Tuesday, April 13, 2010

What job opportunities can I earn with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology? Is it worthwhile?

I earned my asssociates now I am going for my bachelors. I want to know if I can get a descent job if I get a Bachelors in Biology. I researched and all I know is that I can work as a researcher, technician or become a teacher and I think health administrator... Are there any other options? My main goal is to become a pharmacist but I want to get a descent job along the way to help me in the future, especially when taking the Pharm D. program. I know the great careers I can get If I go beyond a bachelors, but I am interested on the jobs I can get after earning a bachelors. And is it a good Idea to spend two more years for a bachelors in Biology and transfer into another university to continue for pharmacy since the one I%26#039;m attending does not offer a pre-pharmacy program? Is this a good appraoch or is there better way? Thank you for reading and I would really appreciate your help.|||Lots of questions...





First, you should remember that university degrees are not job training, but rather educational in nature. So your degree doesn%26#039;t qualify you for any job really. Instead, it just gives you the background that might be appealing to certain employers. After all, you%26#039;ll be **trained** by your employer pretty much regardless of where you end-up working.





So on to your questions... Where you%26#039;re eligible to work depends mostly on which assortment of courses you take, combined with your outside (read: volunteer or work) activities. For instance, with one assortment of course work, you might be more qualified to work in wildlife management, but with another, a cancer research lab. So strictly speaking, this is difficult to answer on Y!A. This is why I tell my students that their choices of course work is *really* important, and that they need to make these decisions in consultation with an academic advisor. I%26#039;d suggest the same for you. Decide which general direction you want to go (that%26#039;s done already), and then choose courses that put you on that general pathway.





That said, you%26#039;ve got the major ones, but there are a few other possibilities. Many students go into biological equipment sales. You can make a great living this way if you%26#039;re a people-person and (in my experience) have a little luck. Another option is in... gasp... insurance administration. A good biomedical background can be very helpful here, and a growing number of biology majors are working for insurance companies, though you%26#039;ll also need good math skills and excellent attention to detail.





As to the transfer issue you raise... While most schools deny that they have a bias toward their own students, the statistics suggest that they do. Generally, you are more likely to get accepted into a pharmacy program if you went to that institution%26#039;s undergraduate program. But the presence or absence of a specific pre-pharmacy program at another institution is largely irrelevant. The bias toward their own students is real, but it%26#039;s not *huge.* The school admissions folks I%26#039;ve spoken to say that it%26#039;s not a bias at all, but reflective of better performance of their students on standardized tests because their classes tailor their teaching to those tests. Once admitted, however, they say that there%26#039;s no advantage evident in subsequent performance.





Good luck!

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