Biophysics

I'm in disbelief. Nearly 8 years ago I was homeless and literally had nothing. And now I'm getting a PhD. I must be dreaming.

Started from the bottom now we're here - Drake

Arie here (linkedin.com/in/ariemeir)

BioPhysics PhD turned into a product manager in Google leading a team of engineers, data scientists and user experience designers to build technology products. With a help of a mentor and a coach I was able to unlock a career that I used to think is possible only for Top Tier MBA. I used the same strategies to get promoted 5 times in 6 years. I am here to give back and share my story.

To be relevant, I'd also like to learn what are the key challenges for PhD graduates looking at industry careers. I'm happy to answer any questions related to the topic. It would be useful if you could provide context required to answer your question (e.g. background, specifics on the industry / role you're interested in).

For a bit more color on my work: my team built this, this and this. I worked on this, this and this. I also led a team who made this, this and this.

Ask me anything

Arie

Folks,

Arie here. As a product manager in Google I lead a team of engineers, data scientists and user experience designers to build technology products.

With a help of a mentor and a coach I was able to unlock a career that I used to think is possible only for Top Tier MBA. I am here to give back and share my story in case it might help some folks who are considering to leave academia.

I graduated UCB with a PhD in BioPhysics ('15). After spending 5 years in a basement lab sticking needles into chicken livers and measuring how it changes electric flow, I was looking at a getting a $80k job with 4% annual raise. In my gut I felt there was a better way.

I didn't know about Product Management or Management Consulting as career options before I found a mentor. The skills I learned from her transformed my life and helped me build a career in the tech world. The strategies, tools, mentors and professional advisers she introduced me to got me job offers from Google, Facebook, Cruise and McKinsey.

In the last 6 years in Google, my team built this, this and this. I worked on this, this and this. I also led a team who made this, this and this. I had the opportunity to give a keynote on AI to 500+ physicians and CEOs, meet heads of state and visit Laos, Brazil and Siberia on business trips.

I am here because I want to give back. I’ve learned some strategies that got me promoted 5 times in 6 years in a highly competitive environment. I am trying to find an effective vehicle to sharing my experience with this community and helping as m

I’ve read that both can be used on the environmental sector which excites me because that’s definitely what I want to do but what would be the difference in their applications? If that makes sense? Like would one be preferable over the other in like a consulting firm vs a lab, would a company employ one of each to do different specified jobs or something? Or are they similar enough that they could kind of do the same work? I know it’s a bit of a vague question but I guess I’m just asking for peoples personal experiences or opinions here.

I just got accepted to University of Chicago Biophysical Sciences PhD. I didn't even think I had a chance but somehow got the interview and now the acceptance letter 😭

I am currently a second year student in Math (going to take 5 years to graduate) and am thinking about adding a minor to my program. The two that I am heavily considering are Biophysics or Health Science, and was wondering if anyone who has done/ is doing this programs has any advice or opinions on what is better.

My current plan after I graduate is to pursue graduate studies in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or to get a B.Ed.

Biophysics would give me physics courses that would allow me to have physics as my second teachable subject, but I would have to take bio and chemistry courses that I am not interested in, and the regular physics minor does not let me take the biological physics courses that I want to take.

Health Science seems very interesting, and applicable considering what I am hoping to study in the future, but I would still need to take 6 physics courses so that I could have it as a teachable subject, which would make my schedule very crowded for the next three years, even with some summer classes.

Does anyone have any opinions and/or advice on this?

Is anyone in this? What's it like? I'm thinking of doing it and wanted some more info, feel free to pm thanks!!

