NebulaRoom

Thank you both. I do know fashion design is intense but the point is that I love doing it.

Hi everyone, I hope you can give me some advice on this issue. I'm currently completing my M.Sc. in Microbiology. The program I was in was very intense and other students were very competitive. In short, I did not really enjoy the experience. I'm just finishing writing my thesis right now and it is excruciatingly boring. I've applied to two schools for a PhD and haven't received official acceptances yet but was told I would be. One option is a PhD in Microbiology at a very big and competitive school, much like the one I'm at now but this program looks even more intense. This place would have a lab rotation and I still haven't connected with any advisers there. The second school is very small and would be a PhD in Biology. I really find the adviser's work there exciting and I like the non-competitive department feel. It looks like all of the professors there are doing top-notch research so that makes me ignore that the overall school ranking isn't high. My third option would be to leave biology for now and start studying fashion design . I always thought I would be an artist, but I found biology to be interesting also and would give me an actual paycheck so I went with that. I have experience in fashion design already as I have made many clothes before (of course almost none during my Master's.) I would need to go to school for the business aspect of it. Seeing what biologists go through is quite scary. In grad school there is scarce free time and then doing postdocs and being a professor you get even less free time and more stress. I enjoy teaching at research but I don't want it to be a stressful situation. I enjoy designing clothes and making art and I don't find it stressful... This might sound crazy but I am really struggling with these decisions. If anyone has been through anything similar or has any advice please let me know. Thank you