<p>Is this true even for people who want to go into research? For example researching different diseases.</p>
<p>Almost especially so. Can you think of a more common reason (besides medicine) to take those majors?</p>
<p>Research institutions, bio-tech, and chemical & pharmaceutical companies come immediately to mind. There are gov’t (CDC, NHA), NGO (WHO, WWF) and private intitutions (Monsanto, Pfizer, Genentech, Dupont). But you will likely need a graduate degree (M.S. or PhD) to get a good position.</p>
<p>Short answer: yes.</p>
<p>Think of this question from the perspective of your personal finances:</p>
<p>How much will health insurance cost, out of your own pocket?
How much does rent or a mortgage, cost?
How easily will you be able to pay off your student loans?
How much will private school for your kids cost?</p>
<p>Then find out what salary you can reasonably expect to make based on the jobs for which your BA or BS qualifies you. Do not assume that an advanced degree will be possible for you, nor that it will improve your job prospects.</p>
<p>As I said before, you will likely need a graduate degree (M.S. or PhD) to get a good position. But the good news is that graduate school for science majors is usually a full-ride, plus you are usually offered a teaching assistanceship, research assistanceship (i.e. a paid job), or a fellowship (a stipend) which pays enough to get a modest apartment and groceries. </p>
<p>While you are still a full time student, you can defer payment on your undergraduate loans-- keep in mind, though, that the loan interest will continue to accrue.</p>
<p>Talk to chemistry and biology professors about the steps you should take to pursue a science career.</p>
<p>The market for BS graduates, I’m afraid, does not look good.</p>
<p>It may not be that great for PhD holders either:
[Education:</a> The PhD factory : Nature News](<a href=“http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html]Education:”>Education: The PhD factory | Nature)</p>
<p>The problem with this subject is that you have one side screaming in a panic for more STEM education, and the other side moaning gloom and doom that there are no jobs and no future in science. The truth is somewhere in the middle.</p>
<p>Except the poeple screaming shortage are CEOs’s who want cheap labor, Professors who also want cheap labor (grad students), Politicians who are either complete dolts or pandering to the CEO’s, and the press and guidance counselors parroting the above.</p>
<p>The people advising against such degrees are the people with them actually in the job market and know what they are talking about. The largest consumer of such degree holders is big pharma. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past 10 years you know it has been a blood bath of layoffs.
[[Vanishing</a> science jobs–Josh Bloom - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/america_vanishing_science_jobs_V3TzWwPRZsmTh1sGmtVr8L][Vanishing”>America’s vanishing science jobs)</p>
<p>I’m afraid you’ve heard right. Unless you want to be unemployed or working $15 an hour no benefits temp jobs I’d stear clear of science.</p>
<p>So even a phd won’t guarantee job security or decent prospects.</p>
<p>Nope, unless you went to a top PhD program and have a lot of connections. I have worked side by side with a post doc, doing the same job and task I was and I had a BS in Biochem the at time. Not saying you can’t get a tenure position or a good job, but there are a glut of people pursuing a PhD in the sciences and competition is cutthroat and competitive and the tenure spots are limited.</p>
<p>
No it’s not, nor is there a rule that the truth is in the middle if there are two extremes that disagree.
<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_to_moderation[/url]”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_to_moderation</a></p>
<p>The “doom and gloom” are right, and those asking for more are doing so for personal gain (cheap labor or political gain).</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, Neo. Did your logic classes also teach you to recognize a straw man argument when you hear one? Or when you make one?</p>
<p><a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man_argument[/url]”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man_argument</a></p>
<p>My comments are based on my experience. Of ten newly minted PhD’s I’ve known in the past four years, all have jobs in their field except one, who voluntarily left a tenure-track position to move across the country. Three academic interviews in 18 months later, she’s still looking. The most recent PhD started a six-figure job in Houston two weeks ago, straight out of grad school.</p>
<p>I realize these cases are not the norm. There are a lot of chem majors and chem PhD’s looking for work. But others are finding work. The experiences of people I know – and not simply an uninformed blind reliance on some flaw of logic – is why I say the truth is in the middle.</p>