Respected Sir/Madam,

I am Akshay Srinivasan and I am doing my 2nd year in B.Tech Biotechnology in India.I took up this course as I was fascinated by it.Now I am a little confused as what I exactly need to be doing for my future studies.

I was not a Biology student in my intermediate.I had done computers with mathematics instead.But I have a lot of interest in the subject and I am doing well in it in my college.I am very interested in the field of "genetics".But I am a little confused as to if I really do have the right basics for this subject or no.I wanted to start my preparations for GRE in a month's time,but I wanted to have a clear view of what I really want.I have also been thinking of MBA after my B Tech,but would just like to know as to what background I would get into then and if it would also be a good choice.I am at the moment a little confused and would be grateful if I could get some help on this issue.

Thanking You,
Akshay Srinivasan

There are two areas for you to consider: what discipline to you want to pursue, and what kind of work do you want to do? The education you'll need for academic research in biotechnology is different than the education you'll need to do work in industry in microbiology, for example.

Ask yourself if you want to emphasize the biology side of your career, the technology side, or both. An MBA would mean you'll be doing management - in biotech that would mean working on the business side of things with little direct contact with research & applications.

Best approach is to determine which fields you're interested in first. Not having the right basics is not a huge deal, if you're prepared to pick up a few more courses to fill in the holes. Some university programs will admit you on a provisional basis and require you to complete the missing undergrad courses within your first year.

You can research specific jobs here:

O*NET OnLine Help (http://online.onetcenter.org/help/online/crosswalk)

Type biotechnologist, geneticist, etc. in the Occupation Quick Search field at the upper right. This will give you information about education required, earning potential, job market, skills required, etc. For specific requirements for a university, look at the grad school catalog available on their website.

Vasily