Grad School Advice

Education Advice 📖

Hi everyone, I'm an undergraduate student who is starting to feel pretty overwhelmed by the choices I need to make for the future, so I was hoping to get some advice on graduate school and careers from people with experience. Any help that you guys are willing to give me would be great.

I'll start with a little about my experiences. I'm heading into my senior year as a biology and business double major at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. If it's relevant, my GPA is 3.901 for Biology, 3.945 for Business, and 3.826 cumulative. I've had the chance to do a good amount of lab research as a teacher's assistant and in the classroom, thanks to small class sizes and a focus on experience-based learning, and I am currently at UCLA doing some volunteer clinical research, but I have yet to land any paid experience, unfortunately. On the business side, I haven't really had the chance to do anything outside of the classroom. Here are my questions...

  1. I enjoy biology and business pretty much equally (maybe favoring biology a little bit). I'm not a fan of sales, so right now, the best careers I have seen as an option to combine my two majors relate to biotech/biotech management. Is there a career path I am missing that would be worth looking into? I would ideally like to end up in California or another highly populated city, so wage is certainly one of my main considerations.

  2. From what I see, my options for graduate school are an MS, a PHD, and an MBS. In what situations would each of these degrees be advantageous? Is there a certain one that stands out as the best? I am lucky enough to have some financial support from my parents if needed, but I would obviously not want to burden them and my future self with outrageous student loans.

  3. Are there any specific graduate programs that I should be looking at in particular? (I would like to be in California, as I am from Los Angeles)

  4. What more can I do during my final year of school that would make me a better candidate both as a student and a professional? Frankly, I feel like my resume isn't exactly impressive.

Posted Aug 14, 2025, 12:28 AM UTC

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