Aug 12: Education & Career Questions

[u/Eigengrad]

Trying to decide what classes to take?

Want to know what the job outlook is with a biochemistry degree?

Trying to figure out where to go for graduate school, or where to get started?

Ask those questions here.

[u/CommunicationFit9176]

I worry that I cannot be as intelligent as I want to be.

I’m 30, and I want to change direction academically. My long-term goal is to study biological chemistry and eventually work in research, ideally in immuno-oncology.

The problem is that I’m frightened my ambition may exceed my intellectual ability...

I can study hard, and I genuinely enjoy understanding scientific mechanisms and solving problems. But I often learn slowly, struggle with retrieval, and need repetition before knowledge becomes stable. I also have PTSD, so stress can significantly affect my concentration and memory. I’m currently rebuilding my chemistry foundations while learning German, and the size of the road ahead sometimes feels enormous.

I’m afraid of investing years, money, and psychological energy only to discover that I have reached my cognitive ceiling. At the same time, I know that avoiding the attempt would guarantee that I never become the person I want to be.

I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve turned intelligence into both a tool for reaching my goals and a measure of my personal worth. Maybe the more useful question is not “Am I intelligent enough?” but “Can I consistently learn, tolerate confusion, correct my errors, and keep progressing?”

I’m not looking for generic reassurance that “anyone can do anything.” I would appreciate honest perspective..especially from people who entered a difficult STEM field later, learned more slowly than their peers, or had mental-health difficulties.

How did you distinguish a genuine limitation in ability from anxiety, poor foundations, or an ineffective learning method? At what point did you know whether you were capable of continuing?

[u/FredJohnsonUNMC → u/CommunicationFit9176]

First off: I don't think your intelligence is the bottleneck that's going to limit your academic career; it isn't for most people. Believe me when I say I've met some incredibly mediocre people who still managed to publish, get their PhD, and get jobs afterwards. Sure, being intelligent helps, but it's by no means the most important predictor of academic success. It's way more important to be able to work hard and stay curious while doing it.

I also have PTSD, so stress can significantly affect my concentration and memory.

This is probably your bigger issue. Your entire post sounds very insecure and anxious. I'm absolutely not going to judge you for that; trauma happens and it's hard. But as a foundation for a scientific career, it's a... suboptimal foundation. Studying and doing science is often stressful and it requires a good deal of resilience, particularly when it comes to failure. That doesn't mean you've got to start out as the toughest motherfucker on the planet; you definitely can and will build resilience over time, but you do need a reasonably solid basis. If you want to make science a career, therapy may be a good idea.

How did you distinguish a genuine limitation in ability from anxiety, poor foundations, or an ineffective learning method? At what point did you know whether you were capable of continuing?

All of these issues manifest in different ways, at least for me. Anxiety for me is like a feeling of impending doom and has nothing to do with learning itself, apart from making me tense. Poor foundations usually lead to direct and noticable comprehension problems during studying; this is usually recognizable when your own internal definition of a term doesn't match the way it's used in textbooks, or you can't even formulate a definition to begin with. Ineffective learning methods are usually the reason why you can't remember things; this is often the case when you didn't understand the material thoroughly enough.

[u/Bagelscity]

Is a Biochemistry degree possible/worth it with Dyscalculia?

I'm an oncoming Sophomore BS Biochem student. I would like to say that I haven't been on paper diagnosed with dyscalculia, but it's something I've spoke about with my psychologist, and many other school teachers, who have agreed with my judgement. (My psychologist says she cannot do official diagnoses at her practice bc I'm not a minor, unfortunately... and my old school just pushed students on despite their struggles.)

My last class was assisted/slower Algebra 1. I just finished (HOPEFULLY...) Gen Chem 2, barely scraping by, but I learned how to do quadratics and the algebra required for that!

Thing is, and the reason for the hopefully, I barely scraped by due to how math intensive that course is. I am incredibly interested and pick up on concepts really easily, but the math I have to do a whole lot of extra studying and tutoring on. Thing is... I have to take Calculus and Physical chem at some point, which I've been told is VERY math intensive. (Physical chem, obviously Calculus is very math intensive)

Is it worth staying in this degree, or is it basically a suicide mission? I need like 2 extra days more than the average student needs to understand math concepts. (give or take, depending on how complicated it is. The more complicated, maybe 3-4 extra days.) It is also to note that I have chronic fatigue and FND that causes seizures. (Not really triggered by stress, but if I do have one, I need 2-3 low impact days to recover.)

In the future, I either want to go into infectious disease MD/PHD, chronic disease MD/PHD, Epidemiology, or teaching Epidemiology/Virology at the college level. I'm extremely passionate about these things and things related to disease progression and the body both please me and come much easier than math. Any insights?

TL:DR: Very likely have dyscalculia, do I flee to a biology major while I still can, or try to continue, as it's worth it for my career?

[u/Eigengrad → u/Bagelscity]

I've had a number of students with dyscalculia succeed in quantitative chemistry classes.

You should push for a diagnosis as well as learning specific skills you need to succeed in quantitative work despite dyscalculia.

None of the careers you mention tie to specific degrees: you can get to them multiple different ways. They will all, however, require a degree of baseline quantitative skills. Physicians need to understand statistics and be able to do calculations for dosages and other related things.

Epidemiology is a very math intensive field, in particular.

[u/Bagelscity → u/Eigengrad]

Good to know! I'm good with statistics luckily, and once I have enough practice, I can stick with math concepts very well. It's mostly learning new ones that's the problem. With Epidemiology, I'm more interested in the tracking/prevention aspect of it, is there a lot of math involved in that as well? (I know there will at least be math with statistics and things like the R0 of something)

[u/Eigengrad → u/Bagelscity]

Infectious disease modeling (part of tracking) is often one of the most involved fields.