Career Paths
Once they’ve hired one Valpo grad, they want more.
– Professor Teresa M. Bals-Elsholz
Graduates of Valpo’s meteorology program are in high demand. With its unusual focus on undergraduate education and state-of-the art professional equipment, the program provides unique opportunities for students of atmospheric science to apply the theory they learn. Employers appreciate their exceptional ability to begin work with little or no further training. A number of graduates of the Valpo meteorology program have achieved regional and even national fame as broadcast meteorologists. But atmospheric science has many other applications.
Meteorology graduates work as forecasters for private industry as well as federal, state, and local government agencies, on issues as diverse as air pollution control, safe travel, water conservation, and disease control, among others.
Training in meteorology prepares graduates for a variety of careers.
Among them:
- Operational meteorologist
- Broadcast meteorologist
- Researcher
- GIS specialist
- Civil service meterologist
- Climatologist
- Computer modeler
- Environmental consultant
- Energy/commodities meteorologist
- Weather forecaster
- Aviation meteorologist
- Air Quality meteorologist
- Forensic meteorologist
- Atmospheric measurements and instrumentation developer
- Emergency management meteorologist
- Flight dispatcher
- Data analyst
- Professor
- Science teacher
Meteorologists are employed in a wide range of industries.
Among the potential employers of meteorology graduates:
- National Weather Service alumnus Stephanie Dunten
- Government research labs
- Meteorological consulting firms
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Media: television stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, websites
- Aerospace industry
- Airlines
- Insurance companies
- Departments of natural resources
- Futures trading firms
- Museums
- Energy and power companies
- Forensic meteorology organizations
- Emergency management agencies
- Universities
- Elementary, intermediate, and high schools
Graduate study is usually required for careers in research and academia and increasingly to be competitive for government positions. Valparaiso University graduates attend many of the finest meteorology graduate programs in the country. Valpo grads regularly win competitive fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the American Meteorological Society, as well as research and teaching assistantships at the institutions where they study.
Among the programs that have funded our graduates:
- Ball State University
- Colorado State University
- Creighton University (program retired)
- East Carolina University
- Florida State University
- Georgia Tech University
- Indiana University
- Iowa State University
- Michigan State University
- North Carolina State University
- Ohio University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Plymouth State University
- Purdue University
- South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
- Stony Brook University
- Texas A&M University
- Texas Tech University
- Universitat Hamburg (Germany) School of Integrated Climate System Sciences
- University of Alabama-Huntsville
- University of Alaska-Fairbanks
- University at Albany – SUNY
- University of Arizona
- University of California-Davis
- University of Colorado-Boulder
- University of Hawaii
- University of Houston
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Iowa
- University of Massachusetts-Lowell
- University of Miami
- University of Michigan
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- University of North Carolina Charlotte
- University of North Dakota
- University of Oklahoma
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- University of Wyoming
- University of Utah
- Valparaiso University Law School (program retired)
- Western Michigan University