<p>First off, I had no idea which forum to put this in so hopefully this will be found. This may sound ignorant of me, but I want to research cancer "when I grow up" but I have no idea what I would be majoring in. My guesses are in biology/chemistry related fields but other than that I am clueless. Can anyone clarify for me? I'm assuming there is more than one major I can pursue and there's not "oncology" major. And how long should I expect to be in school if I do want to be an oncologist and will i need to go for a MD/PhD? Thanks!</p>
<p>A biology major would likely be the best fit, and you’d be looking at a PhD. Get an MD/PhD only if you want to be a doctor; a PhD would be a better fit if you want to be a researcher.</p>
<p>What grade are you in now? I wouldn’t worry to much about it until you get to college. Go to a school with research opportunities for undergraduates, and get involved with research. It doesn’t necessarily have to be cancer research (although it would be nice if it was) but any type of research experience will give you some idea whether a PhD would be a good fit for you and help you narrow down what you’re interested in studying.</p>
<p>@baktrax thank you for your help! I’m a high school freshman right now. would biochemistry be a good major too? because i really like chemistry</p>
<p>Yeah, as a high school freshman, it’s WAY to early for you to be worrying about this. Relax, do well in your courses, and pursue routes that interest you. A lot of people latch onto careers that they don’t know a lot about, and that may very well be what you go on to do–but it might not. Take it one step at a time. Focus on preparing a good application to college, and when it comes time to look at schools, look for ones that have opportunities to do research as an undergraduate (any big research university should be fine; if you want to got a smaller LAC or something, you might want to take a more careful look at what research opportunities you would have either at that school or at other institutions, perhaps even over the summer). Figure out if research is really for you by getting involved as an undergraduate. MANY students who think they want to do research realize that lab work really isn’t what they want to do, and that’s absolutely fine. Research really isn’t what it sounds like when you read about it class–even reading scientific literature doesn’t give you a huge idea of what it’s really like. You just have to try it. If you decide that it’s really want you want to do, then you’d be looking at getting a PhD, most likely, which is a whole different beast.</p>
<p>A biochemistry or chemistry major is fine as well. There’s a lot of ways to get into “cancer” research because that’s a HUGE field and it incorporates a ton of areas–from cell biology to chemistry to clinical research to pharmaceuticals. You might want to tackle questions from a cell bio perspective or a chemistry perspective, or you might decide that you want to do something entirely different. You might even find some other sub-field in chemistry that you’re really excited about and want to go into. Just saying that you want to research cancer suggests to me that you don’t really have a firm idea of what that really means or what it would really entail, and that’s completely fine–you’re only a freshman. It’s great that you have goals, and you should definitely try to set yourself up to achieve them. But don’t worry about it too much now. Take it one step at a time.</p>
<p>@baktrax thank you so much! that is really helpful. i’m just trying to get a general idea of what classes I should be taking now and what I should be doing outside of school (like volunteering at a hospital or doing an internship, which is required for my school). i’ll definitely have to look at this career more and think about it and as you said, i have a lot of time. thank you so much once again!!</p>
<p>It’s good your thinking about it now, but to be honest, what classes you take or what activities you do in high school really won’t matter that much. It might help you start to figure out if you’re interested in it or not, but there aren’t a lot of research projects you can get involved in as a high school student (at least, not heavily involved in). Any typical college prep curriculum will be absolutely fine. If you’re interested in science, take courses in them and pursue extracurricular activities that involve them. But don’t be afraid to pursue other areas of interest as well.</p>