Going to graduate school

[Ziggy Stardust]

I am not sure if this is going to be a more appropriate post for a "Venting" thread of some such, because honestly I don't have anything much of substance to say. But, hey, if this thread is worthless I guess I haven't been HOS'ed in a while ...

Anyway, so the big news for me is that I am finally going to graduate school. It has been 3 years since I finished my undergraduate degree (B.S. double-major in biology and english), and these past several months have involved a lot of deep critical thinking about what I want to do for the next several years (and thereafter). Yesterday, in fact, was the deadline to accept any of the graduate school admissions offers I received over the course of the past several weeks. Though Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins told me to fuck right off, I got into Drexel, Northwestern, Brown, Duke, and Rice Universities. This past week I narrowed it down to two: Duke and Rice. It was a very difficult decision for me, especially as the programs were completely different: at Rice, it was a PhD program in cognitive neuroscience, and at Duke is a master's program in biostatistics and bioinformatics.

After much deliberation, I finally chose to go to Duke for biostats (against the better advice of most people I talked to about the issue, all of whom brought up the point that I am probably going to get a PhD later, so why not go for it now at Rice). Even though it is a slight departure from my past studies (and current research here at the University of Maryland), I think in the long run it is a better decision. Duke is a better school, and the program is better (and to be completely cynical, it will just look better on a resume a few years down the line to have a degree from the Duke medical school), and biostatistics gives me a great deal of flexibility with what I want to do down the line. I know I want to be research oriented, but my interests are so varied and all over the place: human and animal cognition, neuroethology, clinical work, resource and environmental management, ecology, immunology/pathology, etc. etc.

So, yeah, all that aside, this fall I am moving down to Durham, North Carolina to go to Duke! And, uh, start taking math classes for the first time in 5 years (hell, my first class of any sort in 3 years...).

[dragon]

grats for deciding to move on with higher education. Best day of my life was when I got notice that I passed my last class and could apply for my Masters

[Thanas]

Congrats Man.

[madd0ct0r]

bio stats and bioinformatics are intensely applicable to the tailored medicine side of #digitalhealth that's just starting to build up. The field looks set to explode what with the medicine patent cliff that's going on right now.

[Lagmonster]

It's afield of what you're aiming at, but consider tailoring yourself towards one of the many ways you could benefit Agricultural Research. Demand is rising a lot faster than we can produce interested graduates, and people will always need more, better, safer food.

[The Xeelee]

Clearly an elitist snob.

[Alyrium Denryle]

If you need assistance with regard to dealing with grad school (particularly how NOT to handle department politics) let me know.

I can also help you out with the statistics, as my PhD Program is in quantitative biology and well....yeah. Lots of biostats.

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's afield of what you're aiming at, but consider tailoring yourself towards one of the many ways you could benefit Agricultural Research. Demand is rising a lot faster than we can produce interested graduates, and people will always need more, better, safer food.

This is certainly something I am interested in. Especially with regards to agriculture and resource management in rural and poor regions. Humans at some level simply need to exploit their local environment, the issue is trying to find ways to do so sustainably and cheaply while preserving the ecosystem to whatever degree is possible.

If you need assistance with regard to dealing with grad school (particularly how NOT to handle department politics) let me know.

I can also help you out with the statistics, as my PhD Program is in quantitative biology and well....yeah. Lots of biostats.

Thank you. I might end up taking you up on that (my biggest problem with stats is not on the technical side; that is, I understand and can perform most statistical tests fairly easily ... where I struggle is if someone tells me, "Okay, this is what our data is like (X, Y, Z ...), what type of test SHOULD we perform?")