EPTJust my two cents.
Sell me on a Field of Study - Page 2
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Kingsky
Singapore298 Posts
Just my two cents. | ||
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KazeHydra
Japan2788 Posts
On February 02 2014 14:05 Chocolate wrote: Good to hear about CS. Regarding physics, I do like it, though in a field that is probably one of the most interesting and thus probably one of the most competitive (space exploration and stuff). I REALLY hope that I end up going to Caltech since they have a ton of physics professors doing work with NASA. It would be an amazing opportunity to be able to work with some of them. I think that I would like biochemical engineering too! My parents are pharmacists so I've been around drug discussions and pharmaceutical info and doctors all my life. Because of the way drug patents work, it seems very lucrative to get into something like drug design, protein synthesis, delivery mechanisms, etc. One thing I have heard, however, is that a lot of bioE students are also premed and that premeds are not typically the most academically curious students and are often competitive in a bad way (not helping, even sabotaging). Are these kinds of people prevalent in your experience? Also, what are job prospects like for BioE majors with only a BSE? I can't speak about the physics field beyond what I already said since I was the kind of person who hated the topic but was still good at it. Yes, drug design is soooo interesting to me but the process is awful. Some people spend 10+ years of their life on a single drug only for it to fail. However, that is not necessarily the direction you have to go with biochemical engineering. There are many large biotech companies which, although they design drugs, also already have their own drugs on the market. So it's not like you're guaranteed to be stuck hoping your drug passes clinical trials and FDA approval. With larger companies, it's more of a "it would be great if this works" as opposed to "I'm going to hate life if this fails." There are still pluses and minuses to wherever you want to take such a degree, but it is not limited to such tedious options (which tend to be more research focused than industry focused). As for the students, well, yes they exist but I don't think they are very prevalent. Perhaps it depends on the school (not that I'm knowledgeable about student affairs of other schools)? I'll just say don't let such people stop you from pursuing something you want. Jobs is a tough one, mainly because the status changes quickly. 5 years ago it was really tough to get a job. Now, it's certainly easier but they still really prefer MS. There are more jobs, but it's just so competitive. You can't expect to just graduate off only a BS and get a job, but it's not like it can't happen. But by the time you're done? Who knows. I don't want to give false hope and say "it's only going to get better from here!" but if things continue in this direction, it will be better in 4-5 years. But this said, it still depends on what kind of bioE. I'm speaking mostly from a biochemE perspective, so I'm not too sure about jobs that are more mechanical or electrical orientated, for example. | ||
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Mr. Wiggles
Canada5894 Posts
On February 02 2014 14:38 Roe wrote: I know...it's so true. I'm in fourth year and there may be 1-3 males in the class with 20 females, even in neurobiology and neuroscience. Lots of people in my psych classes say they're going into education. I've been taking several comp sci courses over the degree along with my own projects on the side. Anyone know of any cross over between Psych, Comp Sci, and Philosophy? Cognitive Science, broadly, and personally I enjoy studying artificial intelligence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science Historically, there's been some interesting crossover of ideas between biological psychology and reinforcement learning in AI. Studying AI also gives you some interesting subjects to reflect on from a philosophy perspective as well. Cognitive Science in general is a very broad field, so there's a lot of things to learn about, even just on the more CS side, there's AI, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, etc. | ||
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GTPGlitch
5061 Posts
I mean, it's well possible that it's true right now... But people have been saying that for several years... So wouldn't demand start getting filled by now, becuase you have so many people saying that it's awesome field for ez jobs? So like by the time Chocolate is done with college, it will be low demand high number of applicants? Or am i just being a fool ;-; | ||
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Recognizable
Netherlands1552 Posts
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Ilikestarcraft
Korea (South)17726 Posts
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DarkPlasmaBall
United States43985 Posts
