Yeah, I've heard there's a bit of messing around involved. I'll have to see how I go with Honours before I can know for sure. I'd probably want a solid paper in order to get into a good university (i.e. equivalent or better then what I'd be able to get into in Australia.) I also want to live outside Australia at some point, and it's good opportunity to do just that.
I don't really want to dox myself My UROP project was at an associated institute (not UoM based,) while my third year project will be with a member of the biochemistry department. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more.
Haha no, that's totally cool - I understand! I was just curious (for no real reason) anyway to see which way around your UROP v third year project would sway in terms of location!
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One of the reasons that PhD programs in the US take longer is because 1) their undergrad degrees often contain much more 'generalised' coursework (for eg, 'Biology' major rather than 'Biochemistry' or 'Immunology' or 'Physiology' major) so by the time you graduate from undergrad you still don't know all the intricate specifics about the field you would be going into, 2) rotations in different labs before you decide which you want to settle down into, which is kind of a good thing in some respects I guess. But those two things take extra time!
The govt has cut funding to the CSIRO but the CSIRO is much more about non-medical science so I don't see how that is so relevant to the medical research funding concern. The government had also planned to pump money into medical research with the GP fee, which is kind of supporting life science research. It is all mixed signals, though. All of those things are interrelated - even if the CSIRO is more 'basic' science than clinical applications, you need to research/understand that stuff before you can progress in the clinical sense. So the government plans for 'selective' science research funding (eg choose strictly hospital related medical over basic physical, chemical principles, blah) will never really work out.
Idk about their being 'too many people' wanting to do research as much as not everybody can...like, if you don't get a H1 in Hons you won't get a PhD scholarship. So you need to actually be very academically proficient to even get in to research - I think a lot of people treat it as like 'well I guess I will have to do research if I don't get into this professional degree eg MD, JD, etc' but it's not really like that, esp in life sciences fields. You won't have the option if your grades aren't good enough...
Being an RA is a bit different - but you do need at least Hons for that, as said above. And that too is kind of competitive at the moment (my lab has just recruited some RAs!)
In any case, it's always going to be super competitive and it's not a job you would just take on to make a living, but I'm sure most people here actually know that. For Au researchers the grant success rate is like 16% for medical research, and for my dept it's 34% which is like double the national average but still really low...
And what is said about life science research in Australia being great is true, for many fields, but esp MIIM. As stated above, that's one of the reasons I'll be choosing to stay here for my PhD. Our dept. is one of the best in the /world/...and number 1 in the Asia/Pac region.