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Considering Biomedical Science or Pharmacology, few questions

Hi! I'm 18 and I've just applied for the A levels Biology, Geography, Psychology and English. I wanted to take Chemistry but as of this moment I don't know if I'm going to be allowed in due to other reasons related to GCSE. Time will tell.

I've been looking up Biomed/Pharma courses from all sorts of different unis and they all look fascinating and really look like the career path I want to ensue. For a long time I've researched and self taught biology, pharmacology and some neuroscience, to a degree. And I'm quite the procrastinator so it seems strange to me but I truly thoroughly enjoy it.

As for not being able to do chemistry, its a long story with problems to do with family, high school and others which ultimately led to some bad grades. I'm hoping not taking chemistry won't be too much of a bother for my choices (although it looks like it will be :s-smilie:)!

However I'm trying to patch out the Chem for now by doing some field work and volunteering. For instance, I'm soon to be volunteering at a hospital and have my interview in 10 days, I'm also considering doing a premed for 1 week in the near future.

Enough about me now though. I have some questions about these courses as I'm not 100% on everything and I'd like some peoples opinions on either my situation, the courses or both.

The current questions are as follows:

How competitive are these courses?

What are the average minimum grades for these courses?

What jobs do these courses open up to me?

If I complete these courses, and decided I wanted to go further down the line E.G Medicine or Dentistry, would they even consider a Biomed or Pharma degree for a postgraduate Medical course? If so, how competitive is it?

Thank you ! :smile:
Both are fairly competitive. You'll have to do some research about grades. Both can lead to careers in research or outside science or even postgrad medicine or dentistry courses. Pharmacology is probably more chem based than biomed.
Reply 2
Original post by alleycat393
Both are fairly competitive. You'll have to do some research about grades. Both can lead to careers in research or outside science or even postgrad medicine or dentistry courses. Pharmacology is probably more chem based than biomed.


That answers some questions. Thanks for the reply! I'm going to look into some grades now.
Original post by Charles97
Hi! I'm 18 and I've just applied for the A levels Biology, Geography, Psychology and English. I wanted to take Chemistry but as of this moment I don't know if I'm going to be allowed in due to other reasons related to GCSE. Time will tell.

I've been looking up Biomed/Pharma courses from all sorts of different unis and they all look fascinating and really look like the career path I want to ensue. For a long time I've researched and self taught biology, pharmacology and some neuroscience, to a degree. And I'm quite the procrastinator so it seems strange to me but I truly thoroughly enjoy it.

As for not being able to do chemistry, its a long story with problems to do with family, high school and others which ultimately led to some bad grades. I'm hoping not taking chemistry won't be too much of a bother for my choices (although it looks like it will be :s-smilie:)!

However I'm trying to patch out the Chem for now by doing some field work and volunteering. For instance, I'm soon to be volunteering at a hospital and have my interview in 10 days, I'm also considering doing a premed for 1 week in the near future.

Enough about me now though. I have some questions about these courses as I'm not 100% on everything and I'd like some peoples opinions on either my situation, the courses or both.

The current questions are as follows:

How competitive are these courses?

What are the average minimum grades for these courses?

What jobs do these courses open up to me?

If I complete these courses, and decided I wanted to go further down the line E.G Medicine or Dentistry, would they even consider a Biomed or Pharma degree for a postgraduate Medical course? If so, how competitive is it?

Thank you ! :smile:


Heyy x I know quite a bit bout these courses.. Both biom and pharmacologist are practical based. Your most likely get a place for medicine if u do biomed. I was considering either pharmcplogy or biomedical science but there's hardly alot of jobs out there and I couldn't see myself doin practical work all the time. Ganna apply for uni in sept totally confused bout careers
They're fairly competitive, so really put effort into your personal statement when you get around to applying. You'll need grades ABB or above (normally above) at A level but, as you'll presumably be 19 or 20 when you finish your A levels, being a mature student might actually work in your favour. If you can work out a way to take chemistry, I'd recommend it, though it isn't compulsory (I didn't need it so it is possible, you'll just be more limited where you can apply).

If you want to do biomed, look around for a course that's accredited by the IBMS to save yourself time and trouble after the course.
I'm starting biomed in the summer at Queen Mary's (hopefully) and their course offers a guaranteed space on the post grad medical course if you're one of the top 15 on the course, but generally quite a few are accepted onto it outside of that group so there are definitely paths for you to take if you're interested in that.

I know with any life/medical science degree you can do all kinds of research jobs, both in the private and public sector (the NHS has a great continuing professional development system), but you can also go into jobs like forensic investigation, government work, teaching, etc. They're very versatile degrees and in the next few years will only get more valuable.

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