Medicine or pharmacy??

Hi,
basically i have always had in my mind that i wanted to do medicine but now that ive been thinking more about it i think its just too competitive and i may not get in. The statistics aren't good either as noone in my school got accepted into a medical school last year. M biggest worry is not getting that A in chemistry but i know that sone unis like UEA don't have chemistry as an essential requirement.

Do you think i should just go for pharmacy which don't mind a B in chemistry or take the risk of doing medicine and not getting into uni??
My grades are
GCSE: 2A 12A*
As LEVEL: BAAA ( CHEM, BIO,MATHS AND PSYCHO)

thanks for any advice in advance :smile:

Reply 1

kc91

11

Original post by violarose

Hi,
basically i have always had in my mind that i wanted to do medicine but now that ive been thinking more about it i think its just too competitive and i may not get in. The statistics aren't good either as noone in my school got accepted into a medical school last year. M biggest worry is not getting that A in chemistry but i know that sone unis like UEA don't have chemistry as an essential requirement.

Do you think i should just go for pharmacy which don't mind a B in chemistry or take the risk of doing medicine and not getting into uni??
My grades are
GCSE: 2A 12A*
As LEVEL: BAAA ( CHEM, BIO,MATHS AND PSYCHO)

thanks for any advice in advance :smile:

don't do pharmacy if you are not confident with chemistry. about 1/3rd of a pharmacy degree is based on chemistry. basically where medics do their anatomy, we do modules on chemistry/drug design/formulation etc. pharmacy is easy to get into but hard to stay on. if you want to do medicine, do that. chemistry isn't really a bit deal for medicine as it is for pharmacy.

Reply 2

ronaldo_92

what do the other 2/3rds consist of, as i will be starting in september.

Reply 3

deltaforce456

6

If you have your heart set on medicine, then go for it!!! As i always say, if your in the playing field, (grades are good to apply), why stop yourself due to competition, most that will apply will have same grades as you!!!
Get the medical school book and get revising!!! Theres no limit, endless opportunities, just go for it!!!!
If you dont get in, then have a back up!!! Optometry, Pharmacy, Biomedical Scientist.........

Reply 4

member327593

I think your grades are good enough for medicine, if you have a decent ps i think you should give it a shot. And put pharamacy as ur 5th choice

Reply 5

John Locke

12

at the vast majority of medical schools you aren't really much, if any, worse off with AAAB at AS than AAAA so it should not make you reconsider your eligability to apply. If that is enough to discourage you though i would think about how much you actually want to do the course in the first place....

Reply 6

kc91

11

Original post by ronaldo_92

what do the other 2/3rds consist of, as i will be starting in september.

1/3rd is chemistry based - drug design, drug formulation which is classed as pharmaceutics
1/3rd is life science - pharmacology mainly but also microbiology, biochem, anatomy, physiology (anatomy and physiology are very small)
1/3rd pharmacy practice - learning how to dispense, counselling patients, health promotion, drug calculations, pharmacy law and ethics, primary and secondary care placements

Reply 7

violarose

OP

2

Original post by John Locke

at the vast majority of medical schools you aren't really much, if any, worse off with AAAB at AS than AAAA so it should not make you reconsider your eligability to apply. If that is enough to discourage you though i would think about how much you actually want to do the course in the first place....

Its that it its discouraged me from doing medicine, i just want to be realistic and dont want to risk not getting into uni...

Reply 8

elsa10

7

Original post by violarose

Its that it its discouraged me from doing medicine, i just want to be realistic and dont want to risk not getting into uni...

If you want to do medicine apply to that. If you are not fully committed to pharmacy you will struggle with the degree . The thing with pharmacy (both the degree and the career) is that they are extremely underrated and people often think it is easy. In reality they have to do just as much as medics and the workload is similar but in a different way obviously. Yes it may be easy to get onto at some pharmacy schools, but the degree is hard to progress through and if the GPhC have their way it will be getting harder because they want the minimum pass rate for all modules (with the exception of the maths ones) to be 50% not 40 like it is for others (currently all pharmacy practice modules are 50% and all calculations are 70%). To become a proper pharmacist you also have to do a pre-reg exam which has to be passed at 70% and even a fair amount of people who are motivated struggle to pass that and have to redo the year. The other issue with pharmacy is that in order to secure a decent pre-reg post (which in turn helps with the pre-reg exam) you need to do summer vacation placements which are 6 or 8 weeks long - these are very competitive to get and without them you won't get the best jobs.

If you don't want to be a pharmacist or are only doing it because you haven't got the guts to go for medicine, then you seriously need to reconsider that choice aswell because I can guarantee that you won't get far with it. I suggest you get some decent work experience in both fields. If you want to be realistic you need to re-evaluate your options.

Reply 9

Monco

Pharmacy is much harder than medicine, conceptually. If you are not fully committed, you will fail. Beware.

Reply 10

ViceVersa

3

Passion for medicine is knowing that you run the risk of not being accepted the first year round, but knowing that, while you will be very upset, you still hold the passion and drive to apply the second time. So I can't help but question your passion if the risk of not getting in and the competitiveness is enough to discourage you..

