mexicanpizza

iTrader: (9)

Woohoo! More biologists! I graduated from Stanford Med School with my PhD in Genetics last May. I agree with what everyone else said...Master's are useless in science. Just get a job, do good work, and move up the ladder. My wife was making 70k+ in 5 years with a BS.

I found work immediately after graduation, but only because my thesis work turned into a startup that I'm part of (*cough*thatIdoeverythingat*cough*). If you want to go into industry afterwards...you'll probably need a postdoc...which is another 1-2 years after your PhD (4-6 years, mine was 4.5). If you want to be a professor at a reputable university, you'll probably need at least two postdocs.

Just keep one thing in mind about starting a PhD program in bio...and make sure you remember this...your choice of lab/project will determine 95% of your success. You can be a phenomenal student/researcher, but if you pick a **** project...it's the next 7 years that will be painful.

Not affording grad school in bio is an oxymoron. When I graduated, Stanford was PAYING me $25k a year to be a student, and waiving tuition (~$7,500 a quarter = $30k a year). Yes it's not much but it can easily be done.

Good luck...if you need any other help, like application or other questions, let me know. And if you want into Stanford's Genetics department, let me know also.

bclee

iTrader: (1)

General notes:

My wife did this, more or less, in the Bush Sr. recession. (Deja vu. Why don't we learn?) She went to grad school in English Lit of all things, got a masters, and has had more or less IT jobs since. (Although there are a fair number of HR idiots who ignore all the IT experience on her resume as soon as they see the masters in English Lit . . . their loss . . .) Anyway, the point is, at a lot of companies (not so much out here though) there's a ceiling for how far you can advance without a masters. But they don't really care what your masters is in. Because I guess the people who would think to make such a rule in the first place are idiots. (One of the best programmers and project managers at the last place she worked didn't have anything higher than a high school degree.)

Yeah, and if you're looking for money, a science post doc isn't really the way to go.

-- Brian, the astrophysics post-doc

bclee

iTrader: (1)

I was offered a job at SLAC a while back, and the funny thing was, all the Stanford grad students there just assumed they would go off and find real (non-acedemic) jobs as soon as they graduated. The guy that offered me the job said he'd only had one grad student actually take a post doc in the last decade. But that was before the crash . . .

04WRBsedan

Since I don't have a specialized career path like some of you guys whom are biologists and engineers it seems like something more general like an MBA would be beneficial to me. However with a BA as opposed to having a BS I wonder if the transition would go smoothly.

Anyone else get into a masters program completely different from their undergrad work?

Thanks for the help offer "MexicanPizza", I'm sure I'll have questions after I refine my brainstorming and focus on exactly which program I plan to get into.

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

Ooops.. see below ( helladumb!)

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

An MBA is a well known, "universal" graduate degree. I just finished my MBA at a local private college. I've heard some say that MBAs are becoming a commodity.... so you are really screwed if you don't have one. From what I've seen, an MBA alone is equal to about 3 years of post undergrad work experience in starting salary.

I'm currently in product marketing for a large tech company and having the MBA does get some respect with bosses and executives (and causes resentment from peers who don't have one =). Also, with different industries coming and going, an MBA can get you in the door into technology, pharmaceutical firms, construction... you name it.

There's a saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know." You can make a lot of contacts at school... pick the people who are going somewhere and ride the coat tails!

As far as paying for it, keep looking for an employer who has a good tuition reimbursement program. My employer paid over $20k for my program....... it's nice to get free tuition and a paycheck at the same time.

Ite buddy... good luck!

WRXCSTI

iTrader: (10)

If you go this route and get accepted by a good MBA program, you'll be asked to take some math and statistics classes prior to the program starts if you didn't take similar classes in college.

Transition wouldn't be too hard if you can focus on the core classes (i.e. intro accounting and finance, etc.). Most undergraduate programs only award BA for their business majors. Only a handful schools award BS for business major because the programs are very quantitative. So you shouldn't worry about it too much in terms of having a BA. I've seen so many people with a history or physics major and end up getting a PhD in accounting or finacne. It's all about what's in your heart. Most MBAs make good money but they work heck of hard. In general, they work much longer hours than most of the other professionals. Is that the type of life style you want? If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

04WRBsedan

Thanks for the feedback. I've been a little skeptical regarding private universities as opposed to UC's or SU's. Care to expand on your experience?

