[BioEdu] Forward of moderated message

[David Messina]

Hi M,


> I'm not sure how one chooses a grad school, I have been told that I  
> should decide on what aspect of bioinformatics I would like to  
> research and find a school with someone who specializes in that,  
> although I honestly don't know enough about an bioinformaticians or  
> the schools at the moment.

I would argue that the area of biology you might be interested in  
(e.g. infectious diseases, cancer, evolution, neurology) is not a  
particularly important criterion for choosing a bioinformatics  
program. Since you are unfamiliar with bioinformatics, it's more  
important that you learn about all of the different types of work  
that comprise bioinformatics, ranging from sequence analysis to  
comparative genomics to protein structure prediction. I would bet  
that any program will teach these topics. Once you join a program,  
you will meet many researchers working on a broad range of topics,  
and so probably you will have more than enough to choose from.

I do think it's extremely valuable, though, to learn as much biology  
as you can, particularly since you are stronger on the computer  
science side of things. One of the challenges of being a  
bioinformaticist is working at the interface of these two fields. Not  
only will you need to be competent in both areas, but you will need  
to be able to talk to -- and often translate between -- colleagues  
who are on either side of the divide.


> The undergraduate program I was part of also did not have all of  
> the classes which are pre-reqs in some of the programs I have  
> looked at.  For instance my program did not involve Organic  
> Chemistry and at least one of the programs requires two semester of  
> it as a pre-req. I am not sure how this situation is dealt with.

I would recommend you contact the bioinformatics programs you are  
interested in, explain your situation, and see what the procedure is.  
By the way, getting to know the people at the different schools, both  
by phone and email, is a good way for you to get a better feel for  
the program and for them to get to know you.


> The three schools I have looked at currently are Johns Hopkins,  
> Stanford, and University Of Wisconsin.

There's also Northeastern University, University of Illinois at  
Chicago, Marquette University, North Carolina State University,  
Eastern Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, and Virginia Commonwealth  
University, and those are from just the first page of Google hits for  
"bioinformatics masters".

Good luck!

Dave

--
Dave Messina
Genome Sequencing Center
Washington University
St. Louis, MO

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