Forensic Scientists Need Specialized Education

Forensics specialists have education and backgrounds as varied as their jobs. Depending on your interests and goals, you can choose to enter any number of forensics specialties.

Any education you get can serve as the springboard to further studies. You may want to begin with an associate's degree, work for a while, and then go back to school to get a more advanced degree.

Keep in mind that the higher your level of education, the more in-demand you'll be in your field, and the easier it will be to find a job...or get a raise.

Forensic Science: Education and Training

Read about the degrees below to decide which one corresponds best to your own professional goals.

Associate's Level

An associate's degree in criminal justice, forensic science, or one of the physical sciences is the entry-level degree for a forensic science career. With an associate's degree, you can find jobs as a forensic tech.

Bachelor's Level

For ambitious forensic scientists who want to make a difference, a bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry or physics is strongly recommended. Most programs require that you specialize in a specific area of forensics, such as criminalistics, pathology or toxicology.

Graduate Level

Many forensic scientists have a master's or doctoral degree in their specialty area, for example, forensic pathology (MD), forensic anthropology (PhD) or forensic dentistry (DDS). Forensic psychologists generally have at least a master's degree. But the most ambitious people in this field continue their research and get a doctoral degree. People with advanced degrees are the ones who find the most in-demand jobs.

Volunteer Experience

If you'll be looking for an entry-level job when you get out of school, consider volunteering in a crime or toxicology laboratory, or at a medical examiner's facility, to gain the experience that employers look for.

Forensics: Licensing and Certification

There are no mandatory licensing requirements but most forensic scientists receive certification from one or more of the many forensic specialty boards, such as:

• The American Board of Criminalistics
• The American Board of Forensic Entomology
• The American Board of Forensic Document Examiners
• The American Board of Forensic Toxicology
• The National Registry in Clinical Chemistry (certifies forensic toxicologists)
• The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI), which confers the title of Registered Medicolegal Death Investigator

Related Article:

• What You'll Learn at the Best Criminal Justice Schools