<p>I'm a current junior bioinformatics undergraduate student, and although I love the major, I'm currently confused as to whether I should pursue graduate school, and even if I would be able to get it. Although I have good grades, I don't have a lot of experience, and most of the little experience I have is more computer science related. I'm trying to get research experience but my advisor hasn't exactly been helpful in my search with it, and most of the professors at my school aren't really focused in the field.</p>
<p>And besides this, I'm not exactly sure what job I'd be able to get. I know I don't want to be a wet lab scientist, because I don't have the dexterity to do half of that work, but I also don't want to be a pure computer programmer who uses their bio knowledge only to get a job at a health insurance company. I just want to be able have a job that focuses on the analysis of genomic data, or a job which involves identifying genes and then seeing how these genes and their protein products affect the genome and other parts of the body, or a job which looks at combining statistics with biology. </p>
<p>But none of this will come to fruition if I don't figure out how to get the experience to get into graduate school so I can get a job. Heck, I don't know if I can get a job with graduate school with the way Ph.D.'s are going, and I don't know if I want to put any more financial stress on my family by getting a masters, even though I know they'd pay for it. I'm just so confused as to what I should do to do something I like and get paid for it. I don't even care how much I make, so long as I'm not working at McDonald's the rest of my life. </p>
<p>I'm sorry for ranting, but I'm really frustrated and confused right now, and I don't know what do. Should I be aiming for a master's program or a Ph.D. program, and how would I go about getting in? What kinds of internships would I need to get a compsci-based bioinformatics master's? What kinds of intenships/research experiences would I need to get into graduate school? If I shouldn't go to graduate school, then how do I go about getting a job, since I got to school in the boondox? If anybody could answer at least one of these questions, that would be very very helpful.</p>