Biology major
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Anonymous
Chemistry PhD programs are typically a bit faster than anything on the bio side of the fence because you don't have to wait for cells to grow, etc. Many can finish in 5 years, with computational folks sometimes finishing in 4 years and others taking 6-8 if their research is slow. But you still need 1-2 post docs to get a good job, which will add another 2-4 years. Pay can be a touch better for chemists, as there are jobs in pharma, but also in plastics, batteries, materials, detergents, etc. |
Anonymous
| Is Materials Science within the broad Biology field (or Environmental Science?), or is it more on the Engineering side? Not sure of any specific areas of Materials Science. |
Anonymous
Are they sure about not wanting to change major, majority does. That's what college is for, to be open to new ideas and to explore and grow. |
Anonymous
That is on the engineering and chemistry side. Material Sciences is a hot industry because of the "electrification" of so many industries...cars, trucks, solar batteries for home, etc. You are involved in creating new battery technologies and what not. There is a niche industry of organic computer storage (also known as wetware computers/storage). Sounds crazy and it is a moonshot...but it is getting funded. I would assume it would need biology/microbiology majors (possibly you want to dual-major??), although you probably would want to structure your studying/career around this kind of technology and seek out research from the university. Below is a paragraph of something out of Harvard from 2019: "They don't call this the Information Age for nothing – nowadays we can access the entirety of humanity's collective knowledge from small computers in our pockets. But all that data has to be stored somewhere, and huge servers take up heaps of physical space and require huge amounts of energy. Now, researchers at Harvard have developed a new system for reading and writing information with organic molecules, which could potentially sit stable and secure for thousands of years." |
Anonymous
OMG. Everything except engineering is deemed low paying on this site. |
Anonymous
No, you don't understand: Biology majors get paid like humanities majors, not like other academic STEM majors. |
Anonymous
Engineering and Finance, per DCUM |
Anonymous
Biology majors working in research can literally only get paid like $15-$20/hour. It is just not like other STEM professions that tend to at least pay relatively high starting salaries. I am not sure people quite understand this. |
Anonymous
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Jaysus this site.
Biology is a very popular major and thousands of students graduate with bio degrees every year and go on to live normal, happy lives doing normal, happy jobs across all sorts of career paths. Not everyone has hopes and dreams of living in Bethesda with a 2 car garage and kids in a private school. I was a bio minor so know many bio majors; several work for pharmaceutical companies, one is a field biologist (I believe she may have gotten a MS after her undergrad degree), one works at a zoo, etc. A few became lawyers, a few doctors, and a few got PhDs. I tend to agree that small schools with good programs, like Carleton or St. Olaf, are better for undergrads than big schools. |
Anonymous
How about biochemistry? Is it better than biology majors? |
Anonymous
Thanks for this helpful and level headed post. |
Anonymous
Sure, true, but a disproportionately high percentage of high schoolers (and their parents) think a bio degree is a dependable path to exactly that. And it's not. Could get there, sure, of course. But no more likely than a history or poli sci degree, and much less likely than a degree in math/math-adjacent or any of the hard sciences (to say nothing of engineering). So, go for bio if it's your passion, but not because "It's STEM! It's valuable!" |
Anonymous
Not much different. |
Anonymous
What you need to be asking yourself with any major is where the jobs are. What skills can you graduate with that are at least somewhat in demand? There are never any guarantees of employment but going in with a plan is vital. Biology is so broad it's unlikely to be useful to an employer. It seems like many biology majors just pick it because they like it and assume it'll get them a job because its STEM. But a lot of biology majors make less than the median salary of people who have just a high school diploma. There is nothing wrong with a low-paying job, unless, of course, you want a high paying job and/or need to pay off student loans. I was researching this recently because my DD is interested in biology and I came across this website that offers alternatives. They are also pretty low-paying but better. Human Biology (earnings: $40,211) Soil Science (earnings: $48,043) Biotechnology (earnings: $46,436) Biomathematics and Computational Biology (earnings: $58,584) Biomedical Engineering (earnings: $68,734) https://www.degreechoices.com/blog/worst-majors/ I'm sure regular old biology majors can find something, but they'd need to work pretty hard to stand out from the crowd. Also this was a very enlightening reddit post! https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/comments/16cpuea/why_do_people_regret_biology_majors/ |
Anonymous
+1000 Also, don't go into major debt for a bio degree if you actually just want to do BIO research. The pay is low (across most levels), but especially with only a BS/BA. You will just be a grunt in someone else's lab. You will need at least a MS but ideally a PHD to do "the real work" and get decent pay. So the best path is a place where you can actually start doing research sophmore/junior year, which means a place where you are big fish in a small pond (not the reverse). Shining during undergrad will make it easier to get into a great PHD program, you need top notch recommendations for that. |