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  
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 going to learn more about the Master of Science in Geology. And here to discuss the program is Dr. Tandis Bidgoli from the Geological Sciences department. Dr. Bidgoli, welcome.

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

Matt Markin  
Yeah, we're 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  
I've had kind of a complicated route into higher ed, 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 so once I finished up, I kind of was still interested in probably pursuing PhD at that time, but I ended up getting a really great job offer from ExxonMobil, 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 want to go back to my industry job. So 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. 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, and I've been here since 2022 so it's kind of been a long route, but, you know, 20 years later, I'm back in the CSU system, and really excited to be here.

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

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
It's been amazing. So I'm really, really happy it's, it is, I think, when I look back, it was kind of the job I had always wanted, but it took me sort of a torturous route to get to where I am today.

Matt Markin  
Yeah. And I think that's, you know, hopefully, with with our Yoties listening to this, you know, they, they realize, like, not everything's a straight path. You know, sometimes our path goes all in different areas and but we wind up where we need to be.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
That's right. That's exactly right.

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

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeah. I mean, 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 matters and specific topics. What the Master of Science ultimately allows you to do, I think, is really kind of take your understanding of geology to the next level. It's a much more integrative understanding of geology that you ultimately develop as a Master's student and so and part of that, one of the big components of the master's program is a research experience. And so you begin, you know, right away, in the program, starting to develop a research project with your advisor, and then you ultimately, you know, learn the methods that you're going to use, develop a proposal for that, and then execute the research, and then write it up as your master's thesis. And so you sort of 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, you know, enhancements that you're getting through additional coursework in the master's program. So you're, you know, that project experience, I mean to me, at least as a Master's student, really was what 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 understanding of geology, because, 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 once you're in that master's program. Now, of course, you know there's admissions process, and I know for like undergraduates, you know, they apply, they submit transcripts. What's the admissions process like for this program?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
So 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. Of course, you're you're going to 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 students for graduate admissions to most grad programs, and that interest statement, usually, you know, tells a little bit about your own background, your own interests in geology and sort of what you want to 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. And so 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. So any you know, any master's program you ultimately pursue, I would really recommend, you know, checking out the department, checking out the faculty, and trying to find a faculty member who, who your interests really align with. So for example, if you're really excited about faults and earthquakes, look on the website and see who does the research that's most related to faults and earthquakes. 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 want to do sort of meshes with the potential advisor you might want to work with. Generally speaking, we don't admit students without an advisor, so somebody has to really be willing to advise that student. So I think it's really important for students to kind of initiate that contact with faculty in the department and find someone you know that's going to be their champion, ultimately in the program.

Matt Markin  
So I'd love to get your advice on this, because, you know, you're mentioning to students who initiate that contact with the faculty member. But sometimes, you know, we have students that might be a little nervous to initiate that contact. Or, you know, when should I do that? Or, you know, sometimes they realize maybe towards, you know, when they're closer to graduating, like, Oh, now I should really think about what I want to do after what's your advice to student of like, maybe how soon they should start that? And any tips on, you know, being brave enough to initiate that contact with the faculty?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeah. So most geology master's programs, they begin, kind of 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 30. So I would really encourage students, you know, in that fall semester that you're kind of thinking about applying to graduate school to reach out and 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, you know, graduate advising is actually one of the favorite parts of most of our jobs, right? Because for us, this is somebody we're going to get to work closely with over a two year time frame and really work together on solving a geologic problem, and so advisors are excited to to have potential mentees and to talk with students about their own research. That's the one thing most geology faculty. Or if you want to get them talking about anything, ask them 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 you know, our campus, if you're on the Cal State, San Bernardino campus, pop into any of our offices, we're almost always there, and you're going to 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 30, 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  
Sounds good. And you were mentioning earlier about, you know, this the master's program kind of going to the next level from the undergrad and students are, you know, working on a project during their time in the program, but generally speaking, you know, 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 going to have to do 30 credit hours of coursework. Six of the credit hours are actually part of a graduate seminar sequence that we have. So in that seminar sequence, students are, you know, of course, learning some additional information about geology, namely geochemistry, but they're also developing their skills in presentations and prep. Operation 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, you know, technical, scientific presentations, right? And so there's 15 credit hours of elective courses. And again, the topics are quite variable. It sort of 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. So for example, this semester, we have a graduate course that's running on quater geology, so looking at very young geologic systems, and that covers the range of topics, from dating methods that are used on young systems to, you know, different field methods for data collection in those types of systems. So 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, you know, depending on, but again, depending on the cohort of students will have different courses that you know. Ideally, we tailor our program to the students that are in it. But there's other classes, you know, for example, in the spring, I'm hoping to teach a class on geochronology. So we're going to 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 dive into the topics that we cover in the 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. So the chat, the courses are more challenging, but the topics are, you know, ideally relevant to the things that the students are working on in the department for their own research.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, and you were kind of, you know, chatting, and kind of goes to my next question. And so you're kind of mentioning, like with the graduate level courses, you mentioned a little bit about, you know, what students are learning in the class is kind of how they're a little bit different than the undergrad, you know, that they're also kind of learning those soft skills, anything to add about, like, kind of the difference between, okay, I'm an undergraduate student in an undergraduate class going for my bachelor's degree, versus I'm a graduate student in a class, you know, with with my professor and the other students.