Reply 11

violarose

OP

2

Original post by violarose

Its that it its discouraged me from doing medicine, i just want to be realistic and dont want to risk not getting into uni...

I mean that its NOT discouraged me, i am really passionate about doing medicine, dont get me wrong, its not as if i just woke up one morning and said " hey maybe i should do pharmacy" I have been thinking about it for a long time..
It easy to say oh try and if you dont get in you can try again next year... this only makes getting in harder in actual fact :frown:

I'm not worried about how hard the pharmacy course is compared to medicine becuase i'm aware that whatever course you do in uni it won't be easy.

But realistically do you think i will be better off doing pharmacy over medicine?? ( in terms of competitiveness because that really is an issue for me) :smile:

Reply 12

ViceVersa

3

Original post by violarose

It easy to say oh try and if you dont get in you can try again next year... this only makes getting in harder in actual fact :frown:

Wrong. If you get all rejections applying again won't necessarily mean its harder. You will have one year to improve your whole application, get some more work experience, improve on your extracurriculars, and grow in terms of maturity. You will have more time to work on a lot of things that maybe went wrong so in fact you stand a stronger chance :smile:

Reply 13

Elwyn

17

It will be pretty easy to get that B to an A in Chemistry. I done it with all of my AS grades, you only have to worry about one.

Reply 14

sd91

1

Original post by violarose

I mean that its NOT discouraged me, i am really passionate about doing medicine, dont get me wrong, its not as if i just woke up one morning and said " hey maybe i should do pharmacy" I have been thinking about it for a long time..
It easy to say oh try and if you dont get in you can try again next year... this only makes getting in harder in actual fact :frown:

I'm not worried about how hard the pharmacy course is compared to medicine becuase i'm aware that whatever course you do in uni it won't be easy.

But realistically do you think i will be better off doing pharmacy over medicine?? ( in terms of competitiveness because that really is an issue for me) :smile:

a career in medicine is competitive at every stage. in reality getting in is the easy bit because you will always face competition when applying for posts. if you are getting scared of competition now, i don't understand how you would cope with the rest of the training pathway so i don't think medicine is good for you if you cannot get over this aspect of competition. i also don't think you understand the nature of both medicine and pharmacy properly. pharmacy will be getting very competitive in the future becuase there are a number of new pharmacy schools and graduates competing for the jobs. you also have stated yourself that chemistry is a weakness and looking at the replies on this thread, pharmacy may not be for you either. you are better off leaving the medicine and pharmacy applications to those who are ready to compete and have actual passion for the subjects because if you really wanted to do either career you wouldn't be writing this post.

btw - i had to apply to medicine 3 times before i got in. my school never supported my app but i managed to get a place despite this. then i missed my offers and it took all the strength i had to reapply 2 more times. if you can't apply once then what does it show about your suitability for med?

Reply 15

violarose

OP

2

Original post by sd91

.

btw - i had to apply to medicine 3 times before i got in. my school never supported my app but i managed to get a place despite this. then i missed my offers and it took all the strength i had to reapply 2 more times. if you can't apply once then what does it show about your suitability for med?

But thats three years of your life wasted..... its not that i don't want to apply but the medicine course is already five years and trying and trying again and again not only wastes more years but doesn't necessarily make you more suitable for medicine...

Reply 16

sd91

1

Original post by violarose

But thats three years of your life wasted..... its not that i don't want to apply but the medicine course is already five years and trying and trying again and again not only wastes more years but doesn't necessarily make you more suitable for medicine...

i'm not even going to explain what is wrong with this post because clearly you aren't listening to what people are saying on this thread. in the end i got in and i certainly don't see it as wasting three years - i learnt more about myself in the 2 gap years that i had than in the 20 years prior to them.

Reply 17

violarose

OP

2

Original post by sd91

i'm not even going to explain what is wrong with this post because clearly you aren't listening to what people are saying on this thread. in the end i got in and i certainly don't see it as wasting three years - i learnt more about myself in the 2 gap years that i had than in the 20 years prior to them.

Its not that im not listening its personal opinion you see it as 2 years as "finding yourself", i feel for me it would be two years wasted...

Reply 18

petzneo

15

Original post by violarose

Its not that im not listening its personal opinion you see it as 2 years as "finding yourself", i feel for me it would be two years wasted...

Well then, apply for medicine and put pharmacy as your 5 choice if you are still unsure.

Tbh if you want to do medicine, either stop worrying and get the grades or do biomed, don't have pharmacy as a back up for the sake of it.

Pharmacy is tough, it is a profession in it's own right and requires real commitment..

Go do some research, talk to students on the pharmacy forum etc before you make your final decision.

Good luck.

Reply 19

Egypt

9

Just my humble opinion but out of a potential 40 year career, a year or two not climbing the ladder does not necessarily mean wasted time.

Look at the bigger picture and then decide what you want to do.

Medicine or pharmacy??

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