Before you screw yourself

[Timmythemic22]

and save us the whinning.

I agree with this.

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[szhao]

Am I the only one puzzled by everyone saying that biology is pure memorization? Have you set foot in a bio lab? Have you taken a genetics test? There is alot of memorization but it is just a necessary component to get to the important concepts. The important part is to understand the concepts and figure out new ones. Hence its designation as a science. Has anyone ever heard of the biotech industry? You think they hire biologists?

biology is all memorization now matter how you look at it, you might apply some of the facts you used, but it is nevertheless memorization. this is not bad or good, it depends on the person. i mean most bio professors hate to generalize and make simplifying assumptions (we are not talking about using model organisms) but say modeling from first principles. yes genetics requires you to apply some of your knowledge of previous experiments, yes bio lab requires you to repeat a set of procedures and make some hypothesis, but these derive from memorization.

Application in my definition is more like going from lagrangian mechanics to figuring out the stability of a rotating top. or the use of linear programming to solve maximum flow for a system of pipes. i mean certainly in biology there are some such applications, but it is far fewer in number than engineering or the other sciences. the problem with biology boils down to the fact that biologists like to observe, but don't want to make generalization because biology is such a complex field of science.

 

[Max8]

I am happy for you, but let us not use individual stories to generalize. I am sure there are some Ivy legeau biology graduates that have success in the job market, but for the average biology student the job prospects are bad.

I don't think the average bio students job prospects are any worse than any other liberal arts major's average job prospects with JUST an undergrad degree. Tech majors have an advantage after only going to undergrad.... However, if you're only considering liberal arts degrees majoring in bio does not equal any worse job prospects than anything else. ...Majoring in a life science (bio, biochem, chem) is probably more helpful to have gotten you the important skills like lab exeprience while an undergrad, and it is those skills which will land you jobs after graduation.

 

[Pose]

I'm happy with economics.

 

[MinnyGophers]

Hey! Biology and Chem majors would have no trouble finding work in either the housekeeping or foodservice industries...

I wouldn't put chem majors in the same boat as biology majors....
A lot of different fields and industries are open to chemistry majors. You can do pretty much whatever you want with a chemistry degree (from business to pharmacy, to industry, to research, to academics...etc...) because it is a technical field

biology majors do not have as many options because it is so general, and there aren't that many opportunities out there for people with only undergraduate degrees...

 

[FFwannabeMD]

It's ridiculous to say that a science major is useless if you don't want to become an MD. I have as good a chance at getting a decent job with my Biochem major as my History major roommate or my English major best friend.

I know plenty of research lab techs that don't have a advanced degree to add to their BS. If you want to say that working in research doesn't count, then why the hell would you be a science major in the first place? Lame.

 

[deleted77919]

I agree with everything up until here:



Reason: Student loans have very low interest rates. I think you should do the opposite. Max out on your student loan, and take any additional money you don't need and just invest it into a very low maintenance mutual fund such as a vanguard, earn 10% interest on a loan that has you for 3-4% interest and you'll actually be making money while you're in medical school.

Um, at the moment loans are at 6.8%. It's tough to find a guaranteed return in excess of that. Best to minimize loans.

 

[Chuckwalla]

I was a bio major before I was pre-med so I am not hitting myself. Buf if I had to do it all over again I would have done finance or some other business major with pre-med. That way I could have become a cubicle monkey with the life goal of rasing X companies stock. Not fulfilling but at least it pays.

 

[MattD]

Yeah I've had friends graduate from engineering with 4.0s. At least at JHU, during my undergrad years I believe the overall engineering average GPA was under a 3.0. One year I think it was 2.7 if I remember correctly. Has nothing to do with the intelligence of people or the typical lazy population - in general the major is harder than straight up science or liberal arts.

The difference between engineering and most traditional premed majors is that where biology for the most part is memorization until more advanced coursework, engineering is generally all applicative from day 1 - at least in their exams and homeworks if not their course material. Some people respond to this better, most don't.

