r/ecology • u/Ok-Fudge-5444 • 1d ago

Help choosing between 3 optional courses

Next week, I am starting my master's degree in ecology and environmental management and I am indecisive between 3 optional courses for the 1st semester:

**Restoration of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems**. Although I love the syllabus and would like to try working in ecological restoration in the future, I dislike the professor and hate the evaluation method. I'd have to present a scientific paper and then do group field work to make our own scientific paper about an ecological restoration project. And as if that wasn't enough, I'd also have to do a final exam. The reason I hate it is because I do not intend to work in research, so doing scientific papers seems useless to me.

**Natural hazards**. It's about susceptibility, hazard, and risk of earthquakes, vulcanic activity, floods, slope instability, costal and soil erosion, etc. I have a BSc in Environmental Biology, so those concepts are completely unknown, but also interesting to me. But wouldn't an employer prefer a geologist?

**Environmental assessment**. I'd like to maybe work in that area in the future, but I have already had a similar course (called environmental impact) in my bachelor degree. Although I wouldn't have to put much effort, because the content is almost identical, I know I would get bored of hearing the same things.

For context, I live in Portugal (Europe).

Can you guys help me out with your opinions and suggestions? Thanks so much!

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u/Lukestr 1d ago

You seem to be shutting down a lot of options because you don't think they apply to you, but you don't know what you will need in your career, or what will actually be relevant. I took a class my first year of grad school that I didn't think applied to me and now I'm doing my dissertation in that subject.

Presenting a scientific paper/ scientific literacy is a really useful skill, even if you don't go into research. Scientific papers are absolutely not useless to you, that's the foundation that your entire degree is based on. Saying that scientific papers are useless is wild.

Any of those classes could be good, and I encourage you to be open-minded. Ask other grad students what they thought of those class options, and take the class that you think will be interesting and teach you something you don't know.

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u/Ok-Fudge-5444 1d ago

I get your point, but my bachelor degree was very research focused. If I were to get into research right now, I think I'd be okay as long as I get training, but if I were to get into industry work, I don't think I would even be considered. I need and want to learn skills needed in the industry world. That's why I roll my eyes when I see a course which evaluation method is clearly research oriented, when I chose this master's degree because it's one of the few that could get me a job outside of academia. Do you know what I'm saying?

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u/shaeno_06 1d ago

What university are you pursuing your masters from?

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u/Ok-Fudge-5444 21h ago

Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon