D.U. Here's my experience as a Biostatistician: -Try to get in one of the top schools, especially if your intent is to go into academia where your alma mater seems as important or more important than your competence.
-Some Biostatisticians become faculty, but I think an awful lot of them end up in the pharmaceutical industry or working for government agencies like the CDC or NIH. Many of the "academic" positions are with NIH agencies. Some of the industry jobs have excellent pay and benefits, probably better than many academic positions. Not a bad life if you are a corporate type. -If you go into industry, you will have the option of going with a consulting firm or working directly with one of the companies like Lilly, Merck, etc. My feeling is that getting a company position is "better" but I have friends who have done the consulting thing and liked it...they were young and could move easily. -I work in a University Medical Center. I've heard some say that you are better off in a School of Public Health. I can't judge that. -We often do work with others on projects, but many Biostatisticians are in leadership roles. You can usually choose who you will work with and you will have time to pursue your own interests. In academia, you usually have to teach a little, consult and do research. I find it a pretty good balance. Now, if you see yourself as the pure academician scholarly type, then go into something else. -Working on projects can generate ideas for research. I don't think Biostats is as Ivory Tower as, say, pure math but there are tons and tons of problems still left to do. And you need a diverse background with some linear models, generalized linear models, categorical analysis, nonparametrics, survival analysis, study design, sample and power calculations, sampling, etc. -Epidemiology is also a good field but there are lots of differences between Epi and Biostats. -A good introductory Anatomy and Physiology course should go a long way. And you might want to take a course in Genetics since there are tons of new problems with analyzing that type of data. You get a chance to get up close and personal with some of the medical types if you consult and they love to talk about their research too. Most are glad to explain things to you and you learn a lot. I use this as a guage to separate the ones who will have a good project versus those that won't...if they are willing to sit and talk with me for a while, they are serious about what they are doing. If they send in one of their "underlings" then I usually don't put as much effort into the thing because they aren't that serious. -I have had a chance to work with various researchers in Psychiatry. One of those papers got a fair amount of publicity and I had fun doing the analysis. The study was looking at a link between depression and smoking...their theory, although not proven, is that smokers may be self-medicating and feeding the dopamine and other "feel good" receptors. It was a rewarding experience. Go for it! Warren May University of Mississippi Medical Center "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 > 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. . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
