<p>I've been talking to people at work and I'm sorta confused on some things. I'll keep this simple. I'm mostly just wondering how long things typically take if you want to become a PhD scientist in molecular bio / biochem / etc and what salary post docs make. I'm pretty confused on what a postdoc is exactly other than the first job you get out of school that typically is somewhere different from your grad school as well as from the job you get afterward, and that the pay isn't too great. So first question - if you are a postdoc working in nonprofit or public research, what do they on average make? What about a postdoc working in biotech?</p>
<p>Timetable: (in my case I will definitely work 2 years before grad school)
Graduate college at 22
Work 2 years for experience
Grad school from 22-26 (2nd question - or does it average 5 years nowadays?)
Post doc position...2-5 years (3rd question) What's the average length of this?
So now at age 28-32, you become a research scientist. </p>
<p>(4th question): assuming you are a typical research scientist, not an associate professor or PI or anything, what do they make on average in public or nonprofit research? What about biotech?</p>
<p>Final question - typically, is this how locations are set up:
Grad school - not a big deal if its the same school as undergrad
Post doc - somewhat frowned upon if at same location as grad school
Research scientist position - somewhat frowned upon if at same location as post doc position OR grad school?</p>
<p>You generally (there are exceptions) don’t want to go to grad school at the university you did your undergrad. It’s generally not looked highly upon.</p>
<p>psych_:</p>
<p>Why is not looked highly upon?</p>
<p>MaceVindaloo - I would assume because it looks as though you can’t branch out, and need to fall back on your contacts at the school to get you in. But I’m not too sure, it seems like if they didn’t have a problem with “contacts”…they wouldn’t give preference to people who fill in the box asking if you know a faculty member at their school…</p>
<p>Yea, it makes sense from both perspectives really.</p>
<p>I national (US) average time-to-degree for a biological/biomedical PhD is 6.8 years… so you’re looking at few more years. (No one wants to believe this, but that’s what all the data says.)</p>
<p>And I’ll chime in on not staying at the same school (for grad or postdoc) - it’s definitely looked down upon. Too much of one school on a CV is never a good thing.</p>
<p>^ The average I come across at most places I’ve interviewed is 5.6, 6.8 seems like a lot!</p>
<p>^ I believe that is according to the NSF; I can look it up tomorrow if people are interested. It seemed like a lot to me too, but when you think of all the people who take a really long time to graduate, maybe it’s right. I was also given that number as a national average during an interview at a very highly regarded school and I doubt they would lie about such a thing (it was in the official presentation give to all the applicants…the school’s time-to-degree was lower).</p>
<p>I hadn’t come across any programs that had averages over 6.5 years. My program averages about 5.5 years, but a grad student just graduated who had started in the late 90’s, so there is a significant variation. People interview for faculty positions after 2 years of postdoc or after 6 years of postdoc and some instructors (job title for postdocs that remain in the same lab beyond their postdoc period) apply for faculty jobs after several years as an instructor. So you see, people apply for their permanent position at any period of time between a couple of years into postdoc and many years after ending postdoc. On average, people seem to get fed up with being a postdoc after three years or so and if they leave academia or pursue non tenure track positions, this is when they do so.</p>
<p>I worked for a few years in biotech. Salaries there depend very much on location and industry, much moreso than on education level. In Wisconsin at a molecular diagnostics r and d firm, phd scientists without postdoc came in at about 60K per year whereas some hotshots with multiple postdocs came in well in excess of 100K. People entering biotech without postdocs are typically “scientists” or “senior scientists” if they were especially productive in grad school. HOwever, with a postdoc or two under your belt, you can enter directly into director or team leader positions.</p>
<p>time to PhD varies quite a bit by program and subdiscipline of molecular bio. it is critical to enter a program and join a lab that is effective in graduating students within 5-6 years with substantial publications. So be sure to ask these questions when interviewing with programs and potential mentor labs.</p>
<p>After 5 years of grad school, it is just about impossible to get independent funding.</p>