Advice to an Egyptian would-be postgrad

Today I received an e-mail from a would-be scientist asking me about advice on which field to choose, how to go for a Ph.D. abroad and the like. I wrote a rather long reply with some how lots of diverse information, but then I thought that would br too much for her, specially that she knows absoltely nothing about this career. So I thought of writing her the information gradually and bit by bit, so that she can really understand it and not to get shocked

Anyway, here i'll write the whole reply here

Regarding a future career as a scientist, I will not tell you do this and do that, because that will not be an honest advice. An honest one would be to tell you how things really are, what to expect when you live and work as a postgrad student, and how the different fields look like. It is the information which I would love to have had before leaving Egypt. I have to admit that God has helped me through the advice of senior colleagues and Dr.s who sincerely assisted me. I’ll also try to do my part.

The first question that you should answer (to yourself) is why are you doing this? Is it for prestige, money, science, humanity, God? This is a very fundamental question that should have a very important influence on your choice. There are also different rules for choosing when you intend to continue your career in Egypt or abroad. For instance, in Egypt, there is no real research, in the sense that you have a problem that needs to be solved, or you are creating something that should be of use one day (N.B. to be honest, you may face the same problem in some universities abroad, but with the difference that you have better equipment and funds, and more importantly a bigger room for your own creativity). Accordingly, the one and only realistic criterion is to finish fast to get promoted rapidly. Other criteria include the ability to have additional income (private lessons, private medical analysis labs, selling course notes (mozakkerat) to students... etc). After finishing the master’s (which is I guess the rate limiting step) you can get a scholarship from the Egyptian government to go for a Ph.D. abroad (not everybody does, it’s rather a matter of luck not performance). Latter on you can work as a lecturer or professor in a private Uni or in the Gulf. So if your objectives are related to prestige and/or money, you can choose the department where you’ll finish fast (to get promoted easily) and also be somehow well off financially, without having to go through the much trouble of leaving your family, relatives and friends. 4 years ago in our faculty, people used to finish their master’s thesis relatively fast in the departments of Pharmacology and Biochemistry, however I know that things now are much different, so I cannot tell you which department would be the fastest! By the way, having the objectives of prestige and/or money are not a really bad or unethical choice, and please do not understand that I’m mentioning them here in a negative sense. I guess it is rather a matter of taste or inclination, some like apples, others like banana!

If, on the other hand, you are interested in science, researching something that humans don’t really understand, adding a small drop of water to our vast oceans of knowledge, doing or producing things that perhaps nobody else has ever done before, then this will probably be abroad. Science is indeed exciting, but it can be very, very frustrating at times, and if you don’t have a strong will and a clear vision of what you want to do and why you are doing it, you may not bear those frustrations and quit. As a career, it is also rather risky, and in most cases, not very well paid. What the prospectus is after finishing a Ph.D. or even a postdoc is not always sure, unless you are working with a prominent professor and have an outstanding output, which you perhaps can do, but is not usually the case for the majority of Ph.D. students.

The rules for choosing a field outside Egypt are quite different. Here the most important thing is what you like most, what you love when you study and you think you can be creative in. But please note that studying does not mean learning something by heart, but you will face problems that you will have to solve scientifically, systematically and more importantly creatively. This is the real essence of postgrad studies, to be a well educated problem solver. It is not just about getting a degree and a promotion. Another important issue is which fields are well funded, because this will increase your chances of getting a Ph.D. For example, nowadays genetics, proteomics, nanotechnology and computational chemistry are very well funded and it’s relatively easy to get a Ph.D. in those fields.

The country to go for is also important. In the States, you can go for a Ph.D. without a master’s degree. It will take 5-7 years on the average. There you will have a much wider choice and better opportunities and it is easier to get funded. They need the TOEFL and GRE exams. The latter is somehow difficult, but with good preparation you can do well in it. In Europe, it takes 3-4 years to get a Ph.D., however you cannot get an acceptance and funding without a master’s degree. As I told you, in principle, you can study for a Ph.D. in Germany without a master’s, but you won’t get funded and will have to pay it yourself. There are no tuition fees in Germany (or a little one in some states, around 1000 €/year), so you’ll only pay for the living expenses. Britain has many good and reputable universities, however overseas’ students do not get funded, so you’ll have to pay quite a lot, especially that they have high tuition fees. In general, I would recommend a master’s degree abroad before a Ph.D. (this applies for Europe not the States. In the States, they’ll teach you everything from the beginning). This allows you to know what is the state of the art in the different scientific fields, (which is necessary for choosing a Ph.D. In doing research, you do not reinvent the wheel, so you need to know what the current status is to start from where others stopped), how to read and evaluate a scientific paper (you’ll read a lot in postgrad studies), to use analytical instruments and glassware, and to have the real sense of working in a lab and preparing a lab protocol (those are all things that we didn’t learn in Egypt).

I’m attaching with this e-mail a very useful book, with lots of advice on how to choose a Ph.D. position, which field … etc. Most of the advice there applies to the States, some to Europe, none to Egypt. But in general it’s a good read.

I know that this may be a lot of information for you and that some of it may not be clear to you, or even shocking. I know also that some may not apply to you (as a girl) since you will probably get married and will have to share decisions with your spouse, but I’m speaking in general explaining the whole picture (as much as I can) and I’ll be glad to answer any specific concerns or questions that you may have.