Sam,

Great to hear from you. I went to graduate school about a century and a half a go, so times were much different. I went to a small undergraduate school and got a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. I was admitted into an inter-disciplinary program between Northeastern U, Harvard Medical School and MIT and I have a Master's degree in Nuclear Medicine with a speciality in Technetium Chelation Chemistry. My research lab and all of the medicine courses were at Harvard Medical School (the base with two of my three major professors). Course work in Pharmacology and Toxicology was at Northeastern U. My Third major professor was at MIT in Chemistry. I started in the Ph.D. program but one of my professors left Harvard mid year taking his grant $s . Because it was mid-year I had to wait a year to re-enter the HST program between Harvard and MIT. So for a year I waited for my husband to finish his Ph.D. at MIT (Chemistry) while still continuing research on my Ph.D. thesis . In the end, my husband did not want to continue in academia so we went off into industry. He at Exxon Corp. (one of the researchers involved in synthetic oil) and I went into research in the nuclear medicine division of Bristol, Myers, Squibb and later moved to manage a medical research group (clinical trials for new drugs/clinical reports to the FDA for new drug applications). We did this for about 6 years and decided on a complete life-style change since we had a child who was ill at the time... moved to the Mid West where I continued with Squibb as a consultant (2 years) and my husband worked for a s small (at the time) speciality chemical company. It has been about 20 years since then and now I study esoteric medicine (energy/physics as it relates to disease states) and my husband is the CTO of the company he began with when we came to the Mid-West.

The sick child is 23 now and will be starting Medical School in June. As an undergraduate, he started his first year at University as a dual major in Studio Arts and Advertising and finished with a B.S. in Pre-Med, Psychology! For his personality and the areas he has expressed interest, Med School is a good fit. My younger son is 19 and is in his Freshman year at a small private college. He began the year in the Honors Business Program. However, because he broke his leg, dislocated his ankle, required surgery (plate and two screws), then developed a blood clot in his calf requiring Coumadin all from jumping into a mosh pit at a concert.... he has had to drop a major course put the Honors Program on the back burner and now is thinking about a totally different area of study.

I share this with you because in this worldwide economic climate (depression here in the States), one should study what they really find interesting because nothing will be lost in doing so. If you try to study in an area where "they" predict where the jobs will be, what will happen if those jobs never exist? I wish I had the opportunity to have explored more college courses... in my era, four years of undergraduate studies and no more, had to choose a major by the middle of Freshman year and there was no deviation from that course work without starting over.

One last thing from this old gal... once you are out of school, in the "real world" it is less stimulating and the bonds forged are not as enduring as those made in the "insular world" of academia.

Take Care, Meg

Hey Sam,

Stopping in to say hello.
How are you doing?
All is really pretty good with me.

Cheers,

Jeff

Hey Sam,

Thanks for your reply, it's so nice to know we aren't alone.
I recently moved to Canberra with my partner from Sydney about 4 months and work as a Medical/ Therapy sales specialist and as of today just completed my Masters in Marketing (I'm soooo excited).
What brings you to Canberra?

Cheers,
Lisa