The field of genetics has taken on much broader importance in clinical and other professional settings. For example, personal genomics has become well established in oncology and will likely be widely available in clinical settings soon. The broad application of genetic technologies will likely spur the need for workers with advanced skills in this field. The department recognizes the growing importance of these opportunities and believe there is unmet demand for the kind of training that will prepare our students to pursue these new career paths. Although we recognize the importance of training students to do research, we recognize that there are many more career paths now, or soon to be, available to students with advanced knowledge of genetics that can be obtained through graduate-level coursework.In addition, one traditional career path for genetics students is work as a technician in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. A non-thesis M.S. may or may not guarantee a job as a technician in the biotech industry, but having a non-thesis M.S. may result in higher starting salaries for students who obtain those jobs.