Hi, I have a master in Human Genetics and I am interested to pursue masters in Bioinformatics. Can someone recommend me some of the best places to do a bioinformatics program if possible with a fellowship.
I was working on Next-Generation sequencing and in the past I also worked on Epigentics. I think, its necessary for me to do a PhD in Bioinformatics which is my future goal. Before that I would like to learn some programming skills and also use of statistical softwares as well as scripting languages.
The amount of data generated is huge and manual analysis takes a long time than that of the computational approach.
Even though I am Biology student, I am interested to learn the things necessary for my research.
I will really appreciate for the suggestions and thanks in advance !!!!!
Regards:
Ram
Why bother with a masters if your just going to go for a PhD anyway?
Agreed. If you do a masters, you'll just be wasting 2-3 years of your time spent doing the same things you would normally be doing during the first 2-3 years of your doctorate.
Relevant coursework will get you up to speed, depending on the program you join.
Hi, thanks for the reply(s). I agree with you that I am going to waste time.
As of now, I don't have programming skills and I don't want to rely on someone for data analysis or programming.
I am going to spend (waste) 1 or 2 years in learning things, but there after I will be stable and I can perform work by myself.
Regards: Ram
Like Devon and brice say, even if you know nothing, the relevant coursework will get you up to speed. There is a reason a PhD doesn't have a fixed time to complete - it depends on the existing skill set and learning speed of the grad student. You're better off getting a stipend while learning what you're anyway going to learn. (I hope I am right in my assumptions on how stipends work)
Ah, I see. The only PhD programs I have known are in the US. Thank you for enlightening me :)
There is a lot of variance here in Europe. Even within Germany there are PhD students in American-style graduate programs (these are vastly superior to the standard european-style PhD) and then those that take no classes and are only ever in a single lab working on a single project (this is the majority, including the student in my lab). This is why I would consider a typical european Ph.D. to not be equivalent to a Ph.D. from the US.
And in the UK, where I did mine, the duration of a PhD (outside specific programs) is usually 3 years, 4 at a stretch.
Apparently that's also the case for some German programs (my Ph.D. student mentioned that over lunch today). I'm baffled by the whole concept of getting a Ph.D. in 3 years.
It is baffling, specially taking into account that a BSc (again in the UK) is also 3 years. On the 'bright side', that means one can hold a PhD as 24-25 year old. But that also means the time to finish a project is limited (and to get publications), and don't get started on the level of knowledge and lab experience that regular a regular BSc has compared to those coming from other countries. But like in Germany many people stay in the lab for another year to wrap up.
I think we already gave the OP a clear idea of the differences between countries. A masters might not be worth pursuing in the US, but it is a different matter on other countries.
So, how does a PhD here in the US differ? Do the grad students here not work on a single project throughout their grad school? And what if one exceeds the time allotted in a European PhD program? Do they have to start over then?
At least my program required rotations through multiple labs working in different areas prior to picking a thesis lab, which is a concept only slowly being adapted in Europe (well, the concept of a graduate program is what's only slowly being adopted, those probably still account for the minority of Ph.D. students here...though that's changing). I think doing rotations is the norm in the US, though I know it doesn't happen everywhere (e.g., at least the MIT Neuroscience program wasn't back when I was looking at PhD programs). One could argue that the rotations are making up for the lack of a master's degree (normally obtained prior to getting a PhD in Europe), though in my experience this argument doesn't fly, since I've seen vanishingly few people change areas of study between their masters/PhD/post-doc here (though perhaps things are weird in neuroscience, where I work).
Regarding taking too long, I can't speak to every country, but in Germany you don't get paid after 6 years and many people are effectively time-limited to ~4 years before they're given the boot or told to defend (there's a legitimate reason for this). Actually, it's common to not get paid once you start writing the thesis (this is a terrible practice, the students literally go on the equivalent of welfare during this time...which can last a while given that their thesis aren't written in their native language). At least in Germany this is the government's fault (though there are similar mandates EU-wide...though I don't know how strictly they're adhered to), since once you start a Ph.D. here you only have 12 years to get the equivalent of tenure or you can no longer obtain normal government funding (the goal was to encourage hiring young faculty, but the result is that everyone goes to the US to post-doc, since otherwise there's almost no chance at a professorship...especially if you need to do more than one post-doc). Of course this is also why people tend to work on almost exactly the same thing once they start their master's degree. In order to have the normal 5 years before you're up for tenure review, you have to do your PhD and post-doc in at most 7 years total. Most people can only pull that off if they just keep working on what they already know.
On the other hand in the US, afaik, someone can be held in a PhD position for a very long period being paid a pittance. I agree that things can be improved on both sides. Btw, the 12 years limit for tenure is a German thing. Those rules do no apply in Portugal or the UK.
But you are right that the norm is for people to stick to their field of research from Master's -> Posdoc in Europe#. That is changing a bit, specially because some Posdoc fellowships require (or rather encourage) a change of field, or and/or country. Then again I am not sure how common it is in US for people to change their field of research after the PhD.
# I changed from neurobiology in my PhD to cell biology/genomics afterwards. Still changing.
The pay in the states varies by location, though it's never that great (I made more as a technician). Edit: Of course the pay is also crap in Germany (though at least the cost of living is also relatively low), though they get vacation days here.
Good to know that the other EU countries haven't picked up on the absurd 12-year limit idea.
Regarding changing focuses in the US, it's pretty common. In fact that's required for some of the more popular post-doc grants.
Thanks to all !!!!!