<p>I am planning on applying to college this fall, and am currently in the deciding process of which college I want to go to. I live in california, and plan on applying to several UC's.</p>
<p>I know I want to major in science, and minor in a language (arabic/russian, although irrelevant). Similar to a few relatives, I plan to work for the FBI/CIA after college (Planning on getting a Phd). Which would be more useful? I know both are needed fields, but I want other opinions. I am leaning towards chemistry, because a lot of chemistry also involves biology, but than again I am not sure.</p>
<p>Can you guys give me some opinions please? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’d say take the intro courses first, then decide based on which ones you liked more. I’d imagine chemistry would be a bit more useful, as it will likely have more practical applications in your career field of choice, but biology also involves chemistry, so it goes both ways. Bear in mind also that biology especially is a popular major for premeds (though chemistry and biochemistry are too), so the competition for PhD positions will be stiffer, since a biology PhD is often the backup plan for premeds who fail to get into med school.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s why I was leaning more towards chemistry. I’m good at both, I have taken honors chemistry and ap biology and done well in both of them.</p>
<p>FBI and CIA don’t hire a lot of PhD scientists. In fact, to get into the fed a BS and some quality experience is what is really needed. However, the fed is flooded with applicants for every scientific position and as a result can make insane demands for specific experience and expertise. Noone wants to work for the private sector in science companies treat them like toilet paper.</p>
<p>Also the PhD tends to close more doors than it opens.</p>
<p>Here is what you can expect:</p>
<p>The average for completing a PhD is now 7 years and everyone from my lab who did are stuck in post-docs 5 years later with no prospects of ever having a real job. They will end up doing a career change around age 40 having to deal with the PhD = overqualified for everything stigma attached to them for the rest of their life. </p>
<p>Science in this country has degenerated into a sick joke and a trap that exploits and abuses the brightest but naive. The grad student program has indeed become a pyramid scheme and as a source for cheap scientific labor for Universities to do research and teach undergrad science. Many PI’s don’t even give any sort of mentorship and completion rates can be as low as 1/3 though 1/2 is average. The PI at the lab where I worked not only did not mentor anyone he kept his most productive students from graduating. One of my colleagues has to get the provost involved. There is no accountability in PhD programs for providing a quality educational experience rather than simple exploitation. It is nothing more than a serfdom.</p>
<p>Any student that manages to get through the above gauntlet has little to look forward to but endless crappy post-docs and falling further behind in life.</p>
<p>Things are not much better on the industry side of things as the huge excess of scientific talent, the h1b program, and outsourcing allow companies to abuse their science staff like no other group of workers. Most positions pay as little as 50 percent what they should, are extremely unstable, many are permatemp and have no benefits.</p>
<p>In short, pursuing a career in science is an act of madness. Our society does not value science at all anymore.</p>
<p>I’d pick a path with a better chance at leading to steady and gainful employment. Going into science now a days you are gambling with your future with very poor odds indeed.</p>
<p>You must be joking if you think a single editorial and some extremely weak statistics prove that science is doing well. Biology and chemistry are both doing horribly, and it doesn’t take much more than a little common sense to see that science is a career that’s been on the decline for decades.
I could provide plenty of sources if you’d like. However, I think that bio/chem being on the decline is self-evident.</p>
<p>The biology and chemistry job market does get flooded by new batches of failed pre-meds every year. So competition for available major-specific jobs (not necessarily good ones) in those fields is fierce. (However, other sciences, particularly applied math, computer science, statistics, and probably geology tend to have better job and career prospects.)</p>
<p>Why not chemical engineering if you are interested in chemistry but want something with better job and career prospects?</p>
<p>Applied math involves taking core math courses like real and complex analysis, abstract algebra, and numerical analysis, plus courses in an area of application like statistics, actuarial science, computer science, economics, etc… Common job destinations for applied math majors include those involving finance and computer software.</p>