Crossroads....

OK, loyal readers , I have a question.

Here is my situation.

My Major in theory is Oceanography with a Biology emphasis.
My Minor is East Asian Studies

In 1988-89 I started college at ODU. With all the focus and discipline of an ADD afflicted lotus-eater in a whorehouse, I set about college.....we will speak of that time no more except to say that it precipitated an intermission.......


After about 5 years in the fenforest of fandom I returned to college and did OK untill a particularly stupid business decision forced another intermission......

After a fitfull class-here/class-there period in the 90's I eventually got out from under most of my debt and began going to college full time. Despite dropping out twice due to reserve mobilizations, I got my GPA up and was on track.

2 things happened though. Early this year, I had it confirmed that I had to take several lower level courses again as they had dropped due to it being so long since I took them. This was annoying but science does advance.

However, It now seems that ODU is now requiring that all Ocean Earth and Atmospheric science-type majors get an Ocean Earth and Atmospheric sciences degree....oceanography is discontinued as such except at the graduate level and the new degree is a bit more comprehensive.

A bit...indeed....

I was told I was approx 2-3 semesters from graduating last year....before the dates on my early 90s classes were noticed. Now I'm looking at 21 more science classes....CLASSES not credits....in addition to the few piddling electives left. As anyone who has taken college knows these are not necessarily offered in a convenient sequence so this could take far longer than an average of 63+ credits would take. I like science and if I added a course in lasers, this would practically be a Benton Quest degree, but I have sacrificed a lot in income thus far to pursue school. I'm 36 and only that young for the next 24 days.....

(insert "feh" here)

My question is this.

I am contemplating switching to East Asian studies as my major and building an oceanography minor. This is mainly to get an effing degree of some sort...but.......
If I switch my major and my minor and graduate in 12-18 months. Is it reasonable for me to expect to be able to go to a respectable university and do my masters in marine biology DESPITE having a liberal arts degree? (this assumes my GPA is in the vicinity of 3.0 by that time)



One more thing......How long do hard science masters degrees take.....REALLY? I am beginning to suspect (due to observation of a sample population over 15 years) that they can take an exceedingly long time.

By a fairly odd fluke, the 17 credits I'm signed up for next semester won't change that much regardless but I'm wondering about this.