degree for higher education and countries
I am an IB student and I want to end up getting a masters or a PhD in a science that has to do with biology and chemistry such as biochemistry or medical science etc. I am in Dubai currently. I want to go to canada as I like the universities there but there are financial issues and I might have to go to Turkey. Which I do not mind but the only course there is molecular biology and genetics which I am not that interested in as i want chemistry. Should I do it anyway or study Biology on its own or chemistry on its own or minor in chemistry? Then I can pursue higher education in Canada or Europe. #college #higher-education #science
4 answers
Wendy’s Answer
Ajay’s Answer
Andrew’s Answer
We should appreciate that biochemistry or medical science are specialties in the general field of chemistry and biology. If your main objective is an advanced degree in biochemistry or medical science, you should first build a strong foundation in chemistry and biology. The time to acquire this foundation is in your undergraduate years. A viable path in achieving your goal is to earn a degree majoring in chemistry with a minor in biology. By then, you will be ready for the graduate school in which you can purse your interest in biochemistry or medical science.
When I was a high-school student over half a century ago, I fancied myself in working on the inertial guidance system (of which I really had no idea what that was about) or nuclear physics in my future career. My teacher then insisted that I should focus on the foundation of physics, which was the best advice I ever got. I majored in physics in my undergraduate years with a heavy emphasis in mathematics. In the three years that I worked on my master’s degree, I was drawn into solid state physics, and ended up in solid state geophysics for my Ph.D. thesis. Interestingly, after a year of postdoctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institute for Science, I ended up in working as a consultant scientist at NASA working on gravity field for many years. Yes, the precise information of the Earth’s gravity field is vital to inertial guidance system! Anyway, I switched over to the study of large-scale statistical analysis of global climate data for about a decade later. After two decades at NASA, I accepted a professorship in mathematics and statistics and worked about fourteen years before my retirement recently. I might not have achieved my original goal set in my high-school year, but I am happy with my long journey.