How long does it take to study cell biology? also please answer my other once i really need help?

Question

how long does it take to study cell biology(please be specific)?

how much salary do you get?

what is the job description what do you have to do?

Answer 1

To study cell biology for a living you would need to be an academic, so at least 12 years (4-5 undergraduate, 4-7 doctorate, 2-7 postdoc) to become a professor barring unusual circumstances. The salary would likely start in the mid to low $70K, and can get upward of $100K. You would be a scientist that wrote their own grants, manage and decide the research direction of your lab, and publish and interact with the greater scientific community. You can also replace a doctorate (PhD) with an MD but that route is much harder since you don't have any formal scientific training so you will be at a disadvantage in the early stages of you career. This route will still take the same amount of time, but you will make over $100K and still be an academic. Maybe of all the PhD students who go out to become a professor, less than half make it to a postdoc or even do one and a much smaller portion of postdocs make it to be a professor. As a grad student you make currently less than $30K, as a postdoc less than $50K. Also, becoming a professor in no way means you are set, you first must move up the ranks as non-tenured junior faculty to tenured faculty to full professor, each comes with pay raises but are dependent on high achievement at this level meaning grants and publications. You job will always depend on your ability to write and bring in grant money, if you can't get funding the university will fire you.