Ep. 81 - What is the Master of Science in Geology?

In Episode 81 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Dr. Tandis Bidgoli, Assistant Professor in the Geological Sciences department about the Master of Science in Geology! Dr. Bidgoli discusses the the graduate program, application process, what students are learning in Geology graduate level coursework, and much more! 

Check out more information about the Master of Science in Geology! 

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Transcript

Matt Markin: [00:00:00] Hey Yoties. Welcome back to the CSUSB advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin, an academic advisor here at Cal State San Bernardino. And on today's episode, we're gonna learn more about the Master of Science in Geology. And here to discuss the program is Dr. Tandis Bidgoli from the Geological Sciences Department.

Matt Markin: Dr. Bidgoli, welcome. 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Matt Markin: Yeah. Or great that you're here with us to talk more and share about this great program. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in higher ed? 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Yeah. I've had a complicated route into higher ed.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Like many of the undergraduates at Cal State San Bernardino. I actually started off my educational path at a junior college. Eventually transferred to San Francisco State University and then ended up going on to get a master of geology from University of Nevada Las Vegas. And [00:01:00] so once I finished up I was still interested in probably pursuing a PhD at that time, but I ended up getting a really great job offer from ExxonMobil.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So I actually ended up going into industry for a period of time. Eventually left, took a leave of absence to go and get a PhD, and then decided I didn't really wanna go back to my industry job. I actually ended up staying on at University of Kansas where I had been completing my PhD. And stayed on in a research scientist post there with the Kansas Geological Survey.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And then eventually I took the leap into the academic path that I was really most interested in and got a faculty position at University of Missouri. So I was there for about four years as an assistant professor. But my heart and my home has always been in California. So when the Cal State San Bernardino position opened up, I applied for it immediately.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And I've been here since 2022. So it's been a long route, 20 years later I'm back in the CSU system and [00:02:00] really excited to be here. 

Matt Markin: Yeah, and it's great to hear, starting, as a student in the CSU system at San Francisco and then now going full circle and now teaching in the CSU system, 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: it's been amazing.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So I'm really happy. It's it is. I think when I look back, it was the job I had always wanted, but it took me. A tortuous route to get to where I am today. 

Matt Markin: Yeah. And I think that's, hopefully with our Yotiess listening to this, they realize like not everything's a straight path, sometimes That's right.

Matt Markin: Our path goes all in different areas and, but we wind up where we need to be. That's right. That's exactly right. 

Matt Markin: You're here to chat about the Master of Science and Geology. So let's say students like, I've, seen this program. How would you describe the Master of Science and Geology to a student?

Yeah, I think one of the things that happens when you're an undergraduate is you're taking a lot of courses, right? But those courses, while they're scaffolded in some fashion, right? They tend to be compartmentalized. So you're learning about specific subject [00:03:00] matters and specific topics. What the master of science ultimately allows you to do, I think, is really take your undersTandisng of geology to the next level.

It's a much more integrative undersTandisng of geology that you ultimately develop as a master's student. And and part of that one of the big components of the master's program is a research experience. And you begin, right away in the program starting to develop a research project with your advisor.

And then you ultimately, learn the methods that you're gonna use, develop a proposal for that. Then execute the research and then write it up as your master's thesis. And so you take a project from start to finish, but in that process, you're also utilizing all of the training that you got in your undergraduate plus, enhancements that you're getting through additional coursework in the Master's program.

So you're, that project experience, I mean to me at least as a master's student really was what [00:04:00] made me feel like I was a geologist. Like I understood when I walked away from my master's program, I felt like a professional geologist. I had a really deep, much deeper undersTandisng of geology.

'Cause again, you're putting all of those independent classes you took as an undergraduate together and really synthesizing. 

Matt Markin: Yeah. And I like that how you put it, that it's taken it to that next level when once you're in that master's program. Now, of course, there's admissions process and I know for like undergraduates they apply, they submit transcripts.

