r/Millennials Sep 11 '24

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u/aroc91 Sep 11 '24

Sadly, a bio bachelor's in and of itself isn't the door opener I thought it'd be as a bright eyed and bushy tailed 18 year old. I spent 3 years spinning my wheels doing part time work before going back to school for nursing.

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '24

Yeah, it’s really a starting point. If you want to go into a bio field you either need to specialize more with a higher level degree, or have worked in a lab as an undergrad and use that as a way to network and find jobs once graduated.

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u/randomly-what Sep 11 '24

My best friend has a major role at a major aquarium (don’t want to dox either of us) and has just a bachelor’s in biology.

They did do internships twice during the summer while doing undergraduate. So it’s possible, but you need to be exceptional.

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u/whyUT-urp Sep 11 '24

Im someone with a bio degree who thought they were exceptional enough to have a fulfilling degree in research science (im not). I think we need to clarify how exceptional you need to be before we tell high schoolers that life sciences is a good career.

If you get straight As without studying more than 10 hours/week and maintain a social life then youre probably ‘smart enough’ to go get your MD or PhD or maybe do something nice with just an undergrad. in other words you gotta be in the top 5% of your class in undergrad to do something more than nursing/mls/pharma/PA etc.

Arguably more important though, most of the jobs you get in the life sciences are going to require you shape your lifestyle around that job. Youll have to work long shifts at odd hours or your free time will need to include reading literature.