04WRBsedan

Statistics was actually the highest level of math required for my major. That's good to know that it could be a smooth transition.
Also thanks for clearing some things up since I assumed that a bachelors in business was considered a BS. And as far as working long hours I kind of expected that already. Speaking of long hours, what's the work load like for the average MBA with a concentration in say, management?

Thanks so much for the help all!

Mrs. Xevious

iTrader: (1)

Well the biggest difference between private schools and UC's and SU's is that at a private school you have a really good chance of getting contacts. Sure you can still get them at UC's, but with such a large saturation of students you really have to stand out in the crowd for good contacts. I know people who went to UOP and they have maintain contacts for years, it is a great "club" when you come across another UOP grad you just take that into account and help them out. My dad went to Mc George (UOP's law school) and to this day he has made great business contacts with alumni. 2 (or 3) of the ninth circuit judges graduated from Mc George also, you get a lot of contacts through them also. My dad ran into a Alumni (from a different year even) a few years ago, both had great law firms going and now have merged them and are doing great. Also due to my dads involvement in the Alumni he has gotten some prominent positions in the community and has been to the white house more then once to accept awards, having the contacts he made through just going to Mc George made winning those awards that much easier. Its great when you are trying to raise money for something, because you have a lot of successful alumni to hit up.

That is just an example of what private schools can do. I am sure there are some great success stories at big schools like UC's, in no way am I saying that that doesn’t happen. I am just saying I have heard a ton from private schools. In a private school your classes tend to be very small and you make close interactions with peers, profs and alumni. Also, it is easier to get loans and scholarships through private schools as they tend to have more money to give away, and not as many students to spread it out among.


Edit: UOP = University of the Pacific

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

At least in the tech industry, "an MBA is an MBA," unless you get it from Stanford, Berkely, or other Top-tier school. I weighed going to Santa Clara (private), NDNU (private), and SJSU since I needed to work full time. I asked executives and managers about their feelings, and most indicated it really didn't matter as long as I had any MBA (if it wasn't a Top-tier). Of course, I wasn't about to go to a "University of Pheonix" type school which has caused laughter when mentioned.

As far as coming away with the most knowledge, you'll get out of it what you put into it. I know some people that did lousy work and they still graduated. I doubt they learned much. Just like your undergrad, some classes are awesome, while some are an utter waste of time (usuall due to a bad professor).

For me, the MBA is simply job insurance. I did learn a bit, and I learned to see things at work from a different perspective.
Though you can have a successful career without it, most of the executives I've seen have advanced degrees. I think it is worth the time if you plan on working in a business environment, wish to have the knowledge, or if you simply want the sense of accomplishment.

WRXCSTI

iTrader: (10)

Probably depends on company culture and industry but I wouldn't expect anything less than 10 - 12 hours a day on average if you have a lot of responsibility. In my company (a $6 billion regional bank), my boss the CFO and our controller go to work around 6 am and leave very late. But again, finance people always work the longest hours. However, other non-finance middle and senior managers in the bank also work very hard long hours. Well, they all drive nice cars. What's cool is that one of our Senior VP even knows the WRX culture when he saw my car. One of our female Executive VP also told me that my car is pretty cool. I'm sure all the hard work will pay off one day.

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

By the way, I didn't mean to bag on UOP, but it gets a bad rap for some reason. I asked a group of classmate why they chose NDNU over UOP, and they all started laughing!

04WRBsedan

Right on......yeah I was specifically refering to University of Pheonix and other sham programs like those and online MBA's.

And I could see how it would be well worth it for all of those last reasons you mentioned.

Mrs. Xevious

iTrader: (1)

No I understand, UOP got a bad rap in the early 90's because to many children of alumni were getting in and they didn’t have the best scores, however those kids have great contacts and most are very successful. Sometimes it is not what you know but who you know and who your daddy/mommy is.

All I am saying is that private schools help there grads out a lot, they want their grads to get really good jobs to reflect well on the school and they will help you out big time to do that. I just used UOP as an example. All private schools are like that from what I see, there is a close knit community and they make sure you have a chance. UC could care less after you leave unless you make it big time on your own, then they start calling you.