Switching Master's Programs

[sanantone]

I'm currently in University of Florida's MS in Microbiology and Cell Science with a concentration in Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry program. I really wanted to do a more general biology program so that I could study a mix of gross anatomy and physiology, wildlife biology, microbiology, and maybe some environmental stuff. In this program, I'm only learning about infectious diseases. Basically, I'm studying bacteria, viruses, fungus, and protozoans the entire program. This is fine. I can go into public health, food safety, or forensic science with this degree, but I'm not getting a broad biology education. 

I just noticed that University of Florida has a new online MS in Medical Science with a concentration in Forensic Medicine. This probably has more limited application on the job market, but the material is more interesting to me. While is it's not a broad biology program, it's broader in its study of pathology and medicine. It's not like UF's other forensic science programs that mostly focus on various techniques in criminalistics such as blood splatter analysis (which is borderline pseudoscience), ballistics (also not very scientific), and fingerprint analysis (has its own issues). This program is focused on pathology and death investigations. The curriculum is applicable to autopsy assistants, medical examiner investigators, pathology assistants, detectives doing death investigations, CPS/APS investigators working with deaths and physical injuries, forensic anthropologists, forensic nurses, and crime scene investigators and forensic scientists to a certain extent.


https://forensicmedicine.med.ufl.edu/program/courses/