bng922

Hey everyone, I'm having a little dilemma about whether to enroll in a PhD program or not. In some ways I believe I must and in other ways I am wondering if I really need to do it. It's just such a long road that I don't want to waste time on if I don't need to. So here is my background: I have a BS in chemistry from a very good public US university. I performed undergraduate research there for about 1.5 years but didn't really accomplish anything significant (was just to get exposed). After my junior year, I did a summer research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering 3rd author on a paper about polymeric nanoparticles for kidney diseases Graduated in May 2015 and received a Fulbright Fellowship to use targeted nanoparticles to deliver gene therapy to different hematological malignancies. So far I have 2 publications from this: small contribution on a review of delivery strategies of siRNA to hematological malignancies first author on a commentary on a siRNA aptamer study to modulate T cell function I will hopefully have/be working on another publication on my own work when I am leaving. I was accepted to Weill Cornell pharmacology program (fall 2016) but deferred for a year to continue doing my Fulbright project for some more time So now I am supposed to start PhD in August 2017 My interests/career goals: I really enjoy what I am working on, and would like to stay involved with and of the following: nanomedicine, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, delivery strategies I don't want to go into academia I am interested in research but it has to be at a very applied level within therapy (preferably in cancer) However, I don't want to work in a lab forever I believe I want to go into industry but not in a typical fashion... managing a biotech startup or maybe biotech venture capital sound appealing to me. What I want advice on: Given my experience and prospective career path, is a PhD just a rite of passage I must go through? Or should I find a job instead and work my way towards what I would like to be in? Due to the novel nature of the subjects I have interest in, I have a feeling that I must do a PhD to be qualified (nanomedicine, gene therapy, immunomodulation) If the school I am supposed to attend has a few researchers that are not doing exactly what I want to do but are related and I would accept work with, should I settle for one of these? Or should I not pursue the PhD if I don't find someone who matches exactly what I want? What kind of jobs can I get with this experience? I am not really sure because all I have is a bachelor's degree but I have been performing research at the level of graduate students for quite some time now. Thanks in advance for all the help.