Life Sciences Careers

Click on the flower on the top left to return to this page.

To start your exploration:

• First, look at the pages of the CSC (Career Services Center) and the many offers for seminars and advice that they have.
• Then look at our pages here, which contain additional information for life sciences students.
• To get you interested, this figure (from EMBO Reports 3 (2002), p. 906) shows what you can be with a molecular life sciences degree:
  

Resources for all situations:

• The Life Sciences Alumni Space - to see what former life sciences students have done. (You must be logged into Confluence to access the link.)
• How to write a CV for an application
• How to write an application letter for an internship or for graduate school
• Mastering Interviews for Internships and Graduate Schools (on the phone or in person)

Internship Resources:

• How to find an area of science that interests you, and a research group or internship program
• How to apply for an internship in the life sciences
• FAQs about first-year internships in the life sciences

Graduate School Resources:

• Life Sciences Graduate School information on the BCCB website: a very good fundamental overview
• Applying to Graduate School in the Life Sciences - a step-by-step guide to the process, with supporting documents:
  • Interesting Graduate Programs
  • Graduate School Essays for US graduate schools
    • List of Verbs to use in a Graduate School Essay
    • List of Active Verbs structured by Levels of Abstraction
  • Additional resources:
    • A brochure on preparing for graduate school in the US, by the 'Leadership Alliance' association of American graduate schools
    • Cooperating with your referees for Graduate School Applications
  • A report on application experiences by a member of the BCCB class of 2004.
• Graduate Scholarships in the Life Sciences
• Molecular Life Sciences Graduate School at Jacobs
• Equivalence of Jacobs Grades to British grades

Medical School Resources:

• A PDF document with the most important information, from the BCCB major website. Slightly outdated.
• Medical School as a Career Option: a more comprehensive version of the same document. Currently under construction.
• Practice MCATs

PhD Resources:

• Applying for a PhD position in the life sciences
• Mastering your PhD by Gosling and Noordam - an excellent book about how do to a PhD to which we have online access.

For later:

• Job databases (PhD positions and after): Academics.com (Jobs in Germany)

On Science as a Career:

• "How to succeed in Science: a concise guide for young biomedical scientists." Two excellent articles (part 1, part 2) that briefly explain what a career in (academic) life science is like. A similar book, more in detail, is "Who wants to be a Scientist?" by Nancy Rothwell. See the books section.
• The Peoples Archive: the life stories of some of the great scientists

© Sebastian Springer 2001-2008. What's missing in this page? Let me know.
If you feel like giving back and contributing, please update your page in the Life Sciences Alumni Space and those of others you know. Thank you!