What skills should I focus on?

Forget the past. Study the future.

Does that mean not studying geology? lol

Only if you live long enough :-)

So do you have any advice for me?

Thanks

What are your interests?
That should drive your diretion of study. Most all reas will require math, either through calculus (modelling is a big area of our sciences. Many models are fairly crappy in that theyve been written for computer jocks rather than the scientists who use em. So they are clunky and develop answers to sub-obvious stuff.

Statistics is another area where "patterns" are sought and analyses of features that can be analyzed via surface stats and specific expansions (like for field geophysics-we do a lot of kriging ,"Spectral analyses " and Fourier transforms)

Dont lock yourself into a program at the undergrad level (I assume thats where you are). Try to get a wide view of the science and see what interests you. Be careful of "hot" areas ,as they, will, cool down very quickly after we determine how to commoditize these skills or the market goes away (sorta like the shale gas industry is experiencing now)..

GEt lots of field training and experience , if you just hang around the lab and work on data sheets, youll miss out on what the science is about.

Good Luck

Thanks for replying.

I'm not sure what my interests are yet, because I like geosciences as a whole, precisely because it's so varied. I think evolution and climate is especially interesting though. I would also like to travel a lot.

What about chemistry and physics / biology?

Thanks.

SOunds like youre interested in everything. Get a dual major oof you wish because geologists are , like engineers. employable at the BS level.

(However, Ive found that the best kids get really turned on by some area and pursue that in MS /MAS/PhD programs.

Travel is never a problem, BUT, from experience. I can tell you that your personal life may become strained by your absence.

Listen to Farmerman. His evolution is whack and conventional but the career advice was right on.

Whereas Leadfoot is immersed in "fact free 1000 year old beliefs", always a dangerous position for science.

Not true! I estimate they are around 30,000 years old. About the same time sentient humans arrived on the scene. Exact date not important.

I would of course differ on the 'fact free' part too..

of course you would. I expect nothing less.
"if ya cant evidence it, just believe in it" eh?

Your first year of classes will be mostly be the background classes; Physics, Math and Chemistry with probably a couple of geology 101 courses.

You were accepted into the program... one philosophy would be to just relax for the summer. You have met the requirements to enter this program, why not just trust that you are ready and that you will learn what you need by taking the classes?

If your goal is to get a leg up, I would go with math. You will almost certainly be studying calculus And, you will use calculus in most of the core classes you take. Getting a math refresher book or a book on introductory calculus wouldn't hurt.

But if you have a chance to spend time with friends and family... or to travel I would go with that. Then once your classes start, you can focus on the work in front of you.

Depends on what you need for evidence. I think 'art' is a pretty good indicator of sentience. That's about 30k years, MOL.

are you intimating that the god of the bible is 30K years old?

I wonder how much language was available. There still exists the hypothesis that all language arose from binomial or trinomial construction about 45 to 60 K years ago.

eg
A=me
E=you
A-E=us

I have no idea of God's age but it's certainly more than 30k yrs. More than 13.8B yrs if the evidence is to be believed.

The age of language you gave is within the margin of error for Art. Many put art back in that range but to to my eye, recognizable art examples found go back around 30k. Could well be a case of not finding the earlier works since the number of sentient humans started with such few examples at first.

when's his birthday?

The Mousterian "venus" was always given a 30K. biley and Ryn et al had pushed it back a bit.

Maybe the Big Bang was a birthday bash. Don't know which one though..

Yep. There are cup like depressions in caves that were chiseled or ground out much earlier that some consider art but you know, 'eye of the beholder'.