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeah, 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 sketch that are part of that scaffolded research experience that students will have. 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 you know statement of the problem, the hype you know, dive into the hypotheses that they're going to be testing through their research experience, the methods that they're going to be using the issues with those methods, and then ultimately, 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 we're not doing canned projects. This is you are actually contributing to the body of knowledge that geologists everywhere are going to ultimately use. And so once the students have completed that research, usually in their last semester, the focus is going to be really on writing that research up and sharing and communicating it with the broader geoscience community. So one of the expectations we have is that our graduate 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, is that those masters theses are either themselves a research publication, or will at least contribute to another publication, you know, maybe with another student, depending on the scale of the project and what results we have. So in the end, you're really contributing to published geologic research, which is really exciting. You'd be a co author on, you know, a journal article in a major geoscience journal. And that's a pretty exciting thing. I can still remember my first, you know, paper that came out. It's, it's pretty, pretty neat experience to have. But, yeah, I mean, I, you know, the overall, I think. That experience that you get as a graduate student is is somewhat unique. And again, it's kind of something where I think graduate students have to find it's sort of like I always consider sort of a Venn diagram, where you know, one circle is your interest, one circle is the students and or the faculty advisors, interests, and then the other circle is, what's feasible to get done in that kind of two year time frame, right? So we try to find some overlap between those and that really, for every student, ends up being kind of a unique experience.

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

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeay, you're contributing to the body of knowledge. So, like, that's a really cool thing.

Matt Markin  
Absolutely. And of course, you know, question you probably get to is the career question, you know? So let's say, you know, students go in for the Master of Science in geology, you know, can you talk about, maybe, whether it's career options that those that might be able to do with with the degree, or what you've seen some of your graduates go into with the masters?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeah. So, you know, as as geoscience majors, when students are finishing up their bachelor's programs, a Bachelor of Science in 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 kind of the career trajectory they want to 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 have felt sort of job ready, and that's not a criticism of the program that I was in. But, you know, we all kind of develop and grow in at different timescales and and so I think for some students, 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, that eventually maybe you get 10 years in that there are going to 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 masters. And so we do have quite a few students who have come back, you know, to get that extra education that will allow them to then advance a little bit further in their professional path. So masters in geology, I think will never, ever hurt you. It's really always going to 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 going to be greater with that master's degree. But, and again, that's not to say you can't have a successful career with a bachelor's degree. We have a lot, a lot of alumni that are doing outstanding things and are wildly successful in their career paths. But certainly that master's degree is going to give you a bit of an edge and just 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, you know, I think there is particularly, I would say at Cal State, San Bernardino, we have a really unique population of students. You know, we are a minority, serving institution, Hispanic serving institution. And we have a lot, 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 them, again, don't have any role models in their own families for even getting a college degree. 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 uncertainty and maybe fear about taking a step towards graduate studies. But again, what I would say is just from the standpoint of your salaries, I mean, even if you pay, if you know, 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. 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, you know, 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 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, it's certainly where I develop my own confidence as a geo scientist. 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'm still not sure. I'm on the fence. Any advice you have for that student, or to, you know, to reach out to to one of their their geology professors?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Absolutely. Well, our department is really exciting. 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 there were really a tight knit community, and there's a lot of support in our program for our undergrads and our graduate students. So in our department on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we often have social gatherings during coyote hour. 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 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. 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. And so, you know, 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, are there any other resources that that your department offers that that you want to mention?

Dr. Tandis Bidgoli  
Yeah, certainly. We have, obviously all of the degree requirements, and that kind of information is on our department webpage. But we also periodically host zoom hangouts and zoom 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 CSUSB geology, and 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 about the master's program. So Dr begoli, thank you so much for joining us today.

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