Hi! I have some questions about the program (and related questions) if someone could answer them, I'm really interested in the program but idk who to ask any of these so I hope someone can help:

1. For anyone who's done or is currently in the program, did you enjoy it? How was the workload, and atmosphere at UofT in this program?
2. They say most accepted students have a B+ avg. in their final 2 years. Apparently only like 40 people get accepted, so I feel like it's supposed to be really competitive. Why is the avg. so low then? Should I concentrate on getting all As or stacking up on research experience? I've read stories of people on reddit who applied who are in my view literal perfect applicants with golden GPAs, amazing extracurriculars and research experience and strong connections with profs/references who apparently got rejected so I'm kind of worried what my chances are, and very unsure what they're even looking for. Also, how is the final 2 years calculated? Is it your latest 20 courses, or do they count by semester or something, in which case do summer semesters get counted, or "random" electives?
3. Similar to my question in #2, if they include your last semester, you obviously had to apply (and potentially either get accepted or rejected) before you finish your last semester. So, does it even matter whether you got all As or all B-'s in your last semester? And would they then only look at your last like 1.5 years technically when you apply? Or do they actually look at 2 years since the day you apply?
4. Would taking the GRE help at all for this program?
5. Does anyone know other schools with MSc. programs that also only look at your last 2 years (in terms of grades)? Could be either in Canada or the US so long as they're English speaking.

Thank you for any advice.

department? Requirements? Tips? Anything would be helpful just trying to learn more about these majors. Thank you!

I’ve been torn on making this post because I don’t want to sound full of it, but at the same time I keep searching for posts like this and wish there were more so I could know if I’ve missed the boat on some of my programs.

I’m applying for a PhD in physics/biophysics/applied physics.

So far, these are the programs I’ve heard from:

Johns Hopkins - Program in Molecular Biophysics: Sent out invites in December to visiting weekend

U Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Biophysics: Visiting weekend early this week, sent out acceptances the day after

Yale - Physics: Interviewed two weeks ago, waiting on any followup. As far as I know they met a week and a half ago to discuss admissions

Brandeis - Physics: Contacted for an interview this week

I’m hoping this might give some people some insight into a few programs. Please delete if this isn’t appropriate. Good luck everyone!

EDIT:Formatting

Is it worth adding a Biophysics major to BME. I think I might be interested in grad school - something related to pharmaceuticals and medicines - not exactly sure.

I see that the major requirements aren't too much more due to ap credit. Is it worth it to add the major in or would it be good enough to do an immunoengineering/ tissue engineering focus area?

Just got a call to interview in January! This was my first choice school so I'm so excited. Navigating online classes, conference presentations, research, graduate applications, and the GRE all while homeschooling my son as a single parent has been BRUTAL. But it looks like the hard work is paying off. Wishing everyone else the best and good luck!

Hey

I'm currently in high school. I enjoy physics and biology, so I was pretty happy to learn that biophysics is a thing.

What would be the optimal course of study to get a PhD in the subject? Would you study plain physics? Or just biochemistry?

Hey how’s everyone doing? I’m a senior and I want to apply to Emory I have good grades A+ freshman and sophomore years a B+ average in Junior year and I think My first term grades for senior year are in the 3.6-3.8 gpa range unweighted I don’t have a great SAT score it’s a 1350 but I am hoping to apply as test optional I took one AP (AP Psych) I got a 5 and my course load this year is all APs except like civics and religion studies and I’m gonna do 6 APs (Physics C both, Calculus BC, Bio, Chem and Macro) in May. My extracurriculars aren’t the best but I think they’re good I was a shadow teacher (basically being the teacher if the teacher is absent we don’t have substitute teachers) in freshman year in sophomore year I moved to Spain so I was new to school and I didn’t participate a lot but I did participate in the school play I was doing props and in junior year I played a huge role in the student government (not an official role but I helped out in a lot of things) and I also was a presenter my schools national day celebration and in senior year im a department head of one of the departments in the student government and also over quarantine I started a social media page talking about biomedical engineering research and facts etc and that’s it. I was also part of MUN in junior year however we didn’t get to do much because of Covid and my schools MUN isn’t the best. I also took a virtual medical work experience course online over the summer. I’m also working part time during winter break at a bookshop selling books. My recs are from my physics teacher (we have a good bond so I’m guessing it’s going to be 9/10) and my English teacher (I was one of the top students in the advanced English class although I was a bit talkative in her class so that might be a problem but I think it’s a good 7~8/10). Also im an international student and I hope to apply for the biophysics major.

