<p>I am currently a sophomore Quantitative Biology major (involves an extra computer science class, statistics class, and higher level biology courses/labs are more quantitative rather than organismal) with a minor in chemistry, which puts me on the pre-med track.
I am very interested in research and development of things such as higher level genetics and molecular biology, such as epigenetics, genetic engineering, regenerative medicine, stem cells etc. as well as possibly having a career in biotech industry, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering. </p>
<p>I consider myself a good student and currently have a good enough GPA to get into post-graduate studies, whether it be for med school, MS, or PhD. I have often thought about med school but am just not sure if I would like to invest that much time to become a doctor. I have also thought about getting a pharmD, but being a pharmacist at a Rite Aid does not seem very exciting to me at all. I do come from a background where my parents struggled and continue to struggle to sustain our family so obviously money is something that I definitely value, but am looking for good advice on how to combine some of my interests into a very profitable and enjoyable career. </p>
<p>I have also been reading other posts in the forum and I continuously see the bashing of science majors such as Bio and Chem so I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what would be a beneficial route for me to take in order to be successful in this field, whether it be med school, pharmacy, Masters, or PhD.</p>
<p>A lot of the bashing is done by a couple of malcontents who for reasons that have nothing to do with their major have not been happy with their job prospects. Read their posts and ask yourself if you would hire that person to work at your company. For me the answer is no, regardless of how well they know their science. If someone can be talked out of a science major by reading those posts, then that person really shouldn’t be majoring in science.</p>
<p>It’s true that the job market is not good right now in bio or chem, even for PhD’s, but I’ve known a dozen chemistry grad students who got their PhD’s in the past three years and all but one has a job. That one recently moved to Minnesota for personal reasons, and has a university interview this week. The latest graduate is landing in Houston this summer with a six-figure salary. They get these jobs by 1) being good at what they do; and 2) having a professional attitude.</p>
<p>My advice would be to follow your interests, and network all along the way. Your job prospects will depend a lot on who you know and who knows you. In my first job out of grad school, I went to a company where two of my former students from when I was a grad student lab TA worked. One of them actually helped me get hired there, and they both made the transition easier. These days I do contract work. For the past five years or so, all of my work has come from referrals from previous clients. If good people want to work with you, you’ll find satisfying work. If they don’t, you probably won’t, no matter what you major in.</p>
<p>“I have often thought about med school but am just not sure if I would like to invest that much time to become a doctor.”</p>
<p>Med school does take any longer than a PhD in the sciences, and maybe less time. Of course, a doctor’s training is extended by an internship and residency. On the PhD side of things, training might be extended by postdoc appointments.</p>
<p>I actually have a really great job and satisfying career prospects for the moment. Unfortunately for every success case like my self there are many more victims. I see what is happening to science in the USA and I could not in good conscience recommend to anyone to persue the field. I see companies like big pharma moving jobs overseas to places where there is cheap labor and where getting arround govt regulations is easier (paying off officials). I see companies abusing the heck out of their science staff here playing games with permatemps, and paying them worse than blue collar workers then whining to congress that Americans are too stupid and lazy for science and they need h1b slaves.</p>
<p>If you are not researching career prospects, gathering observations and evidence then you are definately not a scientist you are a passion driven idealist in denial. College is a major investment in both time and money and your future is not something you want to play russian roulette with. In fact the odds are so bad that it is like playing russian roulette with all but one chamber filled with bullets.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to opt out of science grad school and go into a healthcare professional program like med, pharm, dental. Otherwise stay out of science all together. It isn’t worth 4 years of tough bachelor’s work, followed by 5-7 years of long hours in the lab in a PhD program earning as low $15k while often being exploited as cheap labor as a technician for a PI and a TA for the university, followed by as low as $35k post-docs at which point for many their career dead ends and they are stuck trying to do a career change arround age 40 having lost 15 of the best years of their life. The “pipeline” as it is often called has degerated into a pyramid scheme that exploits smart naive people and spits them out worn and depleted.</p>
<p>I am one of the few people I graduated with still in the field. Most went to healthcare, law, business, and even teaching high school was a better option than the terrible, unstable, low-paying jobs in the science field. I lucked out and found a small company that doesn’t treat their science staff like excrement. Before that I worked at one of the world’s most well known soft drink makers and food conglomerates in the world and let me tell you it was the most humiliating and demoralizing 3 years of my life and I’ve never fully recovered my passion for science after the grad program from H#ll and working for a typical sleazeball corporation that decides the way to make themselves more efficient is to screw over their science staff more and more. I’ve got dozens of stories from both that will make you want to vomit with disgust and I am not the only one which is why you have observed the large number of horror stories on the net about science careers and why more and more grad programs are populated by foreign students. Americans are not to stupid and lazy, they know a bad deal when they see it.</p>
<p>Whenever I see people giving a rosy picture on science it really upsets me. I understand many of them mean well and are often just hopeless idealists. However, to myself, that is like guiding a blind person in front of an oncoming truck. Reality is very harsh indeed for science grads in the USA.</p>