"I was looking into history majors and was set on coming to Drexel. The year prior to applying, I worked for an historical society to test out the waters. Unfortunately, I didnt find the work too appealing and wanted something more thought provoking. I read a little about the field on Drexel's website, and even purchased Sheila Jasanoff's book "States of Knowledge". While I was intimidated by the heavy content, I found it fascinating and wanted to learn more."
"I learned about STS from Jonathan Shoup, who was completing an accelerated BA & MS in History and STS. Jon shared his excitement for the field with me and put me in contact with Kelly Joyce. After meeting Dr. Joyce and discussing the MS program I was sold on STS and pretty quickly joined the community at Drexel."
"I wanted to do a master's in some aspect of science rather than science itself; my first emphasis was on history, but after auditing a course on historiography I realized that I was just as interested in the principles of knowledge-making and the social construction of facts."
"As a biological sciences undergrad at Michigan State University, I minored in the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science, which sowed the seeds of my interests in STS. Upon graduation however, I was not completely sure which avenue to pursue as a Master’s student. Therefore, I applied to both biological sciences programs, and more STS focused programs, like the Drexel M.S. program. I made my decision to attend an STS program through a lot of honest reflection on the question of “which domain of questions do I ultimately find more compelling?” A visit to the STS center to meet the faculty, students, and to see the campus/city then sealed the deal for me to join the M.S. program."
"My undergraduate mentor, Christian Hunold, encouraged me to pursue the accelerated BS/MS at Drexel. Once I began the STS curriculum, my career goals really changed. I felt energized and inspired by the articles and books we read in seminar."
"I found out about STS during my undergraduate study at Vassar College. I was a physics major, but, being a small liberal arts school, Vassar required us to take a very wide range of courses. I discovered our STS program by way of a philosophy of science class. I never had an “ah-ha” moment where I realized that STS was the field for me, but over the course of my classes and bachelor’s thesis, I realized that the questions that excited me were not physics questions. I knew I was interested in academia, so while I did apply to some physics graduate programs, I mostly started looking at STS ones. Drexel’s Center for STS offered one of the few master’s programs that I could find, and I thought that doing a master’s degree could give me the chance to make sure I wanted to make this departure from my physics trajectory. I also thought that, if I did decide to pursue STS, a master’s degree would make me a much more compelling applicant to PhD programs. (In fact, I applied to Cornell STS straight out of undergrad as well and was rejected, only to be accepted two years later after my experience at Drexel.)"
"One of my former colleagues was actually the first person to complete the STS degree at Drexel (Simone Schlichting-Artur, Ed.D. - 2002). When I told her I was interested in pursuing a Master’s degree, she suggested the STS program since she thought I would enjoy the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the degree itself. She was right!"
"I had been talking with an old friend who was already in the program about my desire to pursue graduate studies. At that time, I was unsure about what field I should enter. Luckily, my friend recognized my various interests as being a good fit for STS and he encouraged me to research the topic further."
"As silly as it sounds: Google. I knew I wanted to advance my research career, and I needed a program that I could complete while working. I did not know what STS was before I started the program, but I liked the idea of applying social science concepts to the study of technology and medicine. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the field, as it is now, was founded in feminist critiques of science and that STS scholars frequently used ethnographic methods (which were near and dear to my heart, after majoring in anthropology). The whole thing was pretty fortuitous!"
"I was looking for a graduate program in the humanities or social sciences in order to continue my formal education. It was Drexel’s paucity of graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences that fortuitously steered me to the degree. Having taken a Philosophy of Technology course as an undergrad, I felt prepared to tackle the questions raised by STS. Knowing little about this relatively new academic discipline, I spent a good part of my degree exploring the foundations and origins of the discipline. The result has been something far more rich, broad, and interdisciplinary than what any conventional graduate degree can provide."