A PhD? Maybe.

I’ve been offered a very tantalizing opportunity to get started on something that’s been on my TODO list for a very long time: a PhD.

It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now, but never really had a good opportunity to do. Medical physics programs are pretty few and far between, with the closest one being offered at Duke. There are a couple other programs in Georgia, but still too far away to be practical, and quitting work to go do a PhD just isn’t all that practical for me.

Last year I was starting to consider doing a PhD in the biostats/biometry department at MUSC, but the coursework required didn’t really fit my background and I just wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it.

Now there’s the possibility of doing a PhD through the Clemson/MUSC Joint Bioengineering program. Although it’s in bioengineering and the course work still involves a lot of bio, it’s much closer to my physics background. I could also do it all here without having to make road trips to Clemson (bonus). There are a few details and administrative things I need to find out (like if they’ll let me do it part-time) but so far things are looking pretty promising. This prospect is one I’m much more excited about, and would likely involve me working on doing Monte Carlo simulation/modelling work.

It’s been a long time since I did the student thing and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a big shock to the system once I start taking classes again. I doubt I’d be able to do more than 1-2 courses/semester and it wouldn’t leave much time for farting around on the computer like I do now. It’ll probably take me about 3-4 years to get all the course work done, but I’ll be able to do it concurrently with my research as well, so I think I’d still be able to complete a PhD in about 4-5 years.

Now I need to start learning about this GRE thing they make prospective grad students take.