Hi everyone,
I am currently a 2nd-year undergraduate student majoring in Biology in Vietnam. My long-term goal is to pursue a Master’s degree (MSc) in Bioinformatics with a scholarship/funding in the US, Canada, or Europe, and eventually transition into an industry role in those regions.
As I build my academic roadmap, I want to join active bioinformatics communities to seek mentorship, practical advice, and clear direction on skills and profile building.
Recently, I came across the "Dean's List" community founded by Dean Lee, which focuses on computational biology. I have read many of his career-oriented posts, which I find quite inspiring, realistic, and practical. Since joining this community for direct guidance and mentorship requires a paid membership, I am carefully considering whether this investment would be worth it at my current stage.
Before making a decision, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences:
Feedback on Paid Communities: Has anyone here had experience with the "Dean's List" community or similar paid computational biology mentorship groups? Was it worth the financial investment? Did it help you advance toward your academic or industry goals?
General Roadmap: For a 2nd-year biology student targeting a funded MSc in Bioinformatics abroad, what critical steps or milestones should I prioritize over the next two years?
I found no information on what this Dean's List even is, or what it offers. In fact, there seems to be no online presence other than a LinkedIn page. Never even heard of it before.
I will say that LinkedIn is not used in academia at all. It will not help you in any way when trying to get better educated. I am not saying LinkedIn is not useful, just that in academia it has no weight or relevance.
The answer to your 2nd question is to get skills. Take one or more projects through, from start to finish. Know what it is, how you got there, and what the next steps should be.
Thank you sir for your reply, this is the Dean's List website https://deanslist.circle.so/home-page
This website is founded by Dean Lee https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanslee/
As others have mentioned, you should not be paying anybody for mentorship. Such groups likely exist solely for one person to acquire your money to feed you generic (likely AI-generated, let's be real) "advice".
Practical experience with local experts is likely your first step. If you have no local experts, find a way to get your hands dirty yourself - run through some analyses, look at code for important tools, read a lot of papers. See what interests you (and note what doesn't), and go from there.
Thanks so much for your reply, sir. The Dean's List for what I mentioned is in this website. https://deanslist.circle.so/home-page And the website is founded by Dean Lee https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanslee/
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Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to join this community? I could not find a pricing page.
It costs 30$/month if subscribe monthly, and 240$/year if subscribe annually Here is the website https://deanslist.circle.so/home-page