Oh Man, thank you so much for taking the time to write your message, I really appreciate it.
I agree with everything you said, it is a great course and very full on but it’s a taught one. The area you specialize in depends mainly on the specialist workshops you choose and the research project.
Unlike you, I don’t have much experience in a research lab, in fact the only experience in research I have is from my undergraduate project which was immunology based and quite limited in terms of techniques used. I have only graduated in March this year and at the moment I am working within a research team but I am writing a review article (which is about microvesicles and exosomes in immunotherapy) and it’s not lab based.
That is why originally I thought this Msc would be just perfect for me as it would give me the chance to explore and learn more before being able to choose and commit myself to one particular area.
But then I saw the Mres at Imperial and it seems amazing as it is mainly lab based and also quite broad in terms of the area you want to specialize in: there are lots of projects to choose from particularly in the BMR stream. And more importantly, you don’t have attend all those lectures and do all those time consuming reports and examinations.
I have another month to decide and in the meantime I’ll try to focus on my Imperial interview which I have a feeling will be fairly soon and I am sure will include some kind of assessment to test my knowledge in biomedical science and my general aptitude for science as I have applied for the very competitive master’s bursary they have.