Ross later went to college where he met Chandler Bing, with whom he formed a band, and Carol Willick, who became his first wife. At college, Ross trained for a career in paleontology (on a dare), completing his Ph.D., and later became employed at the New York Museum of Prehistoric History. In the episode where Rachel moves out of Monica's apartment, Ross claims to have "given up a career in basketball" to become a paleontologist. He also claims that he would have been good at advertising. In "The One with the Mugging", Ross claims that he invented the phrase 'Got Milk?'. After Monica questions this claim, Ross turns to Joey and mentions that he "should have written it down". He also claims to have had the idea for Jurassic Park and Die Hard (ironically, his, Chandler and Joey's favorite movie) stolen from him, and when Rachel is doubtful, he replies "don't make me show you the napkin!" Ross's love of dinosaurs became a running joke throughout the series. Monica ponders when Ross's dinosaur stories would become extinct and Joey once asks Ross "if homo sapiens really were homo-sapiens, is that why they're extinct?" Whilst on a trip to Barbados with the gang and Charlie, another paleontologist whom he is smitten with, Ross comments on homo erectus and Joey and Rachel snicker about it. Joey laughs and says "Erectus?" asking Rachel what she's laughing at, and she replies "No, homo". Also, Ross comments on Australopithecus never being fully "erect" and Chandler says, "Maybe he was nervous".

Ross was forced to take a "sabbatical" as he called it, from the museum due to a (somewhat exaggerated) problem with rage after his sandwich was half eaten and thrown in the bin by the director of the museum, and later found a job as a professor at New York University and was given tenure, although he caused a stir among his peers when he dated one of his students for a while.

Ross comes into conflict with Phoebe Buffay most of all. Ross' scientific beliefs and Phoebe's self-devised beliefs led to conflict over the theories of evolution, gravity and whether or not Phoebe's dead mother had been reincarnated into a cat. Also, it is revealed in "The One with the Mugging" that Phoebe once mugged Ross during her homeless years. She kept Ross's own childhood cartoon strip named "Science Boy" (who had a super-human thirst for knowledge) in a box labeled "crap from the street" (claiming it was stuff she thought was too important to sell or smoke). Phoebe claims she learned a lot from Science Boy. Both Ross and Phoebe always remained firm friends.