anyone know how one would go about becoming a herpetologist?

anyone?

going to college, doing pre-vet, going to a vet school.

In short, STUDY! :P

This is my goal in life!! I'm planning to study biology and zoology in university and then get in to herpetology as my field of research. If I am going about this wrong the please someone correct me!

ya my plan was to take bio and zoology too, im just wondering like, who would you be working for? who are you studying them for?

going to college, doing pre-vet, going to vet school, specializing during residency and internships.

the long and short of it, expect 4 years of college, 4 years vet-school, 3 year residency.

you don't need a certain degree to get into vet school, although biomedical sciences, animal sciences or zoology help you get the pre-reqs away faster and generallly have more support with the system.

Normally you would get an undergraduate bachelor of science degree in biology and go on to get a Masters or PhD in herpetology from University of Florida or University of Michigan. There are very few schools in the US who offer herpetology PhD's. Hope that helps!

That's about it. Here locally to me, we have University of Florida that has a great vet studies department. And also the Santa Fe Community college that has a zoo on grounds for the zoological courses. Both great. That type of college is what I'd look for!
Wolfy(too old to bother with college)

For us Canadians we have university of Guelph that does zoology and herpetology and I think U of T does zoology but I'm not sure about herpetology.

Normally herpetologists work for universities doing herp research and teaching classes (we have a herpetologist at my university). Some of the current research involves understanding breeding for endangered species and doing population biology (counting populations and their interactions with human encroachment). If you go the vet route and specialize in reptiles you would most likely end up working for a zoo or in private practice. But vets who specialize in herps are not herpetologists.

NCSU has a vet school too... anyone know if they offer a PHD course in Herpetology?

Kansas, UT,and ATM are good shcools for herps and vets. Kansas and UT for herps and ATM for vet school, deffanatly where I will get my Equine vet degree, but I am a Longhorn all the way.;)

Okay this is the road i am currently taking... I received my undergraduate degree in biology with a concentration in conservation biology. I did as much research and got involved in as may herpetology programs as i could during this time while i was in school. Then you look into getting a masters degree. You can be a herpetologist without having a masters degree in herpetology. I plan on getting a masters degree in Conservation Bio or Ecology and focusing completely on herps. You don't need to go to med school to become a herpetologist, you can, but you dont need to. I have two herpetologist friends one who is an ecologist and one who is a animal physiologist. One is has his doctorate and one who only has his masters. It is alot of work but all that you need to do is focus on your end goal and try to get as much experience as possible on your way. Grad schools look for experience when being considered for a research position.

If you want to talk about it PM me, i am on my way and already done with my undergraduate degree.

~mike