• Question: I am currently interested in studying for a medical degree, but what other degrees would you recommend in biology and chemistry related areas?

    Asked by Dom Smith to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Marikka Beecroft

      Marikka Beecroft answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Dom!
      When I was in sixth form I was studying for a medical degree but didn’t manage to get the grades but I decided to go into Microbiology to study diseases, as that was what aspect of medicine fascinated me the most.

      This isn’t the only option though, you could go into biochemistry, Medical immunology, biomedical sciences (a lot of my friends did this degree and are now in the NHS scientist training programme), clinical science, medical genetics and natural sciences. Chemistry wise I’m not too sure about undergraduate opportunities, there are things like medicinal chemistry but if you do a masters after university you can specialise in a number of medical related courses. All in all there are so many options you can take! Hope that helped!

    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      I would suggest that Bioscience would be the most appropriate degree option. Many graduates from Bioscience go on to study medicine or find their passion actually lies within this field and practice their bioscience through related employment options.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      It depends on the context of your question. If you eventually want to be a medical doctor, there are two main paths.

      1) You can start a medical course immediately on joining a medical school attached to a university.
      2) You can do a related degree and when that is completed join a graduate medical course.

      Both routes are hard work and highly competitive . If you decide on route 1, you qualify earlier and it has some cost benefits in that less loans are required. If you choose route 2, you can always change your mind later and you have more flexibility in what you eventually decide to do. However, if you are looking at graduate entry make sure you choose a relevant course (Marikka’s answer has a good list). Other options could include pharmacy, pharmacology, medical physics, chemical biology, or many others.

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Well, I did degrees in Psychology, then in Public Health, and enjoyed them very much. But the thing which has helped me most is maths, even though I didn’t do A level Maths. I’ll tell you a secret – everyone thinks that maths is hard, but you don’t need to be very much better than the average doctor at maths for people to think you are a genius, and you can get computers to do most of the hard work in medical statistics.

      If you do medicine, or if you don’t, I also recommend taking an interest in Public Health. This is about how to stop people getting ill in the first place, which has all sorts of interesting implications for how to make the world a better place. This website will tell you more: http://www.phorcast.org.uk/

    • Photo: Matt Bilton

      Matt Bilton answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I did a biochemistry degree and if you enjoy your chemistry and biology I would recommend that! In a very broad and grand sense the degree covers the chemistry of life – my course took me from maths and physics (e.g. the quantum mechanics of peptide bonds) all the way up to systems level biology (i.e. the immune system).

      If you are interested in medicine, then perhaps a course with a stronger health/disease/physiology focus might be of interest as well, but otherwise a Biochemistry degree would give you a solid grounding in the biosciences and leave you with the knowledge required to pursue a career in research in a broad range of areas, if you decided to go down that route instead of medicine.

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