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Wanting to drop out of medicine and switch to biochemistry

I'm soooo confused. I decided I wanted to do medicine when I was fourteen and never looked at any other courses and worked my ass off to get into it, now that I'm here I hate it! I really don't like the whole clinical part which my university starts you off on really early. I enjoy going to lectures and learning the science part.
I was helping my friends (a few months ago) by looking through the university prospectus to help them deciding on what course to do next year and I realised that I never even considered any other course. I've been looking at biochemistry and have looked up the exact modules which the university does in first year and read through the descriptions and what you have to do exam/coursework wise and I'm really interested in it.
My only worry is that the course doesn't lead to a direct career in the same way medicine would have but there are so many opportunities! Part of me feels very relieved by not having my career planned out so early..I can do this degree and decide 2 or 3 years down the line what I would like to do, be it teaching, lab work or government work of some sort.
I'm also a bit worried that my parents will be annoyed at me. In January I got very upset and told them I didn't enjoy the course and didn't want to do it anymore and my dad said he didn't like the idea of me 'giving up'. I went back, did my exams, passed and started the 2nd semester modules hoping it would get more enjoyable but it's getting more and more 'doctor-ey' and I don't really want to waste another year and then decide that I was right in the first place and don't want to do this.
Do any of you know anything about biochemistry? I LOVED biology and chemistry and now I'm even considering teaching in the future.
Any advice?
The way I've kinda been thinking about it is, you know when you see an outfit on someone that looks amazing and you love it...then you go try it on yourself and it just doesn't suit you at all no matter how much you try to make...that's how this feels lol

Reply 1

jimcatinnes

2

This is so unfair, the whole point of work experience is to see if Medicine is for you!

Just transfer to a biomed or biochem course.

Reply 2

bluemax

16

i pretty much did the same what you did............but anyway you better consider your options carefully before you want to drop out of here

Reply 3

lassie42

OP

unfair?

Reply 4

Jamainglish

8

lassie42

I went back, did my exams, passed and started the 2nd semester modules hoping it would get more enjoyable but it's getting more and more 'doctor-ey' and I don't really want to waste another year and then decide that I was right in the first place and don't want to do this.

When you applied, surely your intention was to become a doctor, right? :curious:

Reply 5

lassie42

OP

bluemax

i pretty much did the same what you did............but anyway you better consider your options carefully before you want to drop out of here

did you change course?

Reply 6

missbrowneyes

I agree with the outfit analogy..its true, even with work experience you're really only seeing how it 'fits' on other people.
Oh well. Better now than in three years.

Reply 7

greatmonte

18

well although I dont know half as much as ACTUAL med students I would think that if you dont have the motivation its unlikely youll survive

but im also very confused that you went into medicine whilst hating the "doctorey" stuff.

Reply 8

bluemax

16

lassie42

did you change course?

no still stuck with it.....though if i change course I would rather do something like chemical engineering. Everyone tells me I would make a better engineer than a doctor.

Reply 9

LazyWorseThanInfidel

14

can you describe what things you dont like about the clinicaL

i think if the biomed job is finding rare diseases would be great but routine blood testing could be mundane

isnt being a surgeon very interesting?

Reply 10

Physics Help

Very sorry to hear this. Sureley you would be able to get a job in the biomed industry after you got your medicine degree. I don't think you would need to take a BioMed degree on top.

Reply 11

Guy guyson

What is it exactly you found you didn't like? I would
of thought the clinical stuff would of been better?

Reply 12

annaj17

This was like me when i started uni in september. I chose to do an occupational therapy degree. I thought it was for me because it combined my interests from school like sociology and psychology as well as training me for a specific career. I really enjoyed my course in the first semester when my lectures largely consisted of sociology, psychology and anatomy. There was also a couple of practicals but nothing too daunting. But over the long xmas/ jan exams period I could not stop questioning if i had made the right decision. I decided to reapply through ucas for 2010 about 3 days before the deadline to study history. Although it was a drastic change ive always been facinated by history but i didnt want to apply for this originally because it worried me that it wasnt career specific. I went back to uni for the start of semester two and things just got worse and worse. I found it so hard getting up for 9am starts when my heart just wasnt in it anymore. I have now left the course and im starting history in sept.

My advice would be to either stick the medicine until you have gained a place doing biochemistry or just get out of there asap. Although a medicine is a great thing to have if its not for you then its not for you. I would find it hard slugging through 5-6 years of something that i didnt enjoy.

Hope all goes well!

Reply 13

llys

17

Don't do it. You will regret it in 10-20 years (at the very latest - probably sooner). And you can do everything with a degree in medicine that you can do with a degree in biochemistry, and more.

Reply 14

Phalange

If you don't like it, then don't do it. Just do something you like! I was just like you - mind set firm on medicine. But then I looked into the modules and questioned current medical students - so I changed my mind to Biochemistry

Wanting to drop out of medicine and switch to biochemistry

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