"D.U." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > Hi, I am wondering whether you have any suggestions or comments about > going for a PhD in biostatistics? What would the job prospect be for a > PhD in biostats in 2-5 years? Is it true that most of these go to
They are excellent and most positions aren't in academia It is a great degree degree because it's flexible. Most PhDs (or MS's) work in a wide range of fields - pharmaceuticals, public health/epidemiology, hospitals. These positions can be in private companies or part of public institutions, like hospitals that collaborate with universities. The folks for the latter are either 1) research statisticians (who only 'do' statistics on usually long-term research studies: clinical trials, assessing risk factors for disease XXX, etc.) or 2) affiliated faculty members: Professor Y from the biostat dept. at State U. will collaborate with Dr. Z. But Professor Y will also have teaching and theoretical research; e.g. researching new statistical methods. Also, the hottest thing right now is Statistical Genetics- this is using statistics to, well, broadly speaking, study genetic patterns (I don't want to say anything more, since this isn't my field). Basically any medical related/public health related research that requires analysis and modeling of data will require a Statistician. And that's a lot of research (whether at a private company or public institution). > faculty positions? Is it a concern that often biostatistics faculty need > to work on other people's projects? How does an epidemiology degree > compare to a biostatistcs degree? Is a certain amount of knowledge of > biology etc. highly beneficial? How about research related to mental > health? Any help would be greatly appreciated! > > D.U. Biostatisticians work on other people's projects in that they act as a consultant; helping the Dr./Scientist analyze the data. And THAT is why it's a great field; the opportunity to work on many different projects. An epidemiology degree emphasizes the public health part, so the statistics you learn there won't be nearly as deep. That's not to say you couldn't function as a statistician on some project. It depends on what you want to do. Think about how you want to apply your statistical knowledge. Of course biology knowledge will help. But not if you decide after getting your PhD that you want to go into,say, financial engineering. You should also look into a straight Statistics degree. This would even give you more options. At many schools, there isn't too much of a difference in the statistics part of a Statistics versus Biostatistics degree. But at some schools, the Biostat. degree is closer to an Epi./Public Health degree. This is, of course, just a rough description. I'm sure someone can provide a more specific answer if you have a specific sub-field in mind. Hope this helps. ------------------------------------------------------------------- . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