Matt Markin: What's the admissions process for this program? 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: If a student is interested one of the first things I would recommend is like jumping on our website. We have a lot of detailed information about how to actually. Apply to the graduate program. The application process is relatively straightforward.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Of course you're gonna complete I think there's an online application form that asks some basic information about your background and then you would prepare a statement of interest. This is a common sort of thing that's requested of [00:05:00] students for graduate admissions to most grad programs.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And that interest statement usually, tells a little bit. About your own background, your own interest in geology, and what you wanna do maybe, or if you're considering different career pathways, what those might be. And so students will prepare that and request three letters of recommendation from faculty from their undergraduate programs.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And once the admissions materials are received, then we have a graduate committee that will review those applications. One of the big things that I really recommend students do before they consider applying is, of course, looking at the program requirements, but reaching out to faculty in the department you want to apply for graduate school.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So any, any master's program you ultimately pursue, I would really recommend. Checking out the department, checking out the faculty, and trying to find a faculty member who your interests really align with. For example, if you're really excited about faults and earthquakes, [00:06:00] look on the website and see who, who does the research that's most related to faults and earthquakes.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: If it's paleontology. Find that paleontologist in the department, reach out to them, talk to them about the kinds of projects that they work on, and make sure that what you wanna do meshes with the potential advisor you might wanna work with. Generally speaking, we don't admit students without an advisor, so somebody has to really be willing to advise that student.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So I think it's really important for students to initiate that contact with faculty in the department and find someone you know that's gonna be their champion ultimately in the program. 

Matt Markin: So I'd love to get your advice on this because, you're mentioning to a student to initiate that contact with a faculty member.

Matt Markin: But sometimes, we have students that might be a little nervous to initiate that contact or, when should I do that? Or, sometimes they realize maybe towards, when they're closer to graduating oh now I should really think about what I wanna do after. What's your advice to a student of maybe how soon they should start that and any [00:07:00] tips on.

Matt Markin: Being brave enough to initiate that contact with the faculty member. Yeah, so most geology master's programs, they begin their application applications start to come in, I would say in the late part of the fall and into the early part of the spring. Our application deadline is April 30th.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: I would really encourage students, in that fall semester that you're thinking about applying to graduate school to reach out. And I know it's a big scary step to contact faculty, but we are so excited to work with students like that is I think, graduate advising is actually one of the favorite.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Parts of most of our jobs, right? Because for us, this is somebody we're gonna get to work closely with over a two year timeframe and really work together on solving a geologic problem. And so advisors are excited to to have potential mentees and to. To talk with students about their own research.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: That's the one thing most geology faculty are, if you wanna get [00:08:00] 'em talking about anything, ask 'em about their own research and they'd be happy to share that information. So I would just say to students, don't feel bashful. Don't feel nervous about it. And our campus, if you're on the Cal State San Bernardino campus, pop into any of our offices.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: We're almost always there. And. You're gonna see a friendly face on the other side of that door. But yeah, get that application in and usually our applica, our application deadline is April 30th, so you know, there's still time If students are interested in applying to the graduate program, we're a little over a month out from our deadline.

Matt Markin: Alright. Sounds good. And you were mentioning earlier about, this, the master's program going to the next level from the undergrad and students are, working on a project during their time in the program. But generally speaking, with some of the classes students are taking, can you talk a little bit about what students might be learning?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Yeah, so we have a range of different graduate level courses. So when you enter into the program, there are 30, you're gonna have to do 30 credit [00:09:00] hours of coursework. Six of the credit hours are actually part of a graduate seminar sequence that we have. In that seminar sequence, students are, of course learning some additional information about geology namely geochemistry.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But they're also developing their skills in presentations and preparation of written products and things. And so there's a component of those six credit hours that's actually focused on really building soft skills. And those are things, I think as undergraduates, you don't get a huge amount of practice doing things like presentations, especially, technical, scientific presentations.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And there's 15 credit hours of elective. Courses, and again the topics are quite variable. It depends on what our graduate faculty are interested in teaching and some of that is also based on what the cohort of students that are coming in looks like and what their projects are like.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: For example, this semester we have a graduate course that's running on QUR geology. So looking at very young. [00:10:00] Geologic systems, and that covers the range of topics from dating methods that are used on young systems to, different field methods for data collection in those types of systems.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And the reason that course is running right now is almost every student in our program is doing something related to relatively young geology right now. Some of it is young faults, some of it is glaciers. Depending on, but again, depending on the cohort of students, we'll have different courses that, ideally we tailor our program to the students that are in it.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But there's other classes for example in the spring, I'm hoping to teach a class on endocrinology. So we're gonna really look at. How we date rocks and all the different methods of dating rocks and isotopic systems. The graduate courses, I would say are more challenging, obviously, than our undergraduate courses, and in part because you have to have a certain amount of background, geologic knowledge to really.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Dive into the topics that we cover in the [00:11:00] graduate curriculum. So those graduate level courses, assume you've already taken a class on petrology, you've already taken a class on mineralogy, you already have background in chemistry, math, physics. The cha the courses are more challenging, but the topics are, ideally relevant to the things that the students are working on in the department for their own research.

