ez049598 at chip.ucdavis.edu (Silly Bean) wrote:
>I was wondering if I will need to attend Med. School to get a Ph. D. in
>Virology and what schools would be good choices for grad school. Any help
>will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>>Anita
(1) You will not need to attend Med School to get a Ph.D. in Virology.
Any graduate school with a doctoral program in Microbiology can provide
the appropriate training/degree. However, if you are interested in doing
clinical studies of viruses in human subjects, getting an M.D./Ph.D. will
make things much easier for you. Even without an M.D., you could
collaborate with one after you get your Ph.D. and accomplish the same
ends.
(2) In my opinion, you are much better advised *not* to look for advice
from others about what would be good schools. What you are most likely
to get will be general opinions about the "name" schools or suggestions
that you go to a specific school because of the presence of someone with
whom the person giving the advice worked. While that situation may have
worked very well for that person, it may not suit your needs at all.
Instead, I suggest that you go to the recent literature and see who is
doing the kind of work in which *you* are interested. Wherever they are,
they are obviously doing work that is accepted by their peers since it
is being published. If you do not feel you are sufficiently familiar
with Virology at this point in time, complete a Master's degree program
before moving on to a Ph.D. program, thus giving yourself more time to
pin down your specific interests.
--
Larry D. Farrell, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology
Idaho State University
