University of Strathclyde

Chemistry at Strathclyde?

Hey, I was wondering if someone could answer a few queries...

I went to the open day at strathclyde for chemistry and absolutely loved it. I had originally went to see chemical engineering (which now I find to be too boring and am not interested anymore) and have never even considered chemistry beforehand.

The course looks amazing and I love the industrial placement part of it, but why is the entry requirements so low? Four B's (I think, correct me if I am wrong) compared to other uni's seems a bit odd? I mean the course looked challenging so why is it that low? Would my job prospects be the same as say if I studied at Edinburgh or St Andrews which are higher up in the league tables?

Do league tables even matter or mean anything?

Reply 1

TopherC

I can't speak to the fact about chemistry entry requirements.

But my opinion on league tables means nothing when I choose Strathclyde as my university , I picked it after I visited a few others I was considering and Strathclyde just felt right for me.

So maybe visit a few others take a tour and see how it feels really.

University of Strathclyde

Reply 2

VividBandicoot

Original post by TopherC

Hm, ok. Are you planning on doing chemistry?

Reply 3

ScottishShortiex

Original post by Zain-A

I don't think league tables really matter. When I applied to do chemistry, I had AAAAA in my Highers and had done Advanced Highers. I had no interest in applying to universities with higher entry requirements. Strathclyde was my one and only choice. It's a great university and course

Reply 4

VividBandicoot

Original post by ScottishShortiex

Yeah, it is my number one choice now too. So you do chem at Strathclyde? What degree branch are you doing? And anything you can tell me about the course from a students perspective? :smile:

)))

Reply 5

ScottishShortiex

Original post by Zain-A

Yeah, it is my number one choice now too. So you do chem at Strathclyde? What degree branch are you doing? And anything you can tell me about the course from a students perspective? :smile:

)))

Yeah I'm a former Strathclyde chemistry student. I originally applied to Chemistry with Drug Discovery then changed to Forensic Chemistry at the start of 3rd year as I hated the pharmaceutics class and hated organic labs (or just synthesis in general) I much preferred analysing things.

I'll give you a non-biased opinion as I have since dropped out of the course this year, at the end of my 3rd year (this was only due to me not enjoying the majority of the classes/labs - organic, inorganic and physical chemistry and just enjoying the forensic and analytical class.) Anyways, it is a great course overall with a lot of hands on practical lab experience. In first year, you have labs one afternoon a week for 10 weeks (CDD students 7 weeks) but come second and third year, it becomes a lot more hard going as you have labs every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons from 1:30 - 5pm (although with physical chem labs you will more than likely get out earlier). Lab reports are the worst part! If you have any more questions or want to go into further detail, let me know :smile:

Reply 6

VividBandicoot

Original post by ScottishShortiex

I have applied to just straight chemistry at strathclyde and was planning on transferring over to CDD end of 2nd year. I wanted to see first what sort of chemistry classes I preferred as I might hate CDD so didn't want to apply and jump onto that degree straight away.

What exactly did you hate about the pharmaceutics class and organic labs? And how did they differ from analytical chem? Was it too biological?

Reply 7

ScottishShortiex

Original post by Zain-A

Although you can swap chemistry degree streams easily, you say you would potentially like to change to CDD at the start of 3rd year. Yes, people in my year did the same but the only thing is you'll miss out on two years of the molecular properties/pharmaceutics class which aside from missing out on some knowledge, also means that you won't really know if you like that aspect of the course (CDD).

The molecular properties/pharmaceutics classes in first and second year was run by the SIPBS department, not Chemistry and contained the CDD students and all pharmacy students in the same year. I didn't like the way the lecturers seemed to forget we all weren't pharmacy students and the way they run the class. I liked biology but didn't really find it that biological tbh. I just didn't have an interest in anything studied in that class.

In 2nd year, I did the forensic/analytical labs before going on to organic labs. Having loved F&A labs, I hated organic labs because it was one of the lab blocks where you had to find all your own equipment/chemicals (unlike in physical chem and F&A labs) so I felt like a rabbit in headlights and all the reactions took long and occasionally went wrong. From then on, I knew I never wanted to do CDD course or be a synthetic chemist in future.In 3rd year, as much as I knew my way about the lab, basically I got little to no product in my experiments and it just reaffirmed everything I thought of in 2nd year. I also hated the organic lectures as I just couldn't understand mechanisms. However, don't let my opinion cloud your view at all. It is a great course and my friends still love organic labs and the CDD degree stream.