A few questions from somebody switching from business

[CuriousBanker]

Hello all,

 

I hope I am posting in the right forum, this is my first time on this site. This is my same handle as on physicsforums.

 

A quick background:

 

I am 23. I was working in banking, making around 85k, and was on track to make 120k next year, and about 500k in 2 years when my boss was handing on giving me her business. Then I got fired this week over a ridiculous code of conduct violation (doing a transfer for a friend...not sure why this is illegal as nobody complained).

 

So, now I am doing some thinking. I have a 3.13 in economics from temple. I was lucky as hell to be making the money I did with that kind of degree and nothing else really jumping out on my resume.

 

For years, I have had really bad OCD. I have finally started taking medication for it. Most of my obsessive thoughts revolved around the fact that although I knew business and banking pretty well, I have no real understanding of science or how the world works. I am a smart individual (was always in advance programs, my IQ was like top 3% or something like that) and succeed at whatever I do for the most part when I actually try (which until a year or two ago was almost never). However I always am so curious about everything, and it bothered me that I did not know a lot about the world. I don't know why. I would hate that I would sit around and wonder how cell phones worked, how air conditioners worked, how medicine worked, etc. So much so that it led to depression.

 

Instead of tackling the problem head on, I just let it bother me. Stupid. I tried to teach myself many difference areas of science, but it failed. When trying to self teach myself it failed because 1) I had no curriculum so I was trying to learn some things and I would realize I didn't know some other things and I would not know where to start 2) It is hard to stay disciplined when you are self studying 3) There is no testing of my knowledge.

 

I was considering going back to school for physics because that was what I was really interested in, but I know there is not a lot of money to be made there, and money is important to me (although not so important to me that I would become an investment banker).

 

One area which always intrigued me was genetic engineering. Although the thought of genetically modifying humans makes me very uneasy and makes me wonder what the real point of life is, or how anybody could really be considered beautiful if all beauty will be in the future is "how beautiful can I afford to be", I figured, what the hell, 1) I am athiest so I have no moral objection 2) if people are going to do it anyway, I want to be on the forefront. Also I am very into fitness and this somewhat plays into it, knowing how the body works.

 

Anyway, if you read so far for some reason, here is my real question. I am in no financial position to go back and get another undergrad degree. I have rent and bills and food to pay for. I wanted to go to night school, but that does not exist for science in NYC (science classes at CUNY end at 4). So my ideal option would be to have 3 possible career paths

 

1) Get another finance job, and take biology/chem/whatever leads to genetic engineering classes at night for 5-6 years. If in 5-6 years I am satisfied with finance, I abandon genetics, and just appreciate the knowledge I have accumulated along the way.

2) Get another finance job, and take biology/chem/whatever leads to genetic engineering classes at night for 5-6 years. If in 5-6 years I am unsatisfied with finance but don't think genetics is for me, go get my MBA, and then start making a lot of money.

3) Get another finance job, and take biology/chem/whatever leads to genetic engineering classes at night for 5-6 years. If in 5-6 years I don't want anything to do with business, go get a PhD in genetics, and then try to get into personalized medicine.

 

All three of these paths lead me to knowledge and money, and it leads me open to flexibility.

 

HOWEVER, as I said I cannot find night classes for science. So i was thinking of getting an online degree at TESC, or OU, or something similiar. My question is....if I do take these online classes, and do very well in them, and also do good on GRE, 1) Will a PhD program even look at me, even if I have a 4.0 and a very high GRE, or will they automatically shoot me down for having an online degree 2) Is it even possible to really learn science online, without a lab?

 

Man, that was long, but if you can help me out, it will be much appreciated.

[ecoli]

Yeah I don't see an easy way to take enough science night classes to make it worth your while. You may have to take out financial aid to get a biology degree. That being said a masters (or something) in biology at a CUNY or SUNY school would look pretty good and wouldn't break the bank.

