<p>So I'm currently a freshman bio major (genetics concentration specifically) starting to ask myself a few questions about life/major choices. So the stigma seems to be that if you are a bio/life-science related major then you go to med/vet/dental or some other type of health school. I get that, I went into college and picked a bio-related major because I thought I was gonna do the same. But after learning more about med school-related stress, tuition, years and lifestyle, I'm not 100% sure if its for me. The idea isn't off the table yet, I'm still taking the requirements for it anyways, but I was simply curious if there exist any other possibilities for bio-related majors that aren't med-school.</p>
<p>Personally, I've considered getting a masters/Ph.D in my field, trying to get a position at a Genentech facility that recently opened up very close to my school (UC Davis) or even working as a forensic geneticist. </p>
<p>If med-school is the only reasonable option then that makes sense, again, I haven't thrown anything out the window just yet, rather I just want to investigate and consider what all the options are for science majors that the general population might not consider.</p>
<p>With a BA/BS in Biology, you are useless. You can get a PhD In biology, but be prepared to go through years of postdocs around the countries before getting a tenured position, if you wish to. Or you can get a Master’s in Education and go to teach High School if that suites you.</p>
<p>Agreed biology degree w/o professional school = poverty. Don’t consider MS or PhD in the biosciences as that is just as bad. A 7 year serfdom leading to post-doc limbo or unemployment.</p>
<p>@sschoe2 - I don’t think getting a PhD in the biosciences is quite as horrific as you’re making it sound…
But yes, with just a bachelor’s degree or a master’s, your options are lab tech and teaching. Teaching requires a whole other skill set and its own certifications, too. (Depending on the state, though, a master’s degree isn’t required.)</p>
<p>A PhD in the life sciences is every bit as horrific as I’ve portrayed. I followed several PhD grads from where I did my MS work and they took 5-7 years to graduate, ended up doing years of post-docing (more than 5) and several have already written off their science years and went into teaching or a completely new career (healthcare).</p>
<p>That was the primary reason I decided against getting the PhD. Heck several of the PhD’s in my lab were talking about hiding the PhD to get a job. I don’t doubt If I got it I would have spent several more years in grad school with a $15k stipend spending 60 hours a week teaching undergrads, and slaving away in a lab only to end up at another lab as a post-doc doing more work on the binding constant of protein I don’t care to protein to protein nobody gives a rat’s rear.</p>
<p>I’m not denying that it’s tough. The government just doesn’t want to fund basic science research, which is a real shame. The best line of bio-based sciences you can be in is one that can be funded by DARPA, because the military is the only place where we’re apparently willing to invest money.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t waste money on a MS. I rather stick with a BS and gain working experience because most jobs in the science, would say “Masters no experience or BS with three years experience”. Even so, BA/BS is useless without going to graduate school. You are competing against a huge glut of Biologist/Chemist who are medical school potentials/drop outs, PhDs that lost their jobs, old people who were laid off, and scientist with better applications than you. Save the heartache and stay away from Bology, Chem, and a PhD/MS in those majors unless you wanna go to graduate school.</p>
<p>I’d rather avoid the sciences entirely and get a degree that has an actual ROI.
