STEM, oh STEM. The media darling. The new golden child of students and media everywhere. It seems like, ever since JFK made it a national priority to commit to STEM as a way to stick it to the commies, we've all been hyper focused on making sure that the STEM system in this country continues to pump out bright eyed engineering students that are crushed by the reality of fluid mechanics courses.
But wait! What's that? STEM is...competitive? That's right! STEM is now more popular than ever, and that is creating a bit of a glut at the entry level, with CS graduates coming out a realizing "Hey, there's no jobs!" and pre-meds falling to their knees when they realize they're gonna have to take a lab job that pays less than Burger King. STEM isn't what it used to be, and now requires a lot more tact and thought as to what to do with the degree. So, how can you continue to succeed in STEM without the utter pain of the modern job market, and navigate this very rewarding path? Read...below, I guess?
Okay, so, STEM, meaning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math(I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: It's all Math, just with a little extra sprinkled in). These are the 4 different areas, and they all have their individual appeals and ups and downs. So, we'll review each, what degrees they entail, and what you should pick.
Science is a really popular group of majors. It's mainly about research and understanding natural environments. This is best for people who enjoy theory and research, and desire to have a career on the "cutting edge". Well, not always. A lot of research being done by institutes and companies is really just minor adjustments and small time research to things, like "A minor research study into a very specific field of cancer research". Anyways, we should review all the degrees in S of STEM
Note: This will just be a basic summary, if we tried to list all of the official S degrees according to something like NASA or ICE, we'd be here for days
This list includes a lot more, but the main 3 I'd like to focus on are Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Biology is simply the study of living things. It's a great field, because it dives deep into a lot of subjects that are important to medicine and research. However, there is a problem: Everyone is seemingly majoring in biology. Also, at least here in the US, we don't fund research very well. NIH funding always gets cut, and they're very conservative with funding due to this, leading to a lack of new research.
Next, there's chemistry. This one deals in the science of matter and interaction of different things. It's a great field, as it has solid roots dug into pharmaceuticals, environmental science, and basically any field where there is strong relationship between the surrounding world and the product. Chemistry is becoming increasingly important due to new materials being needed in the green transition-Battery and materials science especially. It's a field that, while has a bit more graduates than jobs, is much better for oversaturation than biology. It's a really solid field, as private industry is increasingly needing it over biology.
Finally, we have physics. This is the study of the forces of our world. It's incredibly important to understand for a ton of different industries, and is becoming more and more important. Contrary to popular belief, physics is not a degree that is hard to get employment. Why? Because when you complete a physics degree, you signal to the whole world that you're very smart. Physics is likely the hardest degree out there, and a big reason behind this is that it never got the influx of people like CS and other STEM degrees(when people come into a hard degree, and the departments at schools fill up with unqualified people, a lot of schools will make the curriculum easier to compensate).
So, when it comes to science, what do you pick? Well, the answer is actually a bit more complicated, in the fact that most schools have joint degrees. If you're looking to do biology or chemistry, it might actually be better to do biochem. Also note that a lot of sciences and S related degrees will 100% require further education just to find a job. That doesn't always mean grad school(plenty of physics majors go to finance and tech by learning coding), but it isn't like engineering in that you graduate already ready for a job. Still, science is really important to advancing our modern world, and you should absolutely go for it if you want to do research. That really is the biggest reason to do science, is to do research, and if you want to do research prepare for a PhD.
Science is a really popular group of majors. It's mainly about research and understanding natural environments. This is best for people who enjoy theory and research, and desire to have a career on the "cutting edge". Well, not always. A lot of research being done by institutes and companies is really just minor adjustments and small time research to things, like "A minor research study into a very specific field of cancer research". Anyways, we should review all the degrees in S of STEM
Note: Same thing as the science degrees. There's a ton of tech related degrees.
This list includes a lot more, but the main 3 I'd like to focus on are Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Biology is simply the study of living things. It's a great field, because it dives deep into a lot of subjects that are important to medicine and research. However, there is a problem: Everyone is seemingly majoring in biology. Also, at least here in the US, we don't fund research very well. NIH funding always gets cut, and they're very conservative with funding due to this, leading to a lack of new research.
Next, there's chemistry. This one deals in the science of matter and interaction of different things. It's a great field, as it has solid roots dug into pharmaceuticals, environmental science, and basically any field where there is strong relationship between the surrounding world and the product. Chemistry is becoming increasingly important due to new materials being needed in the green transition-Battery and materials science especially. It's a field that, while has a bit more graduates than jobs, is much better for oversaturation than biology. It's a really solid field, as private industry is increasingly needing it over biology.
Finally, we have physics. This is the study of the forces of our world. It's incredibly important to understand for a ton of different industries, and is becoming more and more important. Contrary to popular belief, physics is not a degree that is hard to get employment. Why? Because when you complete a physics degree, you signal to the whole world that you're very smart. Physics is likely the hardest degree out there, and a big reason behind this is that it never got the influx of people like CS and other STEM degrees(when people come into a hard degree, and the departments at schools fill up with unqualified people, a lot of schools will make the curriculum easier to compensate).
So, when it comes to science, what do you pick? Well, the answer is actually a bit more complicated, in the fact that most schools have joint degrees. If you're looking to do biology or chemistry, it might actually be better to do biochem. Also note that a lot of sciences and S related degrees will 100% require further education just to find a job. That doesn't always mean grad school(plenty of physics majors go to finance and tech by learning coding), but it isn't like engineering in that you graduate already ready for a job. Still, science is really important to advancing our modern world, and you should absolutely go for it if you want to do research. That really is the biggest reason to do science, is to do research, and if you want to do research prepare for a PhD.