/sci/ - Science & Math

>>>/biz/

>bachelors degree

>2014
>believing that science is performed by anything less than a PhD or PhD student


pleb, please.

>biology
>real STEM

Piss off mate

>>6387271
>STEM
>bio

What the fuck? Bio isn't stem and it's a fucking HORRIBLE major.

Also the only worthwhile business degrees are Statistics, Math, and Economics. Finance programs are utter crap.

>>6387302
>>6387363
>biology
>not a science, thus making it part of STEM

Math fags are mad that their career doesn't actively yield results.

>>6387271

Well, finance sucks, but bio is one of the worst right now. PhD + multiple postdocs? Yech.

>>6387412
Not him. But Biochemist here, get a real fucking major not this pussy shit. If you don't change to a more specialized major you're going to be working the call centers right with the English majors.

>>6387424
not if you're actually good at socializing. I know a guy that majored in Chemistry that's working on Wall Street right now making 3x as much as most people on this board.

>>6387441
>Spend thousands/have thousands spent on you for useless major
>"The outlook's not so grim if you have a knack for jobs that pay out the ass for unrelated skills"
Flawless logic, phone jockey.

>>6387424

>biochemist

have fun doing PCR for the rest of your life as a technician.


it would be less funny if it wasnt 100% true, since everyone (especially other biochemists) know that biochemists only relevant laboratory technique not associated with chemistry is PCR and related size exclusion chromatographic methods including all gel electrphoresis.


even the analytical centrifugation techniques are more applicable to biology than biochemistry.


and everything related to XRD, DLS, and chromatography is more suited to chemistry.


also biochemists can't crystallize shit. even proteins

>>6387453
If you're wanting good job prospects from the life sciences without a graduate degree, then you're fucking high. Shit, if you're wanting good job prospects from the physical sciences without a graduate degree then you're fucking stupid.
This isn't about things you can do purely from only learned from a single field. This is about how general Biology is the English major of the STEM fields.

>>6387466

If you want good job prospects from the life sciences *with* a graduate degree, you're fucking stupid.

Actually, maybe not, Dupont is looking for more geneticists and shipping polymer division to China due as the former can generate more IP.

>>6387453

Meh, you'll probably have more exposure to XRD if you're doing materials science or even EE (MBE, CVD). I guess if you're doing ceramics, though.

Actually, at most of the top schools, a third or more of the PhDs will go into consulting/finance. That's how shitty things are.

How viable is a degree in engineering?

Say, mechanical/electrical/aerospace?

>>6387446
>implying I'm a phone jockey
>implying I'm not in STEM
>implying I paid for my education
>implying my parents were lazy and poor


>implying that the majority of what you learn in school applies to a job
>implying the majority of what you learn for jobs isn't through work experience and on the job training.

>>6387472

>2014
>there are people alive today who don't know that "materials science," either as a degree or as a general description used to categorize research articles, funding, or departments, is 90% chemistry by quantity of researchers, grad students, post docs, funding, or journal articles published.


Source: I went to UCSB. ranked between 1-5 top materials science programs on earth.


the director of UCSB's MRL (material's research laboratory) is a "pure blooded" organic chemist from New Zealand who established himself synthesizing block copolymers used for high resolution semiconductor lithography.


before about 1985, it wasnt "materials science"

it was "materials engineering" which meant "ceramics, composites, and metallurgy"


since then there are two disciplines:

"materials science" which is dominated by people with formal or informal education or experience as chemists (eg people who received their PhDs in chemistry or chemistry related discipline like P-chem or chem E or people who are formally "in the chemistry department" and graduate students who are cross listed between the chemistry and materials science departments/programs of the relevant university)


"materials engineering" or "materials science and engineering"


the latter of which is split between people working in clean rooms fabbing semiconductors and plebs who continue to try to get gud by gluing shit together or heating shit to super high temperatures
NOTE: it is not just me, or academic researchers in the US, who have made this distinction.


the US Department of Labor no longer has a category of professional technical employment called "chemist"

they have a category called "materials scientist" and that is what shows up when you search for "chemist"

>>6387486

>work for any number of analytical chemistry laboratories, including those that exist within large chemical companies


>not just injecting shit into HPLCs all day everyday


literally exactly what you did in your 3rd year p-chem lab.

