I wish you the best of luck. As was stated above, the first stop is a
bachelor's degree. You can go to any 4 year school, but the higher
the better. Think of it this way- the better the undergrad school,
the better the grad school. The better the grad school, the better
the post-doc. The better the post-doc, the better the job. And that
is assuming you want to go the PhD route and not just the lab tech
route.
Your best bet might be to start in a community college and totally
kick butt, then transfer to a UC school with a bit of prestige to
finish up the B.S. This is all contingent, BTW, on doing well in
school. Once you have the B.S., you can get work as a tech. As a lab
tech, you will be performing experiments that the PhDs tell you to do.
It can be fun, but you generally don't have much choice in the
experiments you do (mostly because you won't have the background yet
to decide on your own). It's a 9 to 5 kind of job, and some folks
love it.
The other route, the one I'm doing now, is PhD. In science, you don't
need a Master's degree to start on a PhD. When you have your BS, you
apply to a grad school. They will take you into a 5-year program.
When you finish it, you'll have a PhD. The point of undergrad is to
teach you how to learn. In grad school, they teach you how to think.
You'll work long days, but you'll be designing your own experiments
and doing your own interpretation of the results (something techs
don't usually do - they just run the numbers). IMHO, much more
rewarding. But, it takes longer, and is a lot more work. It is worth
it though, in the end.
As far as the fields you want to work in, there is a bit of a spread
there. Genetics nowadays is mostly concerned with genetic counseling
and some DNA mapping. It's almost becoming clinical. I know the
least about it, so hopefully your real answer will have more.
Bioengineering is mostly concerned with linking manufactured products
with biological systems, like an artificial heart. It is more of a
classical engineering job, and will require a slightly different
education than I mapped out above; training as an engineer is slightly
different, and may take a bit less time (you usually just need a
Master's degree, unless you want to teach). Now as far as stem cells
are concerned, I can help you a bit more ;) You want to follow the
above advice and apply to a Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, or
Physiology department for graduate school. I myself am a grad student
in a Biochemistry department. I study gene regulation, but my buddy
down the hall is doing stem cell research.
After grad school is the "post doctoral" (or post-doc) period. It's
like for PhDs like an internship is for MDs: more practical experience
once you actually become a doctor. From there, the sky's the limit
with jobs - currently PhDs in biology have a 1% unemployment rate.
Feel free if you need any clarification on this, and again, good luck. |
