<p>I am currently a 3rd year undergraduate and I am looking into grad school programs. My interests are currently: Bioethics or Public Health. I would really like a Bioethics program, but there aren't many of them and many focus on just supplementing medical programs. I'm interested in more philosophically based bioethics as I have no interest in going into medicine. Public Health is my back up plan. Disaster Management is also something that has recently greatly interested me, but for now I'm going to leave that out of the equation. I will graduate with a BA in Arts & Humanities, a BS in anthropology, and an interdisciplinary minor in Bioethics, Humanities, and Society. I have a 3.8 GPA. </p>
<p>Here's my problem. Ever since I was a freshmen, I've juggled 2-3 jobs at a time often working 30+ hours a week. My jobs were jobs that gave me a lot of diverse experience: photography assistant/office worker; working as a bilingual teacher's aide in a refugee/ELL school; working for the state at the Braille and Talking Books Library; and working at a domestic violence shelter as a crisis line operator and client support. I also interned with a state senator for a semester. I studied abroad and worked with an indigenous women's organization while down there doing capacity building. They were attempting to start a rural ecotourism business and we helped them by building a bilingual website among many other things.</p>
<p>The problem: I have absolutely no research experience and that makes me very nervous. I simply haven't had time with the juggling multiple jobs. I regret it now, but I obviously can't go back in time, and even if I could, I couldn't have gone to school unless I was working as I have no parental help. I would really like to go straight into a masters program when I graduate next spring (so fall of 2013 to start). I am very close to a professor whose field is bioethics and I can get a stellar recommendation from him. However, there aren't really any other bioethics professors who are familiar with my work as I'm taking most of my bioethics classes this upcoming year. I am close to a few other professors in completely unrelated fields. I will also be working on a senior thesis with the mentioned professor this upcoming fall as long as I get approval from the dean.</p>
<p>I am lost in this grad school admissions process and I keep hearing that you need research experience- it's critical. Do I have a chance of getting in to decently ranked bioethics or public health programs without research experience? Would it be better to graduate and get some work experience in these fields first?</p>
<p>I'm sorry if any of this sounds incredibly naive, I just don't know where else to turn to with these types of questions. I have an appointment with my advisor in a few weeks, but she hasn't been all that helpful with my grad school questions as the majority of people in my major go into arts/non-profits. My anthropology advisor is worse than useless. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>