[Career] Is Biostats Worth It?

[u/EscanorBioXKeto]

For a while now, I've been thinking about the biostats MS, but from reading this and other subreddits, I realized the job market may be irredeemably horrible, that I need a Ph.D. for reasonable pay, that I should just get a stats MS instead, and what attracted me to was the application, but I'm reading that, while I understood it was more math than bio, apparently it's actually, like, 99% math and 1% bio. Is this an accurate understanding of the state of the biostats degree?

Edit: I should clarify that the math is fine to me, but I'm just less interested if, based on that 1% number, having a passion for observational research in health and bio is kinda irrelevant or unimportant for the job.

[u/kpatl]

I’m an epidemiologist, not a biostatistician. When I took my first biostats course, my professor said there’s no difference between stats and biostats. His degrees were in stats, but he was a professor of biostats because he worked at a public health school. My friends in the biostats dept chose their degrees because:

1. They wanted to work on health related projects and topics so wanted to train in a school focused on those
   
2. It would make them more marketable for health-related stats jobs in academia and industry
   
3. My university didn’t have a stats dept or grad degree anyway

But they all said it was stats degree where most of their problem sets and projects used health or bio related datasets instead of a broader mix of fields. Some went on to stats PhDs or job titles, but I can’t speak to the market since it’s not my career.

[u/EscanorBioXKeto → u/kpatl]

Can you share about your job as an epidemiologist and what degrees you got for it? That's something I'm really interested in, and I'd love to hear about it from someone in it.

[u/Working_Hat_2738]

The ratio is correct for my background and studies. 99% math and 1% bio. I know of biostatisticians that work in genetics and I’m sure they’d say that ratio is different. Bioinformatics may have more bio but I don’t work with any or network with any bioinformaticists.

[u/Icy_Kaleidoscope_546]

Having qualifications and skills in a relatively challenging and 'niche' field is what you need when the job market is depressed. Biostats is worth it if you are actually interested in the field.

[u/Resident_Bus7127 → u/Icy_Kaleidoscope_546]

Is biostats a inche field? I've been considering doing a phd in that field, i have a masters in data sciecne with A grades in statsitics probability lienar lagebra and optimization and worke da s agrader for stats course for 2 semesters , do you think i am eligibl eto apply for biostats phd

[u/Icy_Kaleidoscope_546 → u/Resident_Bus7127]

Its specialised. It will depend on the course requirements.

[u/Temporary_Stranger39]

As an MS student, I find that it is almost all mathematical, but my many years as a biologist seems to let me leapfrog a lot of the theory that gives others students difficulties.

[u/JAMIEISSLEEPWOKEN]

I think biostatisticians need to sign an SAP stating that whatever they’re doing won’t kill people tbh

[u/Temporary_Stranger39 → u/JAMIEISSLEEPWOKEN]

Needing a cookie?

[u/STATASUCKSBRO]

The biology percentage is the wrong quantity. A biostats program can be almost entirely probability, inference, and computation while every modeling choice is still constrained by trials, censoring, missingness, or study design. If those constraints sound tedious, the label on the degree will not fix it.

[u/HarroMongorian]

When I was looking at programs, Biostats programs were more or less stats programs but within a school of public health. I had probably 80% of my classes for my Biostats MS be purely math-stats, with some epi and public health classes. All the problem sets for my methods classes were related to the public health field, though, as some others have mentioned. We also had electives like clinical trials and longitudinal analysis that you might not see in a regular stats program.

[u/Time_Membership_4062]

For me with AI expanding , I see that stat itself is core skill to master and Biostat and basically the same except its more specialized .

[u/regretting_biostats]

I would have done an MS in math (my calculus professor asked me to work with her 4 times) but a colleague of hers was evil so I wanted to leave… but it would have been funded which is cool and fun. Try a math degree for better ROI and then consider entry to a PhD program in (bio)stats

[u/IndicationFunny6879 → u/regretting_biostats]

is math degree really worth it when AIs are solving all the problems humans couldn't?

[u/regretting_biostats → u/IndicationFunny6879]

AI would not exist without mathematicians and engineers

[u/IndicationFunny6879 → u/regretting_biostats]

So is it worth it to enter the field? Should i just do nursing or learn statistics.

[u/regretting_biostats → u/IndicationFunny6879]

If you don’t hate it then do nursing

[u/IndicationFunny6879 → u/regretting_biostats]

I dont mind both jobs. I guess nursing is more stable?

[u/regretting_biostats → u/IndicationFunny6879]

Yes and it’s something like 90% employment rate after 3 months

[u/IndicationFunny6879 → u/regretting_biostats]

Thank you!

[u/Quasimoto3000]

Nothings worth it anymore. Ai is here. Time to turn it in.

[u/Big-Excitement-11 → u/Quasimoto3000]

still gotta eat, should i build a spear and hunt deer in the woods?