Undergrad years ruined by covid and the hassles brought

I am considering immunology as my specific area of focus. After taking an undergrad course (and humbly kicking everyone's butt in a tough course), I absolutely love the subject. Very useful as well.

Rick Cheney wrote:

phdstudent wrote:

I am in medicine. See my comment above.

Wow look at that he’s not in gender studies!!?!?

Good for you OP. I respect your pursuit. But if you live in America. You may end up having to treat a bunch of selfish babies who don’t trust you. Facts of life.

“I am in medicine” does not mean a he’s aspiring to be a medical doctor. What he described in his original post does not sound like medical school. Medical school is not the same as a PhD in bio sciences.

Therefore I return to my point. Given the tremendous resources poured into Parma (with academia integrally involved), how is it that our nations health is worse, not better?

There is an inverse correlation to health and pharma. More pharma, worse health. Those are facts.

People taking more drugs and getting more medical procedures is not a good path, unless your path is making bank from selling drugs and performing medical procedures. And thereby making the world less healthy in the process. So noble.

lol ok boss. My point was made and confirmed here and your just babbling at this point. I understand your position. Medicine = bad. I used to think like that back in the day myself.

If you have a problem with that you could maybe start asking why there is a McDonald’s in essentially every town. This is a rabbit hole we can go down forever. The inconvenient truth is we live in a capitalist society and the machine needs to run. Medicine keeps the people at work. Not ideal but I can’t do anything about it.

Medical research scientists (like I'm aspiring to be) are essential. Props to the MD or nurse who administered the vaccine to you, but who made it? Likely a PhD researcher. Who made any medicine youve ever been prescribed? A PhD researcher.

Ok, to be clear, you think that more drugs and more medical procedures is good and desirable. Having the average citizen taking ten kinds of meds from middle age to early death. And spending a fortune in the process. Having young boys on psychotropic drugs for years because they are energetic and normal? That’s a fuc#ed up world, bro. Rethink your values, son.

crush it wrote:

Rick Cheney wrote:

lol ok boss. My point was made and confirmed here and your just babbling at this point. I understand your position. Medicine = bad. I used to think like that back in the day myself.

Ok, to be clear, you think that more drugs and more medical procedures is good and desirable. Having the average citizen taking ten kinds of meds from middle age to early death. And spending a fortune in the process. Having young boys on psychotropic drugs for years because they are energetic and normal? That’s a fuc#ed up world, bro. Rethink your values, son.

I don’t have a position my bro. Jesus Christ relax. I’m just out here trolling and telling OP the anti vaxxers may try and kill him at some point. I’m not psyched on the current state of affairs either my brah

You believe too many conspiracies my man. You think these drug companies really think "Yo, let's intentionally design a drug that will hurt people". They make more money when the product is QUALITY. see: covid vaccines.

dumbassMF wrote:

It is nice, but not essential to get research experience as an undergrad. The policies allow grad students to work in the labs so you will get there eventually.

I'm sure there is plenty of reading you could do now...

It is very important for an aspiring STEM PhD student(as the OP has stated later) to get research experience as an undergraduate. Research experience is considered the most important factor of a student's application, above grades, prestige, etc. Additionally, it will let you know if you enjoy research, as a PhD is going to be several research-intensive years and it will presumably lead to several decades of a research-intensive career.

I don't keep up with the COVID policies of every university, but which university is going online for the entire Spring 2022 semester? I've just seen short-term pauses presumably to get people tested and do any needed contact tracing. A short pause (under 2 weeks) shouldn't erase the potential to do undergraduate research this semester.

On another note, It sucks that this thread has become filled with a bunch of garbage bickering.

I am taking a 2 credit course this semester called "Advanced Biochemical Techniques". It is a weekly 4 hour long laboratory based course.

The objective of the course is for the students to collaborate and design their own experiment.

This may count as research since it requires original thinking by the students.

phdstudent wrote:

You believe too many conspiracies my man. You think these drug companies really think "Yo, let's intentionally design a drug that will hurt people". They make more money when the product is QUALITY. see: covid vaccines.

No. I absolutely do not think people in Pharma or medicine have the wrong intentions. They are normal people trying to make a living and doing what they think is the right thing. Same as anyone else. They do a lot of good work, of course. My point is that collectively we are on the wrong path. And the consequences are horrible and massive. The evidence bears this out. It’s crystal clear. On the wrong path for the right reasons still puts you on the wrong path.

crush it wrote:

phdstudent wrote:

You believe too many conspiracies my man. You think these drug companies really think "Yo, let's intentionally design a drug that will hurt people". They make more money when the product is QUALITY. see: covid vaccines.

No. I absolutely do not think people in Pharma or medicine have the wrong intentions. They are normal people trying to make a living and doing what they think is the right thing. Same as anyone else. They do a lot of good work, of course. My point is that collectively we are on the wrong path. And the consequences are horrible and massive. The evidence bears this out. It’s crystal clear. On the wrong path for the right reasons still puts you on the wrong path.

You are not crushing it my friend. “This path” that you speak of…seems like we’ve been headed down for the last 40 years. Little late to the party there sir.

Rick Cheney wrote:

crush it wrote:

No. I absolutely do not think people in Pharma or medicine have the wrong intentions. They are normal people trying to make a living and doing what they think is the right thing. Same as anyone else. They do a lot of good work, of course. My point is that collectively we are on the wrong path. And the consequences are horrible and massive. The evidence bears this out. It’s crystal clear. On the wrong path for the right reasons still puts you on the wrong path.

You are not crushing it my friend. “This path” that you speak of…seems like we’ve been headed down for the last 40 years. Little late to the party there sir.

It seems you are incapable of having a rational discussion.

Let me know when you want to talk about the actual subject instead of resorting to lame insults.

crush it wrote:

Rick Cheney wrote:

You are not crushing it my friend. “This path” that you speak of…seems like we’ve been headed down for the last 40 years. Little late to the party there sir.

It seems you are incapable of having a rational discussion.

Let me know when you want to talk about the actual subject instead of resorting to lame insults.

It’s more enjoyable to troll college freshman than to debate our personal grievances. I really don’t give af.

College junior

phdstudent wrote:

College junior

I meant the other know it all’s on this board. Your cool OP. You may need to save my dying a$$ someday so just remember that.

phdstudent wrote:

I am taking a 2 credit course this semester called "Advanced Biochemical Techniques". It is a weekly 4 hour long laboratory based course.

The objective of the course is for the students to collaborate and design their own experiment.

This may count as research since it requires original thinking by the students.

That's good, but you still want a letter of recommendation from a professor who can speak to your research experience. Are there labs on your campus that are looking for undergraduates? Is there someone in your department you can ask? (The answer to both questions is likely "yes.")

If you're fully remote, I'd still guess that a lot of research work in pharmacology involves coding and simulation. Do you have coding skill to contribute to a lab? The undergraduate research coordinator in your department should have some idea which labs are looking for which skills.

You're asking a good and important question. Sorry that the useful answers are getting buried under a mound of crap. I still think you should look for ways to address the lack of research experience now, rather than looking for ways to finesse the deficit in your application letters.

Coding and simulation for pharmacology?

Wouldn't it be more chemistry type of labs?

All of the above. You can also calculate properties, or apply ML to various problems.