Stanford University's website is very aggravating. At least it is when you're looking for any information about graduate programs having anything to do with biology. Apparently their biology page changed addresses, and so something is still messed up and you can't get to the page at it's new address. Did I mention that this address change happened two freakin' years ago? I mean really! So, nary a bit of information about graduate programs in biology did I find. Actually, I didn't find out much about their graduate programs at all, other than the fact that the departments are very compartmentalized. Doesn't look good for an interdisciplinary experience. But they have to have something in the way of biology graduate work. This is the universtity that runs Folding@home, fa' chris'sake! Which, by the way, is a screensaver program, much like SETI@home, but deals with protein folding. Which makes me really happy. I would have this program, but they don't yet have a Mac version (grr), but they will, sometime. And when they do, it will be a happy day indeed. Almost as happy as the day I found out I got into Reed, and probably a bit happier than that day that I find out that the 7th episode of Radiskull & Devil Doll is finally out, whenever that may be.
Yes, I am a bio dork. Didn't you read the subject line?
So why was I looking for stuff aboug graduate schools anyway? After all, I'm a college freshman. Fair question. Well, I guess it has a lot to do with my minor crisis in deciding on my major. It's not as bad as it used to be. Since arriving at school, I decided that I really don't want to major in philosophy, finding Reed's phil. department entirely unpalatable. So, I've decided on Biology. And well, I've pretty much stuck with that, after deciding to be a straight Bio major, as opposed to an alt. Bio (alternative program in Biology), which I decided against because 1) I would be listed as a bio major anyway, and 2) I will probably take o-chem anyway, which is required for Bio but not alt. Bio. So, decision made, until we did population biology in intro. Ack. I hated it. I considered dropping the biology idea and becoming a Religion major, or maybe a Sociology major, even though I had no idea what that was at all. Then I realized that my panicking was due only to the fact that we were doing pop. bio, and that sucks. There are much more interesting aspects of biology, such as cell bio. So, I stuck with being a bio major.
Then during finals week, I found that the bio stuff I'm most interested in has a lot to do with chemistry, which raised the possibility in my mind of being a Biochemistry major. I kind of tossed it out after a couple days, and very definitely tossed it out after finding out that I would have to take physics. Ick. But I'm actually considering it again. Physics might not be so bad. After all, I did survive Calculus at Reed. But what I want to know before I decide is can I do everything I really want to do with a degree in biology? Will it be better preparation to be a biochem major? And is it possible to major in bio and then study biochem in graduate school? So that's why I was looking at graduate programs. Harvard has one that looks nice, in their Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology. I have no idea what they have at Stanford, after turning up nothing in my search. I just want information about their graduate programs; is that so much to ask?! Grr. I do know someone who is a biochem major there; he might know something.
Well, so much for the effort.
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