Matt Markin: Yeah, and you were chatting. It goes to my next question, and so you're mentioning like with the graduate level courses you mentioned a little bit about, what students are learning in the classes, how they're a little bit different than the undergrad, that they're also like learning those soft skills.

Matt Markin: Anything to add about like the difference between, okay, I'm an undergraduate student in an undergraduate class going up for my bachelor's degree versus I'm a graduate student in a class, with my professor and the other students. 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: One of the things that's also a component of the curriculum we have is, again, as part of that research experience, we also have I believe it's nine credit hours that are a sca that, that are part of that [00:12:00] scaffolded research experience that students will have.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So a big dimension of that actually ends up being in their second semester of graduate studies. Students will focus on proposal development and so they will work closely with their research advisor to build the, statement of the problem. The, dive into the hypotheses that they're gonna be testing through their research experience the methods that they're gonna be using, the issues with those methods, and then ultimately.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Over the summer of that first academic year and into that fall semester, they're going to be working on new data collection. And one of the exciting expectations of our graduate program is that you're really contributing something new to the science. And so this is original research. We're not doing canned projects.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: This is, you are actually contributing to the body of knowledge that geologists everywhere are gonna ultimately use. And so once the students have completed that research, usually in their [00:13:00] last semester, the focus is gonna be really on writing that research up and sharing and communicating it with the broader geoscience community.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So one of the expectations we have is that our graduates. Students also present their research at national and regional conferences and really get out there and share the science that they've been working on. And the hope ultimately is that those master's thesis are either themselves a research publication.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Or we'll at least contribute to another publication, maybe with a, another student depending on the scale of the project and what results we have. So in the end, you're really contributing to pub published geologic research, which is really exciting. You'd be a co-author on, a, a journal article and a major geoscience journal, and that's a pretty exciting thing.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: I can still remember my first, paper that came out. It. It's pretty, pretty neat experience to have. But yeah, I mean I, the overall, I think that experience that you get [00:14:00] as a graduate student is somewhat unique. And again, it's something where I think graduate students have to find, it's I always consider a Venn diagram where, one circle is your interest.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: One circle is the students' and or the faculty advisor's interests. And then the other circle is what's feasible to get done in that kind of two year timeframe, right? Yeah. So we try to find some overlap between those and that really for every student ends up being a unique experience. 

Matt Markin: Yeah.

Matt Markin: That's awesome. Yeah, and it's kinda like you're saying you, they get to contribute and really take part in what they're actually learning and researching and in a way kind of making a difference. Yeah. 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: You're contributing to the body of knowledge, so that's a really cool thing. 

Matt Markin: Absolutely.

Matt Markin: And of course, a question you probably get to is the career question. So let's say, students going for the master of science and geology, can you talk about maybe whether it's career options that those that might be able to do with the degree or what you've seen some of your graduates go into with the [00:15:00] masters?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Yeah. As geoscience majors, when students are finishing up their bachelor's programs, a Bachelor of Science and geology is a very employable degree. So we're very fortunate as a discipline that our students can really finish up their bachelor's and just go straight into the workforce, if that's the.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Career trajectory they wanna have. But I will say that a master's degree again, provides you this just extra training. I'm not sure that when I finished my bachelor's, I would've felt sort of job ready. And it, that's not a criticism of the program that I was in, we all develop and grow and at different timescales and and so I think for some students.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Going straight from a bachelor's to a master's makes a lot of sense. I think that it's a, there's a lot of growth and confidence building, I think that takes place through a master's program. I think other students will go straight into the workforce, but one of the things they may find as they pursue whatever geological career path they take [00:16:00] that eventually, maybe you get 10 years in.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: That there are gonna be some limitations with just a bachelor's degree, right? So there are some career advancement opportunities you may not be able to pursue without that master's. And so we do have quite a few students who have come back, to get that extra education that will allow them to then advance a little bit further in their professional path.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So Master's in Geology I think will never, ever hurt you. It's really always gonna be a benefit. And in terms of your overall salary, I think. Everyone is benefited by a master's degree. Your starting salary will automatically be higher and then your career advancement potential and opportunities I think are gonna be greater with that master's degree.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But, and again, that's not to say you can't have a successful career with a bachelor's degree. We have a lot of alumni that are doing outsTandisng things and. Are wildly successful in their career paths, but certainly that master's degree is gonna give you a bit of an edge and just [00:17:00] allow you some more advancement opportunities over the course of your career.