Choose a major based on your passions and future academic/ occupational goals. Do not choose a major based off peripheral and transient ideas, like the boy:girl ratio of your major or how easy the major will be. A college education should prepare you (at least, academically) for the next step in your life, which is starting a job and hopefully making a career out of it. Pretend that you already have a degree in major X, and then think about where'd you go from there. I had many friends who didn't really care what they majored in, so they rolled an easy, quick degree compared to a STEM degree (just to graduate) and now they pretty much have a bachelor's degree in a crappy field with no particular direction in life, and they can't get a job because they essentially took the easy way out (and wasted quite a bit of money). You're probably fortunate in the fact that plenty of TLers are/ were STEM majors/ STEM-focused students, so we can definitely provide some insight regarding the majors on your top priority list. Let me know if you have any questions about focusing on mathematics or education (despite the latter not being on your list)  EDIT: I know you probably want to get a jump on your major and prepare even before you start college, but don't completely dismiss the idea of taking a few interesting courses as a college freshman, and maybe starting to like a major that you hadn't even considered! | ||
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Dknight
United States5223 Posts
On February 02 2014 13:05 babylon wrote: But this is true of most if not every field atm. From a purely practical POV, a PhD really isn't worth the effort you put into it (saying this as someone in a PhD program right now). On the other hand, if you like what you do ... OP, I'd suggest just exploring ... it's good and all to have people tell you that you should do X or you should do Y and "I hate X because Z and you will too!" but in the end it's such an individual choice. Plus, you're going to hate at least one thing about whatever you end up doing, just depends on how much you weigh that hatred, so to speak. Also when you're 17, you're basically trapped in a bubble where you don't consider less traditional paths, so it's hard to have much perspective unless you do a lot of exploring on your own (or talk to nontraditional peeps). If you want my personal rec though, I'd totally say go for bio and become a field biologist (maybe an ornithologist).  Yeah, not useful at all, which just goes to show ... individual choice.EDIT: And lol @ the guy who said that econ/law/lib arts attracts superficial people. The rest of the PhD fields aren't as bad as the STEM PhDs right now. I'm fortunate that the field I choose is actually one of the few that has been growing for the past decade and will continue to do so. On February 02 2014 12:04 Chocolate wrote: Are you saying not to get a PhD at all, or to get a PhD in the social sciences or humanities? I don't want to just have a PhD so that I can call myself a doctor, I would like a PhD so that I could become really good at something that interests me. I'm neither recommending nor discouraging you from getting your PhD. This is a decision that you will need to think long and hard about and I'm not quite sure at 17 you're even close to consider it. It's long hours, a lot of work, inadequate pay but can be highly rewarding and satisfying if you enjoy research and the process of discovery. Thank the lord I have roughly a year to go. If you're seriously interested, try getting involved in undergraduate research and find a mentor. | ||
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Mothra
United States1448 Posts
On February 02 2014 08:27 Chocolate wrote: I was thinking about tutoring during UG (though for $, I don't like volunteer tutoring because the students are uninterested and I hate it) and maybe studying at a European university for a bit. Is there anything in addition that you would recommend? Just in general learn as much as you can about as many things as you can. Particularly if you're in a field where everyone is skilled at the subject, one way to stand out is to have a bunch of skills that your peers do not. Opportunities come through the people you know more so than your abilities (of course ability matters, but you have to get in the door first). People will like and help you if you are useful to them. So go ahead and learn general stuff like sports, languages, gardening, fixing cars, editing papers etc.. whatever sounds remotely interesting. | ||
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kusto
Russian Federation823 Posts
