<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I'm personally acquainted with someone who graduated many years earlier with only a bachelor's degree in biochem. She's worked in the biotech industry for 20+ years, and currently she is working in a lab as a research scientist. I was wondering if it would be possible for her to go to grad school and get a PhD in the biomedical sciences--in many ways I fear that she has hit a sort of "glass ceiling" in terms of what sort of employment is available to her, despite her profound scientific interest and talent. Certainly I believe she has the intelligence as well as the experience to do it, but how would grad schools look upon this sort of non-traditional applicant? Would it even be a good idea at all, and it is feasible to begin with?</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Hua-Ching Ni</p>
<p>Of course she can apply to grad school! There is no age limit on grad school admissions. She should make a list of programs that interest her, and get in touch with them.</p>
<p>There is no age limit technically, but significantly older applicants can face challenges that younger applicants don’t face and this can make it difficult to gain admission. The main question is what would the applicant want to do after grad school? If the applicant wants to be a professor - this is a career that takes a long time to build - let’s say 6ish years of grad school, 3ish years post-doc (they keep getting longer these days), then if they can find a faculty position - takes years get tenure, build a lab, do something, and by that time, this older applicant could be nearing retirement age… This deters grad committees from accepting older applicants. The career goals of an older applicant would weigh heavily on their admission. They would need to be able to clearly argue why at this stage in their life/career, grad school makes sense.</p>
<p>I had a physics professor who did his undergrad in physics, worked in the telecommunications industry for years, then decided one day that he wanted to go back and get his phd in physics. He finished it in 2008, and is now an adjunct professor at the school he got his phd at.</p>