I am thinking of going back to school if I cannot find a job when I get to Switzerland. I already have a BS in Chemical Engineering, but want to pursue the pharmaceutical sciences track for either Masters or PhD. Does anyone know which program would be good? I already searched and found Univ. of Basel has a pretty good pharmaceutical sciences department (of course the whole Pharma industry is there), but found ranking of ETH higher than UoBasel.
Also, I noticed that the pharmaceutical sciences program at Basel requires a Masters before a PhD can be acquired. Is this the case for most of Swiss Universities? It also says it's a German speaking school, but the student's profiles say they know only basic German.... Anyone have any advice?
I had never heard of Basel's University until right now. Even where I am from on the other side of the world ETH and EPFL are well-known and respected in all branches of science. ETH is routinely among the top 10 European universities in many rankings, and is in the 20s amongst world universities.
If you can do so easily enough, I believe having ETH in your CV is going to be a big bonus for the rest of your career(s).
I thought this was quite a normal requirement but maybe it is only in Europe.
Don't let that put you off. Most (all?) of the universities here are non-english speaking universities, but have some postgrad programmes taught in English designed for an international audience. Having no german is rarely a handicap but you are normally advised to take a basic german course once you arrive. Having no german after graduation will be a handicap if you are seeking employment in the area.
Hmm. While I agree that ETH is an excellent research institution, it's definitely a mistake to assume that the overall ranking of a university is indicative of the quality of all it's programs. ETH may be ranked 11th in the world according to some person who likes making lists, but you should really be more concerned with the strength of the program you're interested in at each institution.
Incidentally, the University of Basel has a very strong pharmacology program, and would be a good choice given your area of research interest. There is a lot of industry involvement, and hence lots of opportunities to be involved in interesting applied research. Oh, and I hear the funding situation is pretty good too... You'll find that German won't be required for entrance into a grad program, but it can be helpful on campus and about town. In fact, having English as a first language is a bit of an asset, but be prepared to asked to do lots of proofreading for your colleagues. I can't make any comments on program requirements, however. It's usually best to contact the appropriate people in the department to discuss this with them, as they're the only ones who can give you a definitive answer as to your admissibility.
As an aside, in the end the single most important factor determining how much you get out of grad school is not the ranking of the university or the strength of the program: it's the supervisor you work with. If you go to grad school, make sure there is a good environment in the lab and that you have a boss with whom you feel comfortable. To paraphrase what someone much more clever than I once said, Words to the wise from someone who's been there, done that.
Thanks Heather, I agree that ranking is not the only thing in a school to look for. I noticed right away that the pharmaceutical sciences program is stronger than the one at ETH (it doesn't seem existent there). The one at ETH is geared more towards people wanting to become Swiss Pharmacists, not for going into industry (although there is a new program for people wanting to go into industry, this is the one I was looking at). I guess I'm not sure if I can get into the program directly of if they'll tell me to go do a Master's first.
Here in US, most people are able to go directly into Doctorate programs if they can. I guess it's not that way around in other countries.
Do you think it would be hard to have one spouse in Basel and one in Baden? Especially for a grad student, the hours would be long and arduous, so adding on a long commute wouldn't be nice...but I'm not sure how long it really takes by bus/train.
As for ETH you definitely need a Master degree to be accepted into PhD though in the regulation Bachelor degree is accepted in exceptional case. But don't put your bet on it cause I knew one guy had a Bachelor from Cornell with an excellent CV but can't not accepted, and the condition to be accepted is to work here as a research assistant for 1 year and produce 2 papers.
Also, you might have to consider the salary as well. If you work for ETH, you normally get more than in Uni of Basel. The salary difference is sometimes enormous in some fields such as engineering & computer science. The baseline for Uni in Switzerland is 50% and for ETH is 60%.
I was in a very similar situation awhile ago. I planned to go back to school because I was having a hard time finding a decent job and I thought it would increase my chances. I have a BSc. in Material Science Engineering and I applied to go back to the ETH for a Masters program. I was accepted to the program, but recieved a really good job offer the same day my acceptance letter came, and I decided to go for the job...glad I did becasue it has worked out great so far!
Where did you study Chemical Engineering!? I only ask because I know that the bachelor programs here for various disciplines include more courses than a lot of North American Universities. I studied at the U of Alberta in Canada and the courses were very similiar and I would have only needed to complete one extra "bachelor" level course to bring my equivalency up. I was told, obviously depending on the discipline, that there could be quite a number of courses that you would have to take along side the masters courses. Just a heads up!
As for the language thing....ETH Masters Programs are offered in English! (most courses that is) There you go...I guess their way to attract international students and not limiting themselves to German speaking students.
And as far as Uni of Basel or ETH...I looked into that as well...for Engineering, ETH all the way...Basel is more of a Medicine / Science University. I don't think that Basel has a proper Engineering department anyway...research yes, normal programs, nope!
And I think it is standard that you would need a Masters (at least) to apply for and get accepted into a PhD program (although I know of a few...very few...acceptions).
While the ETH in Zurich has an excellent over-all reputation, the pharmacology (and biology- for that matter) program in Basel is superb.
The programs receive tons of money from the chemical industry, they are top-notch and they also work very closely together with Novartis, Roche etc. Especially, if you're going for a PhD after your Master's (an MS is required everywhere in Switzerland for PhD work) you could profit very much from the proximity to the chemical industry.
As someone else already mentioned: depending on where and what exactly you studied in the US, you might be required to take tons of extra courses to even get your MS.
I graduated from the Univ. of California and I think you're right since I am from engineering and would probably have to take more classes to enter into a pharmaceutical sciences program.
It seems that the program that I want to attend is rather new, it is the Medical and Industrial Pharmaceutical Sciences Program and I think it was started for people wanting to go more into industry instead of just becoming pharmacists. Since this program is new, do you think there would be a better chance of getting in since maybe not many students will apply/know about it?
Yes, this is the exact reason why I was thinking of doing this over ETH. But now, I guess I'd have to do a Masters before even thinking about this program.
In most of Europe, the Master's degree is comprised of around 2-years of courses and a Master's thesis, without any major research; while the PhD is comprised solely of research, without any major coursework, and is usually limited to 3-years, whether or not the dissertation research is actually completed or not.
In the US, the PhD is comprised of around 2-years of coursework, followed by qualifying exams, and then 2 to 5-years of dissertation research; with sufficiency for the research determined by a dissertation committee (who are sometimes very subjective).
Thus, the Master's degree is pointless in the US, if you intend to pursue a PhD in the same subject (it's already packaged in), and most US Master's degrees are generally considered terminal degrees. However, that is not usually the case in Europe: again, they are two entirely different systems.
BTW, if you are kicked-out, fail-out, or drop-out of a US PhD program, and have already completed all of the coursework, then you are usually given the option of writing a Master's thesis in order to receive a terminal Master's degree.