Hi everyone! I'm in first year medsci and right now I'm enrolled in physics 1029. However, I was kind of looking at the medical biophysics module and it seemed pretty interesting, so I'm considering doing that in 3rd/4th year. As far as I could find, I don't need 1302 physics, just 1301 calculus, but I was wondering if anyone knew if 1302 is more helpful, like if it prepares you better for future courses or something. If you're in medical biophysics right now and have anything to say about what it's like/what you do, I'd be interested in hearing about that too. Thanks a bunch!

I know it’s a long shot, but hearing from someone else might ease a bit of my anxiety lol thank you in advance and good luck to everyone else!

Is there anyone who's taken it and still has notes / handouts left over that I could check out? I wanted to take it this semester to help decide on a biophysics major but they cancelled it. Any other stuff from biophysics classes would be cool too. Much appreciated! :)

What schools (besides the obvious ones i.e. MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc.) have good biophysics PhD programs? It's hard to find much online about this. Anything helps! :)

I was thinking on reading up a bit on biophysics, and was hoping some of you would have some recommendations. I have physics as a major, but am by no means an expert on it, and as far as bioligy is concerned, I know just about the basics of cellular biology and genetics, and I read a bit about neurology. Both textbooks and just general books are welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Hey there Chiros. I've got some questions because I want to make sure that I'm not just getting taken for a ride, and what I should expect. Throwaway account because I live in a small town and personally know people who work at the clinic. They'd probably recognize my usual name, I don't wanna point fingers or accidentally reveal personal info of the clinic, or offend those that work there with my skepticism in case they're on here. Gonna be a wall of text about my experiences so far, so apologies in advance.

My lower back has been bothering me for ages, and I can feel something inside my lower back "click" or move when I do certain things. Most of the time it's pretty minor, but after playing golf one day it was sending searing shocks up my back. It went away about a week later, but I decided last week to go to a chiro clinic a good friend of mine - an RMT - works at to finally get things looked at.

The first visit was long, and mostly consultation talk. How long have I been hurting, what's hurting, etc. After getting me to do some movements to see how I stood/held my posture naturally (and immediately noted my upper body was twisted a bit in one direction), the Dr. took some x-rays of my spine in various positions, and then scheduled me to come back the next day they were open. No adjustments or actual work to myself done. They also asked me to bring my S.O. along so they could see what was up with my spine/etc as well. This seemed fine so far from what I could tell. No alarms. Seemed like I was being treated seriously, which was nice.

My next visit I was brought to see what the x-rays looked like. Biggest issue was my pelvis was tilted to one side a little over an inch. He then mentioned that because of all the nerves down in the pelvic area that it could also be the cause of sleeplessness and some potential gastrointestinal issues if I happened to be having them. My S.O. immediately started filling in gaps saying yeah, I have been having a lot of those issues. The chiro then mentioned that my issue was muscular/skeletal/bio-mechanical (I forget the exact term now), which was good because it was something he could actually treat.

To fix my posture/tilt, his plan would be to have me come in 4 times a week (daily for this office) for 9 weeks - 36 visits total, and then maintenance after that. No details given on what those 36 treatments would entail. I got an adjustment for my lower back in both directions after that, and an ice pack to

I am currently taking a biophysics course for my physics degree. I need to write a research paper, but I am struggling to find a topic to settle on.

I really want to take this opportunity to really learn about something that interests me but isn’t exactly mainstream. At least one source has to be from one of the big journals, like Nature or Science, though. Something related to saving the earth or helping humanity would be ideal.

It does have to be related to a topic from the course, which includes (but not limited to): mechanobiology, thermodynamics, polymer physics, biological bond energies

And ideas would be greatly appreciated!! Even your idea isn’t 100% with my criteria, it give me a place to start looking at ideas. Coming from physics, I’m not even sure where to start looking for topics that aren’t literally what we’ve done in class.

