Re: Are there any Forensic Science Colleges in Illinois?

A Google search for 
"forensic pathology illinois" leads to the conclusion that you 
do not want an undergraduate degree in forensics (much less forensic 
pathology). Forensic pathologists are M.D.s and have years of specialization 
after medical school; for that, you can go to ANY good college, because they 
all have pre-med programs.

Undergraduate degrees in forensics, in my informed yet opinionated view, are 
just attempts to suck in students who have seen lots of glamor TV about 
forensics (in my youth it was Quincy ME) and think 
they can do it with an overspecialized undergraduate degree.

Instead, you want an undergraduate degree that applies to the area of 
forensics in which you are interested: chemistry for forensic 
toxicology; pre-med for forensic pathology; biology for forensic 
entomology; and so forth. You will then want to get post-baccalaureate 
training of some sort.

If you just can't stand the idea of graduate school, you need to look into 
laboratory technician programs at community colleges and vocational technical 
institutes; this will allow you to apply for jobs at the technician level in 
forensics and lots of other fields.

But for heaven's sake, don't get a degree in forensics unless it's an add-on 
to a solid chemistry degree (like my undergraduate degree in "polymers 
and coatings"). Like the holder of a degree in Byzantine history, you 
won't have any options if you can't get a job in your exact specialty.

Yes, I know that successful novelist Harry Turtledove has a degree in 
Byzantine History. He's the exception that proves the rule; a standing joke 
when I was in Army Intelligence was that the officers couldn't think of 
anything else to do with their overspecialized degrees.



Dan Berger

Bluffton College