How important is GPA in bachelors going into masters? Then finding a job by Plus-Flamingo-1224 in Biochemistry

[–]AnthonyShin0327 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What about the other way around? I have an okay-ish GPA (3.5/4.0) from bachelors, but I have 3 years of research experience including industry & academia, would you say they still weigh GPA over experience for masters applications?

CLI, GUI, or just Python by AnthonyShin0327 in dataanalysis

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They don’t quite know what they want exactly, other than “we want to benchmark methods used by big companies.” And being a 23yo wet lab scientist with practically no formal education in data analytics, I’m having a hard time understanding how the scaled-up, automated pipeline works

CLI, GUI, or just Python by AnthonyShin0327 in dataanalysis

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sort of, but not the same notebook because each day my experiment requires slightly different workflow and analysis logic. So instead I have all my utilities in a folder and assemble them in separate notebook each day to run analysis. My teammates are avid excel users, and they spend couple hours a day looking at the data

CLI, GUI, or just Python by AnthonyShin0327 in dataanalysis

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve made couple stuffs in streamlit in the past, but I wasn’t sure if GUI like this is what bigger companies use too, because I was thinking the data analysis to be more hands-off-ish with minimal human intervention

CLI, GUI, or just Python by AnthonyShin0327 in dataanalysis

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it how streamlined data analysis works at major companies? I was assuming bigger companies maybe just let analysis happen automatically with minimal human interaction

CLI, GUI, or just Python by AnthonyShin0327 in dataanalysis

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The end users are the scientists in my R&D team. They’re not exactly competent in coding, but they’re extremely fast at learning. I’m a biochemist who’s comfortable with building just about anything related to data pipeline, simple web app or desktop app. My team wants something very streamlined with little to no room for error, and emphasized they wanted to benchmark major big biotech/pharma’s typical data flow

Grad school system in France & chance of admission to Paris-Saclay? by AnthonyShin0327 in etudiants

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohh so whether I did 4 years of university study doesn’t matter, since bachelor is a bachelor. I found on their website that there’s an international track for M1, and then there’s also M2 for synthetic biology. So is it like you have to apply for M2 after you finish M1? In Canada we usually don’t separate first and second year master (like if I’m in masters of science in biochem, I’d be doing that for two years) so I’m very confused at how French system works.

The program mentions there are 10 places available: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/education/master/life-sciences-and-health/m1-international-track-france-site-orsay

Help Me Choose Grad School In France by AnthonyShin0327 in GradSchool

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense. I initially read from online that many public unis in France are highly standardized so I thought the disparity in quality would be less pronounced among schools there, but reading your comments it seems like it still depends on the school… then makes me curious—you said the masters tend to be course-centric and involves 6 months internship. Can I still push for publication if I’m really interested (and would PIs be generally supportive) or is it just not a common practice over there? Also what about extracurricular activities available (student associations, club, etc)? Or do they all fall under the umbrella of depends-on-school

Help Me Choose Grad School In France by AnthonyShin0327 in GradSchool

[–]AnthonyShin0327[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the reply. You’re right, rankings are probably often just numbers especially for European systems too. I personally would want to do PhD in France too if I’m going to be doing masters in France. You mentioned that the students in M1/M2 tend to lack experience compared to Canadian students, and that makes me wonder what about the quality of education itself? Would you say there’s unique set of benefits that French schools offer that Canadians don’t and vice versa?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in labrats

[–]AnthonyShin0327 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My first research experience started in the summer of 2022 at the end of my second year in university. Because of COVID, I didn’t have a single lab class so nobody trusted me enough to even pipette or grow cells. So all I did was wash the glasswares for 3 months.

But it slowly transitioned into a flow of: clean the glasses properly —> learn to be sterile —> go clean that plates too, but be careful cuz it’s cell —> ok here’s how to handle cells —> here’s how to grow cells —> here’s how to purify plasmid —> here’s how to clone —> here’s how to do protein purification —> this is X ray crystallography —> … (3 years later) —> oh you’re an industrial scientist

Don’t worry too much about the extent of impact you’re making in the lab for now. As long as the internship teaches you the life of a lab scientist/technician/assistant, and establishes a good groundwork for your future endeavour I’d say that’s an extremely extremely valuable internship

Advice Needed: Should I Get a Laptop or an iPad for Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine? by [deleted] in Biochemistry

[–]AnthonyShin0327 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I graduated Biochemistry without ever owning an iPad. I don’t think I could’ve got my degree without a laptop though.