It is not just the govt that isn’t funding R&D a lot of companies aren’t either which is how we got the big Pharma meltdown of the past 7 or so years. No R&D + patents on big ticket drugs expiring + 10 years to bring new drugs to market = really really boned as we are seeing.</p>
<p>A lot of pharma development comes from fundamental discoveries made upstream by universities and basic science research facilities, so I see that as somewhat of a downstream effect as well. But just in general, there is a societal lack of investment in the sciences that seems ironic considering how much it’s being pushed as an important field.</p>
<p>It is not that there isn’t biology research going on. It is that there are very large numbers of biology graduates at the bachelor’s and doctoral degree level relative to the amount of biology research (and therefore jobs) that is going on. Think of all of the pre-meds who major in biology but do not get into medical school adding to the competition for the jobs that there are in the field.</p>
<p>BiomedEng is probably a safe major that has great med school placement & applicable with just a BS. Of course, you have to like engineering though.</p>
<p>That probably is true, given the somewhat narrow field of biomedical itself in comparison to the other engineering disciplines. Overall though, it fares pretty well as far as I’ve learned.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, do not get a PhD in biology or any of the other life sciences. The labor market is a complete mess. You will end up in a PhD program for 6 years, then you will most likely have to do 2 postdocs to get a job. This is about 12 years of training for a job that pays about 80-90K at a research 1 university. If you think you can just escape out into a high paying industry job (Pharma/biotech/etc), good luck with that, all the other PhDs who could not get or did not want academic jobs are doing the same thing. Simply put there are way to many bio PhDs/postdocs fighting for a small number of jobs that need 6-12 years of experience doing bench work. </p>
<p>Biology Graduate Programs are using naive undergraduates (applying to grad school) as a low paid labor source by claiming to “train” them for a job that does not exist. The problem is structural and will not be solved by extra NIH funding etc. Even though funding levels are decreasing and will continue to decrease, (this is obvious if you understand the future direction of our national budget), the funding is not the problem. Each PI has trains, 20-30 graduate students over their lifetime, but there has been little to no increase in the number of tenure track jobs. Most of these students/postdocs leave research in their mid thirties (after not finding a research job) and get an entry level job in the private sector that they could have gotten 10 years ago without all the lost income and long hours.</p>
<p>Either go to medical school or another professional school. Or just go get a job after college unrelated to your major. DO NOT GO TO A PHD PROGRAM UNLESS YOU ARE A SUCKER.</p>
<p>Source: PhD Hopkins, then I made the smart choice and got the x out.</p>
<p>It’s been 6 years and only 1 of 14 classmates is a PI (industry). The rest are still postdoc’ing at 70h weeks 40K salary, or have moved to greener pastures in business, consulting, & medicine…6 years later than if they just got a job immediately.</p>
<p>Biosciences stink for jobs. Pharma and biotech have been one of the worst industries for layoffs and unemployment since the great recession. You have hordes of unemployed PhDs with 20+ years experiences, 200 article publications, and 50 patents that you now have to compete with right out of grad school for a job. </p>
<p>BME isn’t any better either. How many tissue engineering companies exist? How many nanoparticle/drug deliver companies exist that actually make profit? BME has lots of interesting research, but can’t delivery because many of the ideas simply can’t get around regulation, the years of development it takes, and 100s of millions of dollars it takes. </p>
<p>Example: how much money do we dump into nanoparticle/drug delivery technology every year? Where are the results? The huge stumbling block is the fact that when you package a drug into a nanoparticle or some other piece of nanotechnology, the FDA considers that a new entity. Thus all the work you did to discover the drug or new drug, and all of the work you did to study your nanoparticle or nanotech are worthless. You have to start from scratch all over again and study you drug + nanoparticle from phase I. It’ why you don’t see many applications of nanoparticles used in the clinic and why companies that develop drugs refuse to use nanoparticles or delivery devices many times. Tissue engineering has many of the same problems–too much red tape and regulation that makes it impossible for companies to start up. </p>
<p>IF you still choose to pursue the biosciences as a career, one hope is to become highly specialized in very special instruments and techniques such as MS/MS and bioanalytical (which always seem to be in demand) as well as toxicology (very few programs exist to pump out specialist in that field). Maybe then work your way into regulatory work, quality control, consulting, or open a business on the side that provides services that assist in key bottlenecks in clinical translation. Or better yet, major in Chemical Engineering. You can still work in the petrol, materials, and even financial industries with a chemE degree, and still keep your options open if you wanted to do molecular or bioengineering. Big companies these days keep outsourcing basic science to China or India, expect the horrific employment trends for basic sciences to continue.</p>
<p>You know… reading this, I feel increasingly sure <em>all</em> industries are glutted. It seems so obvious now. If we cannot cut working hours for each person down to 30/week and keep wages at current levels or grow them, we’re doomed as a middle class power civilization.</p>