I’m in highschool and very interested in bugs, life, ecosystems, ect… I really want to persue specificly taxonomy but I’m not sure where I would start especially when heading into college, let alone where to get a career, is there anything I should know before I really dedicate myself to this?
As far as I know, there is no entomology specialty at the BS level. Take a BS Biology first, then you’d go for some specialty in grad school (whether MS or PhD). I think many ecologists are into entomology for example.
Some institutions (especially land grant schools in the US) have undergrad entomology majors, but that’s definitely not required for a career in entomology. A general biology major is just fine (taxonomists tend to fall more into evolutionary biology, but it depends on the person/institution). If you think you want to study insect taxonomy, I would see if there are any entomology collections near you that you could volunteer at to see if you like it. I got started in collections, and now I’m doing a systematics PhD. Feel free to message me if you want to talk more—there isn’t really a standard path for entering this sort of work which has both pros and cons.
Great advice.
Also, the thing is, you might like entomology now, but your interests might change, so a general biology degree would allow that flexibility..even towards med school 