Matt Markin: Now, of course there's might be misconceptions too that someone might have about, whether it's geology in general or potentially the Master's program. Do you think there are any misconceptions that students might have? 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Yeah, I think, I think there is particularly I would say at Cal State San Bernardino, we have a really unique population of students.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: We are a minority serving institution, Hispanic serving institution, and we have a lot of our students are first generation to college. I think the idea of graduate studies is scary for a lot of our students because. Many of 'em, again, don't have any role models in their own families for even getting a college degree.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: If you're the first person in your family pursuing that college degree, the idea of then going on and getting a master's degree, you've already exceeded everybody in your family's education level with just that bachelor's degree. So I do think that our students probably. Have a little more [00:18:00] uncertainty and maybe fear about taking a step towards graduate studies.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But again, what I would say is just from the standpoint of. Your salaries. Even if you pay, if if you're fortunate and you are able to get involved in a project where your advisor actually has some support to help pay for your graduate studies, that is a possibility in the geosciences. That's wonderful.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But even if you pay for your tuition to pursue that degree path. You will recoup that money within the first five years of your professional, experience out of graduate school. So there is a significant financial gain, I think by doing the graduate studies, but also I think in terms of.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: That confidence building. I think that is one thing that our Cal State San Bernardino students struggle with for sure is feeling confident in like the knowledge that they have and a graduate education is one way to really build that confidence up. I think it's certainly where I develop [00:19:00] my own confidence as a geoscientist and I think that's something that that can be replicated for many students that pursue a master's in geology.

Matt Markin: And let's say students listen to this and they're like, you know what? This sounds very interesting. May want to apply. I am still not sure I'm on the fence. Any advice you have for that student or to to reach out to one of their their geology professors. 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Absolutely. Our department is really exciting.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: We, I think we hold a lot of social gatherings. That's one of the thing about geology departments is they tend to be small, but that means they're, we're really a tight-knit community. And there's a lot of support in our program for our undergrads and our graduate students. In our department on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we often have social gatherings during coyote hour.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: So I would say try and pop into one of those events. Sometimes it's a potluck, sometimes it's a seminar. Sometimes it's just a hangout that our geology club organizes. But [00:20:00] come in and talk to the faculty and talk to the students. I think other students in our program are a great resource and we have quite a few students who were undergrads and then transitioned actually into our graduate program.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: I'm very lucky this semester to be advising one of those students as a new master's student. So come talk to us and I know again. Just stopping in and saying hi can be a scary thing, but I promise you that our department is a warm and welcoming place. Like we really want students there and we love to see our students be successful.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: And whatever we can do to help that and facilitate that, we're here for you. 

Matt Markin: Awesome. And I guess that's a good segue into my last question is, aside from that is, is are there any other resources that that your department offers that you wanna mention? 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Yeah, certainly. We have o obviously all of the degree requirements and that kind of information is on our department webpage.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: But we also periodically host Zoom Hangouts and Zoom [00:21:00] chats to talk about either the undergraduate program or the graduate program. And that's information that we share on Instagram. As well as on LinkedIn and Facebook. So whatever social media platform you're on just look at C-S-U-S-B geology and you, you'll be able to keep up with and find more information about different events that we're hosting and different informational gatherings we might have.

Matt Markin: All right, sounds good. And we'll make sure to also include the link to the department website in our show notes. I feel like I've learned a tremendous amount of about the Master's program. So Dr. Bidgoli, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli: Thanks so much for having me. This has been fun.