>>6387489
>not just injecting shit into HPLCs all day everyday
Pretty much my whole Summer (the one just gone in Australia) working as a research student.

The thing that keep popping up is that there is a lack of "qualified" STEM people to fill positions. Given the quality of engineering majors that have passed through the classes I have TA'ed, I can believe that there is an actual lack of decent STEM degree holders, not necessarily a lack of STEM degree holders. This, however, runs into the problem that some of biggest US employers are rapidly shipping their STEM needs to East Asia with little sign of actually caring about the "STEM shortage" beyond increasing the number of foreign workers they can bring to work in the US research labs.

>>6387501


that sucks.


when I was an undergrad doing research my life consisted of:

a) freeze pump thaw in DMF, DMSO, or THF
2) AIBN + vinylpyrrolidone + n-acryloxysuccinimide + heat in schlenk tube -----> copolymer
3) C60 + boc protected diamine ----> fulleropyrrolidone
4) fulleropyrrolidone + copolymer ------> covalently attached c60 containing copolymer for drug delivery


I am from an era when VNMR and Top Spin had command line interfaces and you had to eject your sample cartridge using a command and the return key.


pscale ppj, my nigga.

>>6387513

it was so bad ass to go in there and shim that nigger down to 0.6 and get my FIDs, finish my integration, identify the splitting frequency, print, and get out in under 15 minutes.

>>6387485

Yeah, you're right, it was kind of a dumb comment. There is a lot of overlap, and there are a lot of people with dual appointments in engineering/chemistry. Some of the best materials scientists are technically in chemistry. I should know, I was technically in the chemistry department.

Math-gradfag present, all of you gayfag material science and straight bio kids bow in my presence.

To all the kiddies out there, STEM is pretty much the only worthwhile major choice in college anymore

Biology is not, in my opinion, apart of STEM: reason why: it involves relatively no problem solving skills, just memorization.
I'm not talking out of my ass, I have a biochem bachelors. The bio majors vs the chem or biochem students were all fucking jokes. They ALWAYS bitched about their practicals and tests in labs, just begging for C's because "Cs get degrees anon!"

I'm the one laughing now, a year from my masters in math, with an engineering internship that pays over the summer

mfw 99% of the bio degrees out there either have shit jobs not involving bio or have even shittier labtech jobs where they are essentially beaker bitches (pls use this term). Get used to making my 0.25% TAE buffer for a PhD's gels faggets

>this thread
is it really such a bleak and boring future as a biochem major?

i'm a senior and been working in lab for a year and a half now, i haven't found the lab work boring, really, just not the amazing exciting place they tell you it is when you apply for college.

i'm reconsidering grad school... then again i have no idea what i'd do with a biochem bachelor's. probably nothing biochem related.

>>6387560
"C's get degrees!"

Yeah, if you're getting a bio degree with that mentality you are completely fucked if you want to go on to medicine and we all know thats pretty much what every aspiring bio major is going for.

>>6387712
Bio kids tend to give up trying for med school after their freshman year; physio kids are the retards who are ultra competitive (and know shit all) who get bad grades and still try for med school.

>>6387560

>needing a math major to get an entry level engineering internship

TOP FUCKING kek

Seriously why is everyone not studying engineering right away, if your all just going to end up begging for those entry level scraps.

>>6387706
Nobody said anything about biochems. In fact, if you read the thread, you'd see it's still considered STEM

>not the amazing exciting place they tell you it is when you apply for college.
I have never heard this. It should be common knowledge that labwork is tedious, even if it's for the sake of some cool physical shit.

might as well do dentistry OP.

a mate of mine is harping on about how he'll be on $180k/yr starting when he finishes his undergrad oral health degree. But it won't compare to the $500k/yr starting he'll get once he becomes a dentist.

I don't believe what he says, but whatever.