So while my research plans are on the back burner as far as my current goals are concerned, they really haven't disappeared too far from my mind as evidenced by the numerous summer and year long fellowships I've applied for, for graduate students in Computational Biology (Comp Bio). The fact is that I just can't "turn my brain off" when it comes to research, so I still regularly read journal articles, but over the past few months, my interests have shifted from cancer back to microbiology/infectious diseases. And given that this is where my research career started when I was an undergrad Micro major( I ended up with a minor in Micro and changed to Chemistry), I guess it's no surprise that I'm back.
The thing is that my research time last year at a top cancer center (and the ongoing disappointment with the realization that folks aren't truly interested in curing cancer due to the billions made in treatment), really struck a personal nerve that was difficult to shake given my family history with cancer. So working there was REALLY mentally tough most days and while I found the science of cancer amazing, the personal toll was difficult. And if I'm really being honest, I find the fact that foreign Scientists have "taken over" the field in the US to the blatant exclusion of other minority groups, utterly disappointing and this has really left a bad taste in my mouth so to speak as it relates to a career in cancer research.
So I've decided to brush the dust off my government clearance to return to a field (applying Comp Bio methods, of course) where US citizenship is required. And with the recent Ebola outbreak, now is a great time to jump on the micro bandwagon. Now for clarity, this isn't about my unwillingness to compete with foreigners who often bring their (culturally nepotistic)"A" game to research endeavors. Now in my 40's, my academic game is tighter than it's EVER been (though folks from mysoginistic cultures haven't responded to that 'ish all that well. And ya'll KNOW who I'm talking about). This is about the fact that as a US citizen, I should have first dibs on jobs I'm qualified for in MY country ( they should follow the American Medical Association (AMA) for an example of how to protect your turf!!) In fact, the work place visa scenario has not only greatly depressed Scientist incomes, it's significantly decreased opportunities for US born Scientists (thanks Mr. Facebook with your "we need more tech people" bs!!!). All that said, almost all of the Comp Bio fellowships I've applied for have a very deliberate "micro" flavor to them and I also decided to pick up a short course in epidemics and disease outbreaks to get back into the micro mood, lol!!!
Moving on to the MCAT, I haven't done much since I needed to refresh my programming skills as required for all but one upcoming fellowship opportunity. But all that work will be done by mid-May, so I'll still have time to get fully prepared for the MCAT. I'm just sooooo happy I spread my prep time out so that I could make these unexpected and unplanned changes to my study schedule and readjust. Now, it looks like the majority of my prep time will occur between mid-May to mid-July which leaves me plenty of time to be ready by my July 27th test date!!
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