Help with chemistry related courses

Hi I'm not a frequent TSR visitor so I'm sorry if this was posted in the wrong section but I am struggling with exactly what course to pick. I am currently doing AS and in the middle of my exams and I am almost definite that the general chemistry area is what I want my career to be. However after this I am not really certain on what specific courses to pick.

I am aware of courses like Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Chemistry, Biochemistry and other Medicinal sciences. I intend to do a Masters in the one I pick.

Out of the courses above which would provide me with the most job opportunities and a good salary? Also if anyone here is doing any of those courses I was wandering how they are finding them and how the jobs are looking.

Unfortunately I made a bit of an idiotic move earlier and decided not to pick maths so any suggestions are welcome if they don't require maths.

I would appreciate any input, thanks!

Hi I'm not a frequent TSR visitor so I'm sorry if this was posted in the wrong section but I am struggling with exactly what course to pick. I am currently doing AS and in the middle of my exams and I am almost definite that the general chemistry area is what I want my career to be. However after this I am not really certain on what specific courses to pick.

I am aware of courses like Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Chemistry, Biochemistry and other Medicinal sciences. I intend to do a Masters in the one I pick.

Out of the courses above which would provide me with the most job opportunities and a good salary? Also if anyone here is doing any of those courses I was wandering how they are finding them and how the jobs are looking.

Unfortunately I made a bit of an idiotic move earlier and decided not to pick maths so any suggestions are welcome if they don't require maths.

I would appreciate any input, thanks!

If your interest is more in chemistry, then I think you're looking more towards the first three. I don't know too much about the former two, just finishing third year of chemistry here.

Biochemistry and medicinal courses seemed more biology focused, and great if you want to work in life sciences but it's really up to you what sort of area you're going into. I take it you must like biology? Or are you just picking these out because the maths component isn't so heavy?

Do you like maths? A straight chemistry degree is a third physical chemistry (roughly speaking). There's some parts of it are reasonably straight forward or will click to you, and others probably not so much. If you're comfortable enough with maths then don't rule it out. A pure chemistry degree offers a lot of options because it covers all bases rather well. The results can be subtle - i.e. taking a medicinal chemistry post may find you doing similar work to the other degrees, or that you're just involved in a slightly earlier stage of the processes etc. Your fourth year should offer you a wide range of options as to gaining more specialist knowledge. I've just put my choices in - there's plenty of theoretical and computational research groups, lots of organic ones with high focus on biological fronts (drug screening, something to do with DNA...) and some inorganic ones. This varies on the university as it's down to what the professors are researching, but most departments tend to keep a fairly consistent range of areas open for you.

The other two thirds of the degree pretty much just need standard chemistry maths (mole calculations, concentrations etc.)

As above - most universities aren't too bothered about the maths part any more. It seems most of them will run a first year course for you. My university offers three courses (join the engineers maths if you're a maths junkie, do standard maths for a semester which is A-level recap plus odd bits that weren't in the A-level course, or a full year of 'these are all of the things you need to know') My housemate did the latter, and he's doing far better than me on a physical chemistry front.

If you have a definitive goal in some sort of bio-work (or pharma) then the other options are probably better suited, but if you're not actually sure then a pure chemistry degree keeps so many options open. Any courses with placements are very handy too - for experience, for getting paid, and mostly for getting a feel for an area of the industry.

I am fine with Maths and I found GCSE Maths fairly easy. I intend to pick up Maths AS as my fourth course for my second year at college.
I really enjoy Chemistry and the Maths behind the Chemistry I've done so far has been very simple. I was wandering mainly about the careers in UK after a normal chemistry degree (hopefully MChem). Would I be able to go into industry or maybe work for drug companies like GSK? If so do you have any idea about approximate salaries?

I am fine with Maths and I found GCSE Maths fairly easy. I intend to pick up Maths AS as my fourth course for my second year at college.
I really enjoy Chemistry and the Maths behind the Chemistry I've done so far has been very simple. I was wandering mainly about the careers in UK after a normal chemistry degree (hopefully MChem). Would I be able to go into industry or maybe work for drug companies like GSK? If so do you have any idea about approximate salaries?

You could work for GSK, AstraZenica etc. as a medicinal chemist, or something analytical I expect if that's your bag. No idea on salary but if you want to work for those sorts of companies: do well in organic chemistry. If possible, i'd recommend doing an industrial year MChem, because if you can get a placement with someone like GSK, AstraZenica or even any other kind of organic synthesis then you're setting yourself up well. Graduate schemes are very competitive so having a foot in the door is so useful. I know the Stevenage GSK site takes medicinal chemist industrial placement students for sure, and AstraZenica also do. My old housemate is in placement with Syngenta, who do org synth too.