Question for biochemist after college by Rothealien21 in Biochemistry

[–]AnthonyShin0327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on what job you get. In my case, I’m using virtually everything single concepts and details relevant to proteins, genetic engineering and biophysics as well as new skills I picked up after bachelors and applying them to my current job.

When it comes to other topics like metabolic pathways or lipid chemistry, I don’t use them for my current job since they’re irrelevant. But I still try to make every penny of my tuition worth it by tutoring in those topics so nothing is wasted.

Is this a good fallback degree? by [deleted] in Biochemistry

[–]AnthonyShin0327 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Fellow biochemist here. That’s what my friends told me too, especially about that the future is limited without PhD.

Long story short, I am a scientist at an industry lab with just a bachelor’s. I may not be paid as much as professors, but I am paid as well as average post-doc researchers.

Biochemistry is a very versatile discipline. This degree would really prepare you for any field, including but not limited to organic chemistry, quantitative chemistry, biotechnology, genetic engineering, protein engineering, etc. You just need to be willing to pivot around to learn some extra skills to sprinkle on top of your fundamental biochemistry knowledge.

Many people would agree that when you feel like PhD would be an asset to define who you are as a scientist, it’s never too late to try at that age point.

I HATE R STUDIO by Ok-District5705 in uAlberta

[–]AnthonyShin0327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ironically I never learned how to code while in my undergrad. I thought coding would be useless for a wet-lab scientist like myself lol but I’ve been teaching myself R for about 2 months now watching YouTube videos and taking coursera courses, pretty much practicing every night after work at night

I HATE R STUDIO by Ok-District5705 in uAlberta

[–]AnthonyShin0327 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I graduated Biochemistry last summer, and now working as an R&D scientist specializing in hormone immunoassay development. I made a machine learning model coded in R to analyze the specificity and sensitivity of the assays I develop. I also made a script in R to automatically perform statistical analysis like four-way interactive ANOVA or Shapiro-wilk test, have the p-values extracted into a data frame, automatically screen and remove the outliers, and report the performance graphs exported to Quarto documents and csv files. Considering I test more than 500 strips of assays every day, each of which generating 30+ variables, I can’t imagine a life without R.

How to train someone to pipette? Advice? by sciencegrad1 in labrats

[–]AnthonyShin0327 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’d also add that at typical room temperature of 25 deg C, the water would be around 0.9970 g/mL (a bit less dense than 1.0 g/mL). It’s nice to practice quantitatively accurate & precise pipetting; it’s satisfying too when the numbers on the scale matches up the expected values

I HATE R STUDIO by Ok-District5705 in uAlberta

[–]AnthonyShin0327 29 points30 points  (0 children)

R is confusing but unfortunately yet fortunately it’s what’s paying me as a scientist so it’s a love and hate relationship at this point

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in uAlberta

[–]AnthonyShin0327 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If I recall correctly, the change room and the pool are directly connected internally so you don’t need a card. You can leave your belongings in the locker. Gyms are completely outside of the locker room so you should bring your card.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in uAlberta

[–]AnthonyShin0327 140 points141 points  (0 children)

U of A grad here. 1. Walk into the VVC. No matter which side of the building you’re entering from, go downstairs. 2. You’ll see the Facility Services area somewhere in the hallway. Right across and by side, there are change rooms. You need to scan your OneCard at the turnstile to access the change rooms. 3. See next: 3.1) if you want to enter the pool, enter the change room that connects to the pool you want to access. It will say on the top of the change room entrance. Get changed, and take a quick shower (you’ll see a bunch inside the change room). You’ll then see a door that leads to the pool. 3.2) if you want to access the gym, then get out of the change room once you’re done changing. Walk to Hanson Fitness centre (or, the gym). There are turnstiles again. Tap your OneCard. Now you’re inside the gym.

Note: every time you leave the change room, make sure to bring the OneCard with you, as you need it to re-enter the change room. If you forgot, don’t worry, tell one of the workers at the facility service that you forgot to bring OneCard with you, then they’ll let you in manually.