Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Biochemistry or Pharmacology??!! HELP

So I need to write my personal statement this summer and I thought before this that I defiantly wanted to do pharmacology however I also liked the biochemistry course when I went to KCL open day Saturday and now I really have no idea what to do???

Reply 1

William Turtle

Original post by qwertyasdflou

Well, some universities... To be honest, I only know that Manchester do this... but it's quite possible that others do (research this).

Anyway, Manchester (as our example) has a common first year for all Life Sciences courses - everyone does the same first year. So you get loads of people switching to a course they hadn't considered before at the end of the first year. In Manchester's case, biochemistry was the only course which was harder to switch onto, because you had to do certain chemistry courses which others hadn't. Biochem students could switch off biochem though.

So do some research, and see if other unis are the same as this. If not, you'll really have to decide. Keep reading uni course descriptions, and popular science books covered by the scope of the subjects. Talk to friends and family about why you want to do each subject.

That last tip is, I think, the fastest way to make a decision.

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Reply 2

vineyard13

Biochemistry is quite a generic subject and you'll learn about all sorts of biological systems, a lot of the molecular. I don't really know much about biochemistry but I study pharmacology so I can tell you a lot about that :biggrin:

On a pharmacology course you will learn a lot of biomedical science (human biology/anatomy, neuroscience, physiology etc.) as well as different diseases/conditions and the treatments (e.g. cancer/chemotherapy, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimers etc.). A lot of people go on to do postgraduate medicine after pharmacology as it sets you up well for it. Personally, I'm more interested in the research side of it.

Why not apply for the KCL biochemistry course as well as other pharmacology courses? I understand that you want to tailor your personal statement but I originally applied for Dentistry and had pharmacology as a back up and I got a conditional offer from Leeds for pharmacology despite having a dentistry personal statement. Saying that I had good predicted grades (AAA).

Reply 3

xfranks

Original post by qwertyasdflou

KCL do what is called a 'Common Year One' where people studying biochemistry, pharmacology, genetics, neuroscience and biomed study the same first year course. You do modules that cover all those topics. This means that after first year you can switch from one course to another if you want. so you could apply for biochem and then switch to pharmacology if you find you enjoy that module more or vice versa.