Edit: y’all are awesome, thank you so much!! I love ALL these ideas!!

I'm a medical biology major, and this semester (done online), I have to take biophysics and biostatistics. How hard is it to get good grades and a decent understanding for these subjects? Thanks!

hi im a junior cs + biophysics major and i think i'm genuinely struggling and not having fun in either majors. tbh the only class i found manageable was gateway for cs. am i just dumb or do other cs and or biophysics majors feel this way?

What is each class like/which was better?

What are the vibes? Is the program supportive/helpful? Do you enjoy being a biophysics student at uiuc?

I've always been interested in computational biology and data science but I have no idea what I am interested in specifically, so I plan on starting a masters in pure bioinformatics next year just so I can get my feet wet in the field and explore projects instead of just jumping straight into a PhD that I have no experience with. That being said, I am extremely interested in the field of computational biophysics, specifically molecular modeling and molecular mechanics, and I am wondering how behind I will be if I attempt to jump into that field with mainly bioinformatics knowledge. I have a biochemistry undergrad degree if that helps my case. I also do not want to pursue a masters in computational biophysics/biochemistry because in the case that I don't decide to go for a PhD, I want a degree in something more data science and CS related like bioinfo than say science related like compbio. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm a freshman physics major currently participating in a bioinformatics research project. I would like to pursue a MD/PhD program and do research in either genetics or biophysics. I will be taking two years of chemistry and several biology classes to prepare me for this. I'm also planning on doing some physics research with professors either my junior or senior year. There are no professors at my university to do biophysics research with, so I plan on doing a summer REU.

I have been reading a bit about the different areas of biophysics research and I find it quite interesting. I was originally thinking that since biophysics is an interdisciplinary field that the fact that I'm a physics major with biology research experience and will have taken 2 years worth of chemistry classes might seem attractive to biophysics graduate school admissions. But now I'm starting to question myself.

Will I be a competitive applicant for biophysics graduate schools?

Hey! could anyone maybe look over my biophysics/Comp Bio SOP? thanks!!

Hello everyone! Quick question.

How competitive is the MBP grad program? Their first round of application is due in November and they said that its better to apply early! Their gpa requirement is a B+ for the last 2 years. Will my 3rd year gpa enough to apply for the first round of application? My 3rd yr gpa is an A-, but my cGPA is a B. I also have a couple of research experience and will be doing a 4th yr research course. Idk if my stats is competitive enough and just looking for opinions and insights from current/past MBP grad students.

Thanks:)))

Saw this post on r/UofT but didn't get any responses. I'm wondering the same things, so it would be great if there is someone here can help!

Hi! I have some questions about the program (and related questions) if someone could answer them, I'm really interested in the program but idk who to ask any of these so I hope someone can help:

1. For anyone who's done or is currently in the program, did you enjoy it? How was the workload, and atmosphere at UofT in this program?
2. They say most accepted students have a B+ avg. in their final 2 years. Apparently only like 40 people get accepted, so I feel like it's supposed to be really competitive. Why is the avg. so low then? Should I concentrate on getting all As or stacking up on research experience? I've read stories of people on reddit who applied who are in my view literal perfect applicants with golden GPAs, amazing extracurriculars and research experience and strong connections with profs/references who apparently got rejected so I'm kind of worried what my chances are, and very unsure what they're even looking for. Also, how is the final 2 years calculated? Is it your latest 20 courses, or do they count by semester or something, in which case do summer semesters get counted, or "random" electives?
3. Similar to my question in #2, if they include your last semester, you obviously had to apply (and potentially either get accepted or rejected) before you finish your last semester. So, does it even matter whether you got all As or all B-'s in your last semester? And would they then only look at your last like 1.5 years technically when you apply? Or do they actually look at 2 years since the day you apply?
4. Would taking the GRE help at all for this program?
5. Does anyone know other schools with MSc. programs that also only look at your last 2 years (in terms of grades)? Could be either in Canada or the US so long as they're English speaking.

Thank you for any advice.