<p>Technical sales work fine.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to move to subsaharan africa, canadian arctic or middle east, there’s oil/gas opportunities if you know GCMS and HPLC methodology for petroleum analysis.</p>
<p>in general though for a BS, chemistry’s one of the better degrees. it’s easy to get, won’t be mindless torture and doesn’t suck like bio.</p>
<p>Just noting that you can be any major and go to med school!</p>
<p>But like you, I was also a pre-health student and very interested in Biology! So That’s what I majored in, and I ended up graduating with a Biology degree but took enough courses that I was just a couple courses away from Neuroscience and Biochemistry (those were the only 3 bio related majors at my college). </p>
<p>As a pre-health student, I was really glad that I did major in Biology because there are many entry level research jobs in Biology that are directly applicable to medicine! After undergrad, I worked for 2 years in cancer research, and my experience has been phenomenal. I’ve been published pretty well for someone with my experience level, and was very successful when it came to professional school applications. I think almost all of the technicians from my lab have ended up at the grad/professional school of their dreams. And even now, I’m using my skills to use by working in a clinical research lab to help offset my educational debt.</p>
<p>If you want to major in biology with the intention of working in research for a bit before/during medical school though, I would lean much more heavily in laboratory cell biology/molecular biology/genetics/biochemistry/microbiology over things like evolution and ecology… since those are the courses that are needed to learn material that is needed for basic benchtop research that has the most positions in entry level biomedical research. </p>
<p>I will caution, however, that Biology is not for someone who is seeking a bachelors as their terminal degree for a high paying career (engineering would be a much better choice). There are so many biology majors out there, and entry level biology jobs don’t require too much skill… so the pay is relatively low. Being paid only $15/hr + benefits for the level of sophisticated experiments and amount of knowledge I have in the subject was kind of a slap in the face, but that’s just the way it is. Though there are people who work as a lab tech as a career, most techs are pre-meds… and the pay is offered as a small compensation where the employee is mostly paid with “experience.” $15/hr might sound like a lot for some areas in the US, but this is pretty bad for a place where you can’t rent a 1 bedroom apartment for under $1200/month. And without a higher degree, there’s really no way for you to advance your career… so a medical or graduate degree is a must unless you don’t mind being paid poorly forever, and never having much autonomy in your research. Hospital research is the worst, university research is better in many cases, and industry is considerably better in terms of pay. I’m not sure if this is still going on in this economy, but many pharmaceutical companies at least used to send their promising employees to get their masters, and in general paid very well. </p>
<p>Also, you have to be aware of your location. If you’re planning to live in a biotech/research hub you should have no problems finding a job with your biology degree (albeit bad pay). But if you live in an area that only has 1 university nearby plus or minus a couple of companies… you’re going to have a very rough time.</p>
<p>I am seriously looking into botany as an undergrad degree at OU. I’ve been experimenting with different major ideas and I feel the strongest pull toward the biological sciences! </p>
<p>I, however, wouldn’t stop at the bachelor level. My dream is to research and work in my field of study and then teach it at the university level.</p>
<p>I doubt botany is going to get you a job other than growing Pot in your basement. I think govt hires a few and universities. Perhaps an agriculture degree might be better. Plant genetics might get you a job at Monsanto in St. Louis.</p>
<p>Wow,</p>
<p>I have a daughter majoring in biology, minoring in chem and Spanish. She is planning on taking the MCAT but not 100% on medicine for several reasons. She is also strong in math. Before entering college she already completed Calc I, II, III and Diff. Equations.
I suggested Pharmacy but she thinks it would be boring. Does anyone have any career advice?</p>
<p>medicine is a ponzi scheme and if she thinks pharmacy is boring wait till she’s in the clinic diagnosing colds. Not every doctor can be an ER surgeon. 99.99999% of doctors will not be ER surgeons. Plus the debt.</p>
<p>Finance is the fast track, no debt path to millionaire.</p>
<p>Mermaid,</p>
<p>I would suggest that your daughter do some shadowing of physicians and/or volunteer in a hospital, if she has not already done so. This will allow her to see the clinical setting, how various types of physicians work (if she shadows different types), and if she could really see herself in medicine. This is so important that most/all medical schools take into consideration whether an applicant has been exposed to the clinical setting, whether by volunteering, shadowing, employment, etc.</p>
<p>What do you mean by finance? What kind of jobs? What kind of companies?</p>
<p>I thought many jobs in business and finance have been hammered by the economy.</p>
<p>She has done some shadowing. When trying to volenteer or find summer employment in helping out in clinics, the clinics didn’t want to take on the liability for insurance reasons.</p>
<p>Mermaid,</p>
<p>Most academic hospitals have some sort of volunteering program aimed at pre-health students (usually one for high school students and one for college students). Most times, this will involve volunteering in the ER and/or in pediatrics.</p>
<p>NucleicAcid</p>
<p>May I ask what you majored in and where it has taken you in your career? My daughter did check out volunteering at the hospital near campus. The issue she had is that they wanted 4 straight hours and her schedule didn’t provide those hours. She did manage to do research in aquatic ecology.</p>
<p>Jobs in finance such as traders and investment bankers have been replaced. Quants, however, have it easier. Major in anything that has alot of math: aerospace engineering, physics (not applied physics!), math, CS or mathematical economics (the one that gives a B.S. rather than a B.A.), get MBA or MS in Finance, Computer Science, Applied Math, Financial Math, etc, and get a job as a quantitative analyst with little-no debt and transferable skills beyond medical trivia. After all, that’s what medicine teaches you: lots of trivia. Math will teach you beyond trivia, it will teach you a new way of thinking and to be able to apply a few basic rules to everything.</p>
<p>This isn’t what I do but that’s because my interests lie elsewhere and don’t have the ability to sit down and program for 10 hours straight, this is the path I’d take for maximum money for minimum investment.</p>