Back to school for Public Health or Animation

So, some background on me: I already have a degree in Biology and I work in clinical research, but I’m not sure if I have a future. I don’t fit in with scientists or doctors, and I’m not sure if I’m going to excel in the field. I love animation though. I feel like I spend all my free time drawing and studying it. I know it’s a competitive career, but I can’t shake the feeling that I would have excelled if I had chosen that path. By that same token, I’m passionate about allot of issues surrounding healthcare and I’ve already come so far and put so much into it (even if I did earn an atrocious GPA). Should I re-apply to undergrad and study animation? Should I study public health and just draw in my free time? Or, should I stick with my current job in clinical research and take animation courses on the side?

I feel like the only way for me to have any chance of having a career in animation is to fully invest myself, return to school (probably a state school not an art school) and study it full time, but that means that I’d have to say goodbye to science all together.

Has anyone else faced this dilemma? Should I go back for art, truck forward with science, or try to balance them both?

Before proceeding down the animation path, you need to have an objective evaluation of your innate skill. To be frank, unless you do have it, it’s a waste of your time, $ and energy to consider it other than as a hobby.

And I mean you should ask professionals, not art school admin people (whose job it is to get as many recruits as possible and thus may not be as frank with you as they should be). And ask those professionals how they like their field. My brother is an art school instructor (and tuition is pricey) and he said about 5 years out, only about 15% of the grads are still in the field. That’s shocking to me.

Why do you feel like you don’t fit in with scientists or doctors? It could just be the scientists and doctors at your workplace.

Do you want a career in animation, or do you want to just keep it as a hobby? I love writing in my free time, but I don’t want to be a novelist - I crave the stability and structure and opportunities in other fields, and don’t want the competition of trying to make it as a novelist. Lots of people love the arts as a hobby but don’t want to discipline and structure their craft enough to make it a career. There’s also a middle ground - having a full-time job doing something else and freelancing as an animator or illustrator.

Even if you did want to become an animator, though, you don’t need to go back to undergrad. You could probably take classes or workshops part-time. Or there might be a master’s degree that you could do.

What about careers that combine art and science, like medical/scientific illustration, cartography, user experience/interface design, or industrial design?