[Coco] OT: Thoughts about going back to school full time.

[Jim Cox]

Tony:

Thank you for your reply.  Actually I would love to find a 
job working with scientific intrumentation such as 
oceangraphic or meteorological instruments, but never even 
considered biological instruments.  That's a great idea.

I think we have some big biomedical companies here in the 
Seattle area, maybe I should check them out.

I was thinking of both weather and oceangraphic 
instruments given the need to monitor them due to climate 
change.

I'm just trying to find something more meaningful than 
what I have now.

Thanks again, I'll check it out.

-Jim

On Tue, 6 Dec 2005 09:40:36 -0700
  Tony Schountz <tony.schountz at unco.edu> wrote:
> Jim,
> 
> I cannot speak for BSET programs specifically, but you 
>might consider  an alternative: biomedical 
>instrumentation. These programs are  specialized, but 
>expanding to many institutions. The next 30 to 50  years 
>will see a dramatic increase in microbiology, molecular 
>biology  and nanobiology. Although much is known about 
>the biology of these  fields, we do not know much in the 
>details because of a lack of  adequate detection 
>instrumentation. These areas will be of intense  focus 
>for the development of new and sensitive instrumentation. 
>For  example, I am working with a small engineering 
>company that is trying  to develop a system to detect 
>water-borne pathogens in drinking  water. They have 
>developed fluorescence sensors and I'm working on  the 
>labeling of microbial products with fluorescent dyes. As 
>with all  emerging fields, experience always gives you a 
>competitive edge.
> 
> Just my $0.02 worth.
> 
> Tony
> 
>> I realize this is OT, but there is a lot of wisdom on 
>>this
>> list and I thought that besides search the web for info,
>> I'd ask here for toughts, ideas, and strategies for 
>>going
>> back to school full time.
>>
>> Right now I am taking C programming on the side and 
>>while
>> I enjoy it, I am finding that between work and 
>>everything
>> else, I am running out of bandwidth.  I know that there
>> will be a lot of sacrifices, but I am wondering if going
>> back to school full time might be the answer.  Also I am
>> dealing with a major case of career burnout, and I mean
>> major.
>>
>> I'm looking at a program at local university for a BSET
>> degree, since that would allow me to leverage my 23 
>>years
>> as a tech plus my AAS in Electronics.  My one concern
>> though is most of my experience is in test, and I want 
>>to
>> move into engineering.  Is a BSET the right choice?
>>
>> For those of you who after working for a while, quit and
>>  went back to school full time, how did you do it?  Did
>> you take out loans or did you just save up the money.
>>
>> If you have any thoughts, I'd like to hear from you, but
>> please reply off line.  Thanks!
>>
>> Jim
> 
> --
> Tony Schountz, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Microbiology
> University of Northern Colorado
> 1556 Ross Hall
> 501 20th Street
> Greeley, CO 80639
> http://www.unco.edu/schountz/
> Voice/FAX: (970) 351-2923
> 
> 
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