[BioEdu] Re: Forward of moderated message

[orbitz at ezabel.com]

Do you have any suggestions on how to determine a fitting area of  
interest? It is not that I don't have anything I'm interested and  
just want to get a degree, rather I hear about new things each day  
and they all sound so interesting it is difficult to decide which one  
to put on top.

On Jul 13, 2007, at 1:13 PM, J.W. Bizzaro wrote:

> Hi M,
>
> You might want to look at our list of education programs in the  
> Americas:
>
>  http://wiki.bioinformatics.org/Education_in_the_Americas
>
> As others have indicated, I think it's more important that a  
> research degree be earned with a PI who is prominent in your area  
> of interest, regardless of the label on the degree.  The label  
> "bioinformatics" and some coursework may be fine if you're looking  
> for a position as a technician/programmer, but they're less  
> important for a position as a researcher.
>
> Cheers,
> Jeff
>
>> From: orbitz at ezabel.com
>> Hello,
>> I am looking for some advice on bioinformatics masters programs.   
>> My background is mostly as a computer scientists.  I currently  
>> work as a programmer.  I completed an undergraduate bioinformatics  
>> program and have been out of school for about a year.  I would  
>> like to get a masters.  I have started by looking for masters  
>> programs, in the US.  I have found three schools so far that look  
>> interesting.  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 know I would  
>> like to work with infectious diseases currently but I'm not sure  
>> about beyond that.  I am not sure if any of the schools I have  
>> been currently looking at are good for this, or if I can get into  
>> them currently.  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.
>> The three schools I have looked at currently are Johns Hopkins,  
>> Stanford, and University Of Wisconsin.
>> Any advice would be appreciated.
>> Thanks,
>> M
>
> -- 
> J.W. Bizzaro
> Bioinformatics Organization, Inc. (Bioinformatics.Org)
> E-mail: jeff at bioinformatics.org
> Phone:  +1 508 890 8600
> --