Yeah, engineering is definitely a tougher major, our average was under a 3.0 as well. There is certainly a difference though between your program and mine, apparently, because you could definitely tell who had the low grades because they're the ones who didn't put forth the effort. There were also some who were questionable admits. But, if you were intelligent, interested, and worked hard, you could do well... it certainly wasn't impossible as many people seem to think doing well in engineering is. That's really my only point, you can do well if you're willing to work at it. You WILL, however, have to work harder for those grades than you would as a business or general sci. major.

 

[ryandote]

When considering investment opportunities, make sure you realize that you need to consider not just the interest rate, but also the rate of inflation. I think it's safe to assume inflation to be ~2.5% (but it's easy enough to look up over time), so suddenly a 5% interest rate doesn't sound so sweet... Obviously you can still make money investing, just thought I'd point that out for anyone considering this option...

Yes, but that 5% (fixed) loan suddenly sounds even sweeter. You really ought to differentiate between real and nominal interest rates. If you borrow a sum of money at 5% fixed, inflation makes your dollars less valuable over time. That means you are paying the loan back with "cheaper" dollars, requiring less real purchasing power.

Most banks take this stuff and rate expectations into account when calculating profit margins and their necessary rates, though. As long as we want to bring up inflation, I thought I would add to your advice to consider it all around...

 

[sirus_virus]

While you guys are talking about investing, I must say that I have not met any premed(or medstudent for that matter)with enough finance skills to work the money markets, but if you can then more power to you.

 

[Arc]

I'm pretty content with my Biochemistry major right now. If I wasn't doing pre-med, then I would be doing Chemical Engineering right now. Originally that's what I wanted to do, but there is no way I would want to put up juggling the Engineering classes with studying for MCAT. Excluding the engineering classes, Biochem.,is just as rigorus as some of the Chem majors,mainly becuase you are being forced to take more rigorous courses than a straight Bio major. Even though I'm still a freshman, I'm beginning to question, "Do I still want to put up with pre-med?"

 

[whoisthedrizzle]

Your education is what you make of it, and so are your grades.

Dead wrong. In engineering the studying/grade correlation is anything but linear. In biology, it pretty much is.

 

[imagined space]

I agree with everything up until here:



Reason: Student loans have very low interest rates. I think you should do the opposite. Max out on your student loan, and take any additional money you don't need and just invest it into a very low maintenance mutual fund such as a vanguard, earn 10% interest on a loan that has you for 3-4% interest and you'll actually be making money while you're in medical school.

Agreed, if you can borrow money for so little and are good with stocks you can make money.

 

[Falco2525]

I too disagree...I know I coiuld have started at several different jobs with a bio major making between 40-70K....also there is always teaching as a backup...they really need science teachers

 

[heathen]

Can someone please direct me to a link or post the information about job satisfaction of not only physicians, but also engineers, and other professions. From some googling, I stumbled upon some interesting information:

According to CNN/Money, Physician/Surgeon is only the #30 job in the US, but you are still making $100k more than anyone else. So, on an average (and, I know physicians often don't make close to $250k, but it's true for all professionals).

According to another research done by Harris Poll, and published on USA Today, Physician's prestige is 52% (a drop from from 61% in 1977), while scientists, teachers, member of congress, engineers, lawyers and stockbrokers enjoy a prestige of 52%, 48%, 31%, 29%, 17% and 10% respectively. Interestingly, however, "An unscientific online survey of 865 physicians by The Doctors, a medical-liability insurance carrier, found that 70% would not encourage their children to become doctors"

Anyways, I am engineering major, and most of my classmates are not real excited about the prospects of working at an engineering firm. But this may also be due to the fact that we are all slackers. I, personally, don't like having 5 bosses when I start. My brother, who is an EE, just got an internship at Merrill Lynch for $1500 a week. So, you can obviously do a lot with an engineering degree for very good pay.

 

[Vox Animo]

I don't know that this has been answered yet, but students loans aren't as low interest as people are leading on. 38500 of my loans are 6.5% and the other 20K are 8.5%.

Not so easy to pay off.