<p>Recently I have been faced with the harsh reality that medical school may not happen for me. This quarter I may earn a 3.25 GPA on top of my most recent MCAT score of 12/5/12, which is a lethal. I plan to retake but this will be my 6th year in college and I need a backup plan. I have okay ECs and a 3.71 GPA, lacking rigor almost entirely. Essentially 4 years of 12 credits/qr (two sciences a quarter) due to a complicated situation. </p>
<p>I always thought of chemistry as my backup plan until recently. I joined an organic chemistry research lab and it turns out I don't really enjoy the research because it's just verge "just for the heck of it" in my opinion. While our groups scope does have a purpose it's not one thats important to me. While in this lab I have learned that just because you get a PhD doesn't mean you'll get a job. </p>
<p>I enjoy research but I want to pursue something more biologically related if medical school doesn't work out. I'm currently considering Pharmacology and Immunology. I like the idea of being involved in drug design and even discovering new drugs seems interesting to me. After taking virology it seems that immunology is extremely complex and I like the idea of solving problems in infectious disease.</p>
<p>Are jobs readily available for these graduate degrees? I understand that there is more that goes into but generally speaking.
Do these programs generally require more than a biology degree? Specific classes?
I'd be open to any suggestions one might have for options to explore.</p>
<p>So first of all - every field entails a certain amount of risk. There are very few fields out there where a degree all but guarantees you a job. Even in the high-demand fields of accounting and nursing, there are stories of people being unable to find employment after graduating. So while I think it’s always good to have a solid backup plan that’s practical, don’t think you’re going to find one that is a near-100% guarantee of employment. You won’t. I do agree, however, that becoming an academic chemist isn’t a good backup plan to med school :)</p>
<p>One thing to consider is that you could do a “backup” that doesn’t require a graduate degree, at least not immediately. For example, if you can’t decide between pharmacology and immunology, you could apply to med school in your last year. If you don’t get in, then you can go work for a pharmaceutical company in a bachelor’s level role and get a feel for what kinds of other jobs are out there before you spend $$$ and time on a graduate degree. Pharmaceutical sales reps make pretty good money and most of them have bachelor’s degrees.</p>
<p>There are also positions you can get in research labs - both within academia and in industry - with a BS. You could be a lab technician or research assistant/associate (sometimes the associate level is for MS holders).</p>
<p>I think my point is, before you decide to get a grad degree you need to decide what you want to do, and working for a few years is a good way to see what’s out there and who’s getting jobs - as well as a time to learn yourself and figure out what you like and don’t like. When you’re in college it’s hard to figure that out, especially because your personality isn’t really solidified yet. For example, while I was in graduate school, I learned that I don’t really like unstructured schedules at all. That’s not something I would’ve expected. I also learned that I don’t want to live in a large urban area; I prefer the suburbs or a smaller city. A third, really important thing is that I was able to better decide what salary was acceptable to me in the long-term - because I was out of college and paying for things myself and started to understand how much life costs and what things you have to pay for when you are an Adult.</p>
<p>I would imagine that jobs in pharmacology are more plentiful than jobs in immunology. Immunologists and pharmacologists are both researchers, but pharmacology has the lucrative additional angle of being able to work for pharmaceutical companies (although I think you’d be surprised by how many drugs are developed at universities and academic medical centers). I think there is less demand for immunologists in industry. Pharmacologists can also get hired in consulting and pharma-related stuff - like you might be a scientific advisor to a Congress member or work for a consulting firm that services healthcare organizations. You could work for an insurance company helping them put together their formularies. I’m not in the field so I’m just taking educated guesses based on advertisements I’ve seen.</p>
<p>Why do you think you might not be able to apply to medical school? Have you try? I would retake the MCAT, but please do some prepping before taking it.</p>
<p>Probably because medical school is notoriously competitive, and that biological sciences score is not good. (The other two scores are good, though, so I would definitely retake and study hard for the bio part. The total score puts you in the top 30%.) Even competitive applicants sometimes get shut out from med school. It’s always good to have a backup plan.</p>
<p>If you could get that 5 up by a few points, you would likely be a good candidate for DO schools. If you don’t like research then you would hate a PhD program</p>
<p>OP “I like the idea of being involved in drug design and even discovering new drugs seems interesting to me” I would suggest Medicinal Chemistry which combines aspects of organic chemistry, structural chemistry, and pharmacology. Unfortuneately, meaningul jobs in pharmacuetical companies (both large and start-ups) require PH.D. and meaningful research experience. </p>
<p>That’s actually the verbal reasoning score (the 5). I normally score 13’s and 14s on physical and biological sciences. So for my purposes the score was extremely lackluster. I had some minor technical difficulties. No clocks in the testing center, no point of reference. I guessed then the finger print scanner wouldn’t read my finger delaying me a little. Got back to my computer 5 seconds or until verbal started. Thought on bombed PS section, sent me into a panic. </p>
<p>I’m going to retake it and probably score well. I was averaging 33.5 studying 3 hrs a day for 10 weeks. Now that I have all summer it’ll be better. That doesn’t insure that I’ll get into medical school though. There is still a mark on my record that’s subpar and essentially everything that can go wrong has been going wrong this quarter. There are plenty of people each year that don’t get in with great scores. </p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe I didn’t say I didn’t like research I said that I didn’t enjoy the research I was doing in the chemistry lab. </p>
<p>Specifically because I think the purpose of their research scope is uninteresting. It’s all doing and no application. The only enjoyable times is when something really doesn’t work the way it was hypothesized and we’re left to look at NMR’s and submit mass specs to figure it out.</p>
<p>@peterw thanks for the suggestion. I’ve been looking for something I’d really consider and enjoy for a back up plan. After reading about a couple Medicinal Chemistry programs turns out I’m quite interested.</p>