in June... I'd like to think I saved myself a bit of time trying (EDIT: Though it is suggested that you DO keep trying!) If you really want to look into what kinds of private sector jobs are being offered, http://www.nwas.org/jobs.php is a really good place to start. (EDIT: It looks like that will be going to a paid service in January, so get your looking in now!) Another good site is the AMS jobs page: http://careercenter.ametsoc.org/c/search_results.cfm

FWIW to those who are looking... I got a full-time entry level position last in Feb. 2010. I graduated with a B.S. in Atmospheric Science and minors in Math and Comp. Sci. in May 2009, and I spent one semester of graduate school in Fall 2009. I had the summer internship with the NWS, a summer research job in meteorology amongst a few other things. Having good communication skills is also very important in this industry. Before I got this job, I had had interviews with 4 other companies and could have had one with a 6th interview with another company, and all of those took place between October and January. Get good grades, diversify yourself, and get as much experience as you can.

This, but more grammatically correct I lol'd at the "forced into the private sector" part, like it was some sort of despicable evil. Nearly all mets. work odd hours even into middle-aged or older years unless they land a top job or go into management. I happen to love my 2:30am-11:30am schedule because I get the afternoon off to do shopping when everyone's at work or I can go storm chasing I'd like to get some data on the 21-25k salary range with poor raises, as I am rather skeptic about those figures. Maybe in certain companies... The second to last paragraph about how everything's getting automated and that you need less forecasters to do the job is complete bull. I'd like to hear what qualifies you to make all of the statements in your original post. While it is still difficult to get a met job for those starting out, you'll have to make some sacrifices like living somewhere that you didn't want to or starting out in a part-time position, but if you really do like the weather and forecasting then stick with it.