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Mississippi State University?


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I've noticed on a lot of weather bios, they note they got degrees from or studied at Mississippi State University. Especially on people who weren't meteorologists and were just forecasters/weathercasters recently.

 

Is it that their meteorology program is easy or what? Because I've noticed a lot of mentions of Mississippi State......

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Yep. The thing about MSU, which has made it VERY controversial in the meteorology field, is that there are no calculus requirements for graduation, which basically every other met program in the country does have, and the calculus classes a grad student must take are very, very difficult. So those who are "lazy" (in some people's eyes), or can't pass the Cal requirements, choose to take MSU path. There are some other reasons as well as to why MSU is considered a very controversial school in the met field, including the fact that they offer a Distance-Learning program which means they can still live and work as they please without being too involved in the school work, or having to be on-campus, which again makes it look like an 'easy way out'.

 

In my personal opinion, I don't think a person who went to MSU is necessarily a worse forecaster or person because they went that path. There are some who went to MSU, even some who have no degree at all, and are leaps and bounds better than other forecasters who went to Oklahoma, Penn, UNC, and many of the other big met schools out there. It really is a case by case basis, and because of that, I do think MSU gets a bad rep which is not totally deserved.

 

That also said, there are some at MSU who are literally the epitome of why people complain about their program. Again, a case by case basis.

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Math sucks anyway, who needs it, right?

 

;)

 

 

:(

 

In all seriousness, calculus is not used in meterology much at all anymore thanks to the advances in technology and calculators and such. It used to be an integral part of figuring out how exactly meteorological processes worked, but now with calculators and computers doing most of that stuff now, its not seen as nearly the necessity it was back just a few years ago. Yet, most schools still require a very heavy amount of calculus and statistics, etc, to graduate a met program.

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Math sucks anyway, who needs it, right?

 

:p

 

 

:p

 

In all seriousness, calculus is not used in meterology much at all anymore thanks to the advances in technology and calculators and such. It used to be an integral part of figuring out how exactly meteorological processes worked, but now with calculators and computers doing most of that stuff now, its not seen as nearly the necessity it was back just a few years ago. Yet, most schools still require a very heavy amount of calculus and statistics, etc, to graduate a met program.

 

You're telling me. I felt the first three years of undergrad all we did was derive equations. I always thought, how exactly does this apply to forecasting? It's finally all coming together this year. But research positions definitely use more math than forecasting positions, and for broadcast, probably none at all.

 

Back on topic, MSU is kind of like meteorology lite, especially the distant ed program. It's probably suitable for most broadcast jobs, but participants won't have the same fundamental knowledge as those who go through a traditional degree program unless they put extra effort into it.

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A lot of broadcast meteorologists have taken courses at Mississippi State University and received their certificate of broadcast meteorology.

 

There are quite a few who began as reporters or anchors and transitioned to weather for various reasons. I think for many people, it's a very viable option and an MSU certificate seems to be universally accepted. The biggest qualification for broadcast meteorologists is passing the requirements to receive an AMS Seal of Approval. If they pass those qualifications, I think they are every bit as qualified as someone who received degrees from the University of Oklahoma or Penn State.

 

If they understand the local weather patterns, all the fundamentals of forecasting and, especially, are able to communicate that in a direct and appealing way to viewers, then they are very qualified. The most important aspect of what broadcast meteorologists do every day is communicate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a first year met student, I think about switching degrees to something like Geology or Broadcast Journalism and then getting the certificate from MSU after the fact, even more so when facing a ton of Calculus homework (Calculus is a bear, whether you are good at math or not) every so often. At least for right now, I think it's beneficial for those who want to move on to graduate level programs to go through the "standard" process, because I for one don't want to "fall off a cliff academically" when facing that first 5 level mathematical theory class in Grad school.

 

For what it's worth, I think there are a ton of MSU grads that outshine their traditional college counterparts. In broadcasting, it seems to be more communication than competency (mind, you still need to be competent, but you must be an effective communicator to make it.) so maybe Calculus is not necessarily needed.

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A lot of people. It is the most used subject daily. A meteorologist might not use math a lot, but other people at a News station do because they need to have times for the stories, schedule commercial breaks, etc.

 

LOL...I had to laugh when I read this. That's why we're journalists...we're writers, not mathematicians. I know I took one of the lowest math courses I could take that would satisfy the California State University quantitative reasoning general education requirement (trig). You're right, producers need to know math for back timing, etc., but generally...math is not our strongest skill set.

 

One thing I'd like to know is if the Mississippi State meteorology program has the same chemistry and physics requirements as the "real" meteorology degree programs from places like OU, Penn State, UC Davis, or even here at SJSU. I could have done the calculus stuff with some help, but it's the chem and physics that killed me.

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One thing I'd like to know is if the Mississippi State meteorology program has the same chemistry and physics requirements as the "real" meteorology degree programs from places like OU, Penn State, UC Davis, or even here at SJSU. I could have done the calculus stuff with some help, but it's the chem and physics that killed me.

 

They've beefed up the on-campus requirements in response to the CBM. I believe the off-campus programme will follow eventually, but hasn't yet:

 

On-campus:

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/geosciences/broadcast-meteorology.htm

 

Off-campus:

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/geosciences/CT/BMP/Descriptions.html

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