<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>I am currently a freshman Biology major (with a concentration in Ecology) at a small liberal arts university. I have been hearing many negative things about the job prospects after attaining a BS in any biological field even at the Masters and Doctoral level. </p>
<p>Is this true? </p>
<p>Also, would double majoring in Biology and Chemistry help? I enjoy both of them and graduating with both of these majors wouldnt require an extra time.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, the news is negative even at the Ph.D level. And no, double majoring in Chem wouldn’t help either. I mean if you want to go from paycheck to paycheck as a post-doc, only to not receive tenure(getting tenure-ship at a university is very competitive and limited), then that may be fine. But if you want stability, stay away.</p>
<p>So you would recommend not following your passion? It’s difficult because if you’re truly interested in Biology then you wouldn’t want to major in anything else. Aren’t there some research jobs available? Why do Bio majors have such terrible job prospects?</p>
<p>My advice, for the mathematically inclined, not the poor mathophobes, is to take as much math, statistics and computer science as possible. It gives you an edge over regular bio majors who have a tendency to be math averse, and prepares you well for more in-demand research which is now highly mathematical and computational. And the skills you get out of that are transferable to many different jobs.</p>
<p>What about the ecological aspect of biology? </p>
<p>I love math too and have done very well in the calculus courses thus far but does any of that apply to studying interactions between organisms and their environment? </p>
<p>I do understand that how math skills would be beneficial to have as it develops problem solving and abstract thinking which Im sure employers are looking for. However, would it be best to earn a major in mathematics or just minor in it? A chemistry major is just required to take one more math course to earn a math minor at my university.</p>
<p>I think you should DEFINITELY consider majoring in Applied Mathematics, with the applied part emphasizing statistics. You should minor in biology. The math degree opens up a wide variety of job options and you can go into Bioinformatics which is a hot field as of right now. It requires knowledge of computer science and math along with biology.</p>
<p>Don’t major in biology if you want to actually gain useful skills. The biology major only teaches you how to memorize.</p>
<p>Mango, I have many passions in my life, however, I want to keep them that way. For example, I love cars, but I wouldn’t want to be turning wrenches on other people’s car all day for the next 30-40 years. And why are the prospects terrible for the Biology? Basic supply and demand. There is a glut of Bio majors . More bio majors than positions available. When that happens, wages are driven down, until the glut disappears. However, I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so Bio majors will be afflicted with poor prospects for a long time.</p>
<p>Also consider Biomedical engineering. You are better off majoring in Applied math with a minor in bio or majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Math or Computer science.</p>
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<p>Statistics and applied math are required for sure. There’s the stochastic process aspect of all ecological systems (how they vary over time, with some “noise” that is modeled through randomness) and differential equations (how systems can be described by modeling rates of change). And then how do you go from the theoretical model to inference about the observed data is statistics (and time/spatial statistics get pretty complex).</p>
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<p>A minor usually implies too few courses in math. You only get the very basics. The concepts I described above often would require 3-4 third and fourth year math courses that, perhaps one or two of which would appear in most math minors. Just the prob and statistics sequence would require 4 (one calculus-based probability, one calculus-based statistics, a second course in probability/stochastic processes; and a second course in statistics, likely regression).</p>
<p>Scientificmind,</p>
<p>I respect your opinion but I think your example applies to people who want to turn hobbies into careers, such as singers. Biology is not a hobby, it is a field of science that is interesting and exciting. Why would I force myself to be another major if I’m simply not interested in it?</p>
<p>Singers usually have back up plans considering the difficulty of getting into the music industry. It’s best to be realistic.</p>
<p>Thank you all! You have given me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>I will certainly meet with my advisor to discuss the practicality of double majoring in Math and Bio and talk with my Math and Bio professors about applying both together.</p>
<p>The reason their are so many Biology and Chemistry majors who can not find good jobs is to a great extent due to the very large number of students who enter college as pre-med and major in these subjects thinking it will give them an edge in medical school admissions. Around junior year the vast majority realize that they do not have a high enough GPA to be competitive for medical school but it is too late for them to change majors. About 80,000 of those that started as premed actually take the MCAT and about half of them soon realize that they do not have high enough scores to be competitive so only about 42,000 actually apply to medical school and of that group about 18,000 get any offers of admission from any medical schools in the U.S. So I estimate that at least 200,000 college freshmen start out as premed Biology and Chemistry majors every year but only about 18,000 are going to make it to medical school. The rest flood the market of graduates in Biology and Chemistry with a BS looking for any job they can get.</p>
<p>Lem, that was what I put in my previous post. It’s basic supply and demand. Alot of things are tied to simple economics in some way. If something floods the market, and the demand for that product isn’t there, then the price of that product(wages and prospects in this case) are driven down. If those excess biology grads can be gotten rid of, wages might actually go back up to a relatively decent level. However, I don’t see that happening anytime soon, as Obama and the Left are pushing for more science graduates even though there is a massive amount of them. Since scientists work based off of grants, I would think that they have knowledge of economics, but I guess they don’t.</p>
<p>^that looks like a veiled jab at obama’s education policies encouraging students to go into STEM fields. You know, he’s taking about science and math overall (as in “STEM”) which includes engineering, math, etc etc, not just a million biology grads. There is a serious lack of american students pursuing these types of degrees and that is somehow a problem to you?</p>
<p>^^ He’s not talking about engineers and math, he’s talking about the many biology and chemistry grads out there who had no intention of actually doing research in that field.</p>
<p>The problem is that there are no jobs for these Bio/Chemistry/Neuroscience grads. What’s the point of having more people going into those fields? </p>
<p>There might be a lack of engineers, but that’s because it’s a demanding field. Sure, I would agree with you that we might need more engineers in the future if we want to advance, but as for chemistry/environmental science/biology/neuroscience majors… those fields are saturated.</p>
<p>I am a sophomore in college and I just transferred schools and switched my major to Biology. I am not exactly sure if my plans spark your interest, but when I get my bachelors in Biology, I was told that I could either apply to grad school to become a physicians assistant or apply for a 20 month intense program to receive a second bachelors in Nursing </p>
<p>Why not switch and get a first bachelors in Nursing and take the prereqs for PA or MD on the side?</p>