[iNow]

You can learn anything online. As you point out, testing your knowledge can be hard and you need to confirm the material you cover will be recognized by PhD programs. As for specific requirements, it really depends on the school. I'd actually recommend you get a job working finance in a pharmaceutical company and try to find one that has a tuition assistance program (where they will pay for your schooling). Either way, good luck with it all.

[CharonY]

Career paths in science are a bit tricky. E.g. there is nothing like

get into personalized medicine.

that could be considered to be a career. There are a couple of academic groups that work on things related to it, but for the most part it is just a fancy name. For the most part it would mean an academic career. That is, you would try to get tenure tracked and I am not sure that is what you want. Of course there is the private sector, but you would rarely do research there (though it may depend what you mean with "getting into personalized medicine".

[Gui10]

1) I am athiest so I have no moral objection

 

As smart as you might be, please reconsider this thought. Remember that you are gifted and as one of the people who can make a difference, it would really be great if you did. Morality has nothing to do with religion.

 

Secondly, to answer your crisis, here's what I think you could do;

 

Get a job in your financial field, you're only 23 and apparently you made 85k this year. What did you spend it on? If you can make half that money in a year, sacrafice a bit of your comfort; live in a smaller appartment and don't travel. I say do this for a year or two and you should have plenty of money to be self sufficient for some years if you live modestly.

 

As for genetics engineering, aim for cell reconstruction studies in medecine, not beauty alterations...

 

Hope this helped.

Edited August 17, 2012 by Gui10

[Genecks]

I think at a fundamental level, finding some school's biology curriculum, figuring out the biology relevant courses, and then figuring out what books are used for those courses is a good start. If those books have problems in them, that's excellent. Work through the problems. Perhaps buy cheap, older editions on half.com or whatnot (you're money smart, so you'll figure it out). Work through the problems. As long as a book has a fair amount of problems for you to work on and solve, that's pretty darn good to a course. Like Introduction to Genetic Analysis. I used that book before and it had a couple typos, but if you work through something three times and think it's a typo, then start asking about it.

 

Exams are but ... uhh... bull#@$% in my opinion for most parts. I really think schools could get away with not giving people exams and instead relying on cumulative homework, but the problem is collaboration by individuals (exams are a cheating repellant and to weed out parties of individuals who attempt to "work the system" by grouping together on most course assignments). When the exam comes rolling around, it's each individual for themselves.

 

School is but an examination center. I held this belief as a freshman, and I still hold this belief. You get an easy-A for walking into the class having mastered the knowledge; an A if you can master the course knowledge before the course has ended.

 

With that said, I see that as the major reason exams exist in educational systems. I do not believe they are a course learning time-setter by which particular amounts of information should be learned by a particular time: The same thing could be handled by cumulative homework.

 

As such, working book problems would be useful. When it comes to something like organic chemistry, though, I've found that the book I used, Atkins I think, didn't have the best problems requesting a person to practice reaction mechanisms. But you could easily talk to chemists and get referred to books that will test reaction mechanism knowledge. The main difference is the need for recall, which would be useful in an examination setting and is required in a course such as organic chemistry.

 

It is very much possible to build one's own curriculum by looking through a school's curriculum, finding the syllabi (emailing professors and asking for it, if needed), grabbing the books, and working through the problems. Sure, an instructor might teach or assign work differently from a book: But going through most books will offer at least 60% of the knowledge you should be getting. And considerable review and understanding (knowledge and possible abstraction) of the concepts rather than relying on recall of an answer to a question will provide you with the most help when being an autodidact in such a situation. If you can't find the syllabus, find another from a different school covering the same/similar topic.

 

Yeah, I totally get you on that science night course thing. I suspect there is a level of elitism involved with people fighting for their 9-5 positions and a lack of others willing to teach during such times, along with the economics of the students working night jobs (or supposedly). The educational system should teach at night while students studying during the day (I find lectures to be a passive experience). /endrant

 

Also, you can't learn all things (plural; rather than the singular anything) online. This becomes very true when doing active research with knowledge that has not yet been published.

Edited August 17, 2012 by Genecks