On February 02 2014 06:17 NeuroticPsychosis wrote: Higher level math courses are a pain. Pure math gets so abstract after a certain point that you have to be a real genius to even attempt to understand it, let alone excel at it. You're better off doing something that involves application of mathematics and logic. Computer science and engineering --- ideal and very high demand fields (lots of jobs, not enough qualified people to fill those jobs). If you enjoy math and logic you will like it very much. Chemistry --- don't do it unless you're leaning towards medicine, pharmacy, or biochemistry (or biomedical engineering which you listed as a possibility). To be honest, any of these fields will require a chemistry background (maybe just a few classes) as a prerequisite. But don't go down the purely chemistry road. Physics / astronomy --- again, this is almost entirely application of mathematics (at a higher level of course; lower level physics/astronomy courses will be largely descriptive and less analytical). Unless you want to become a physics teacher in high school, or eventually get a PhD in physics and teach in college, don't do physics. You're better off going into engineering which is where physics students usually end up if they aren't interested in the academic route. But if you are really passionate about physics and have a strong mathematics background I won't dissuade you from pursuing this option. Law --- don't do it. You will be miserable for the rest of your life. The market is oversaturated with lawyers as it is. Economics --- this is a "social science" which means that if you like science you will hate economics. I majored in economics, worst decision of my life. Most of the classes in the first 2 or 3 years you take can be learn from wikipedia. Higher level economics is basically simple calculus concepts. Econometrics is only one class, and that's more calculus and statistics than anything else. Again, it is very abstract at the higher level. But unlike engineering or physics, it's all a bunch of theory and concepts that have very few concrete applications apart from academia. Math is at the very least more interesting. And unless you're the chairman of the Federal Reserve you'd honestly be better off getting a degree in English. You should probably choose between computer science and electrical / biomedical / biochemical engineering. Physics is an option if you're really passionate about it. @OP: dont listen to this guy. This is such bad advice, i don't even know where to start... (from a physics PhD student who has taken chemistry, math and information courses...) | ||
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randommuch
United States370 Posts
Here's what I mean: No matter what major you choose, you still have to study all the related fields to at least some extent. Go to your school, sign up for the entry level math, bio, chem, and phys classes and start working on getting the those classes out of the way and hopefully you'll narrow down which one's your favorite in the process. By the time you end up having to choose between which upper division classes you're going for it will be a few quarters into college so there's plenty of time to think about it. If the end goal of a job is your concern, narrow it down between being a lab tech/research tech, working in the field (being outside all the time) or if you want to deal with customer service/sales/face to face shit all the time. Helps a lot when choosing what field you want to commit with. The sciences will keep you more in isolation from the general public if you prefer that, I know I do . | ||
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GeneralStan
United States4789 Posts
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172061.htm | ||
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Cyx.
Canada806 Posts
On February 02 2014 17:48 GTPGlitch wrote: Um, is it really true that CS is high demand with not many job applicants? I mean, it's well possible that it's true right now... But people have been saying that for several years... So wouldn't demand start getting filled by now, becuase you have so many people saying that it's awesome field for ez jobs? So like by the time Chocolate is done with college, it will be low demand high number of applicants? Or am i just being a fool ;-; It's still by most accounts pretty strong right now - as a software engineering student I can say that everyone I talk to is very optimistic, from other students to professionals to professors. It's more demanding than a lot of people expect though - I've seen a ton of kids drop out of my classes over the last couple years because it wasn't the 'office job guaranteed, 100k npnp' they thought it was going to be. It still takes a lot of effort and passion to do well in CS - that's one of the reasons it's not too hard to find a job if you do. edit: as far as the actual decision-making process goes, my advice to people who are in the same position as you (as a high school math tutor I see a lot of them) is ALWAYS this - do not go to school for a degree. A degree is useless unless it lets you do some work you otherwise wouldn't have been able to. I see so many kids three years into their degrees that they're sort of into, but they don't have any idea of the work that's available for them when they get out, and that's the wrong way to do it. You can do plenty of things even without a university degree - if you decide that you really want one, you should have a job in mind that your degree will allow you to get, because that takes all the guesswork out of it. It's easy to look at a job description and say 'wow, that sounds really fun, and they say I need a BSc in X'. It's really, really hard to look at all the degrees out there, and say 'wow, one of those specific things sounds really cool, and that's what I want to do for the rest of my life' as the first decision you make. | ||
