Biotech or Academia

[cwiersma]

I had a research internship last summer, and one of the Ph.D. students there told me that it's bad if you tell people you don't want to go into academia. I am not sure if it was about funding or what. I just wanted to know if this was true and why exactly he would say something like that. If anyone has any insight, I would greatly appreciate it!

[fuzzylogician]

Often, PhD programs prepare people to go into academia, not industry. For some professors, this may mean that if you don't go into academia, it's a waste of time and resources to invest in you. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, but since you don't know who has what opinion, it's better not to say anything that might affect your acceptance chances.