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3point14
Germany890 Posts
if you want to be hyped for Biomedicine, play Deus Ex  | ||
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KlaCkoN
Sweden1661 Posts
On February 03 2014 00:14 Dknight wrote: The rest of the PhD fields aren't as bad as the STEM PhDs right now. I'm fortunate that the field I choose is actually one of the few that has been growing for the past decade and will continue to do so. I'm neither recommending nor discouraging you from getting your PhD. This is a decision that you will need to think long and hard about and I'm not quite sure at 17 you're even close to consider it. It's long hours, a lot of work, inadequate pay but can be highly rewarding and satisfying if you enjoy research and the process of discovery. Thank the lord I have roughly a year to go. If you're seriously interested, try getting involved in undergraduate research and find a mentor. I am doing a chemistry phd in the US at the moment and I am not really recognising the picture you are painting. Very few groups here have any serious trouble with funding, though a few were hit somewhat by the sequester thing. And of the 4 people who have left the lab since I started 18 months ago everyone have had 6 figure salary jobs lined up. Admittedly I don't pay any attention at all to the US job market at large but yeah, at least anecdotally STEM phds don't seem particularly bad. | ||
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WGT-Baal
France3340 Posts
On the other hand, if you do not fancy research that much, dont do this (biomedical engineering for implantable devices), go for medical imaging (which is more CS/medicine and a little physics). You haven't seen true maths yet. It is extremely abstract (extremely being an understatement). Can you handle a N-dimension vectorial space? 2 of them? N of them? Some people like this field a lot though (not me, although I can work with it). Can you take basic classes of each (major) field? (online classes are good too). See how you like it. In the end, you are the one choosing. If you are more into real world evidence and like to "see" the reality of things: physics, chemistry, medicine (and to a lesser extent economics) are all good. If you prefer abstract things, Maths (and CS as well). | ||
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3point14
Germany890 Posts
usually lectures are really deep stuff, but exams just want to test if you can work with the tools and algorithms. thats how it is in Munich. | ||
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sOda~
United Kingdom441 Posts
One piece of advice I can give to someone who wants, or thinks they want, to take maths seriously is to try and get hold of a book which talks about maths way above your level. Even if it just sits on your shelf if gives you something to aim for and work towards. I wish I had done this earlier than I did. I once had to read 1 page from this little book A Course in Arithmetic; just browsing through the rest and seeing all this weird stuff was really motivating. Right now I really want to read Katz, Mazur; somehow having a goal like this makes it much easier to work through the pretty dense texts on alg. geometry which are prerequisite. As for worrying about whether or not you are good enough; I don't feel this is important. It's the volume of work you put in that matters. I can't speak on practical matters such as getting jobs, etc, I have no experience in such things | ||
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Dknight
United States5223 Posts
On February 03 2014 16:39 KlaCkoN wrote: I am doing a chemistry phd in the US at the moment and I am not really recognising the picture you are painting. Very few groups here have any serious trouble with funding, though a few were hit somewhat by the sequester thing. And of the 4 people who have left the lab since I started 18 months ago everyone have had 6 figure salary jobs lined up. Admittedly I don't pay any attention at all to the US job market at large but yeah, at least anecdotally STEM phds don't seem particularly bad. My comment was a bit of an overgeneralization. I speak from 4-5 years as a doctoral student with many friends pursuing other degrees and have either finished or are near completion and are looking for work. Two friends, both chemistry PhDs, had a lot of difficulty landing an academic position and they went to a top 10 school, had a competitive CV, etc. If one is really interested in academia than the job market is much harder. If you're looking to go private then I would agree it's much more open. I'm all about academia though. I think it's far too soon to realize the real impact of the sequester cuts but from my understanding, it's had a sizable effect. One of the big issues will be towards innovation. The government funding agencies won't be as likely to take risks on newer projects, plain and sample. Postdocs will have less funding opportunities as well (thankfully, I won't have to be a postdoc when I wrap up next year!). | ||
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