Biochemistry anyone??-York?

yo yo yo, callin all biochemists!!!!
wouldnt mind chattin to sumone whose committin the nxt 3/4 yrs of their life for the sake of the biology and chemistry cross breed. If your goin to York even better cos u'll av to put up with MEEEEE! ah HA.

Any advice is welcome from present or past students of biochem as well.

Will i b considered a geek/boff 4 doin a demandin course?
Is it a bad idea to befriend eng lit students or will i get jelous of their late morning starts and lack of work load in comparison to mine?
Will it really b as hard workin as ppl keep reminding me?

Is university a lot easier than A Levels?

Catxxx

Reply 1

pedy1986

13

piranha85

yo yo yo, callin all biochemists!!!!
wouldnt mind chattin to sumone whose committin the nxt 3/4 yrs of their life for the sake of the biology and chemistry cross breed. If your goin to York even better cos u'll av to put up with MEEEEE! ah HA.

Any advice is welcome from present or past students of biochem as well.

Will i b considered a geek/boff 4 doin a demandin course?
Is it a bad idea to befriend eng lit students or will i get jelous of their late morning starts and lack of work load in comparison to mine?
Will it really b as hard workin as ppl keep reminding me?

Is university a lot easier than A Levels?

Catxxx

Are you trying to say English Lit students are lazy :eek:

Reply 2

picju96

I nearly applied for Biochemistry, then decided to do Biology instead. It's a very demanding course, loads of hours of lectures. Lots of early mornings. Fun though apparently.

Reply 3

Unregistered

yep meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee although not exactly biochem to start off - my firm choice is natural sciences at cambridge. my insurance tho is biochem & genetics at Nottingham (my own fair city :smile:

)

was going to apply to york! but changed mind..

love
rosie

Reply 4

LS.

8

What kind of jobs can you get after doing a biochemical/bioscience course? Can you go into professions in the NHS (non research based)?

Reply 5

black_dragon_9

6

piranha85

yo yo yo, callin all biochemists!!!!
wouldnt mind chattin to sumone whose committin the nxt 3/4 yrs of their life for the sake of the biology and chemistry cross breed. If your goin to York even better cos u'll av to put up with MEEEEE! ah HA.

Any advice is welcome from present or past students of biochem as well.

Will i b considered a geek/boff 4 doin a demandin course?
Is it a bad idea to befriend eng lit students or will i get jelous of their late morning starts and lack of work load in comparison to mine?
Will it really b as hard workin as ppl keep reminding me?

Is university a lot easier than A Levels?

Catxxx

Hello,

I'm doing my 3rd year of Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry (BBC) at Nottingham, so I can give you a rough idea from my experience at Notts.

I did the A Level Chemistry, Biology and Physics and AS Level Maths (ABBA respectively) and my degree is A LOT harder than college. However, my sister did A Level Chemistry, Physics and Art, and then went on to do a degree in Fine Art and said that her degree was a lot less hard work than college. I have also heard a lot of people say that that is the difference between an Arts degree and a Science degree.

I would not say it was as mind boggling and brain-aching as a course like Maths or Physics, but obviously there are difficult concepts to get your head around along the way. However, you cannot get away with just being clever; it is a very time consuming course and the most intelligent people on my course are mid-table results-wise. In order to do well, you have to put the work in no matter what. Only two people got a first overall last year (out of ~35), and those two I would not single out for being particularly clever, but were easily the most dedicated and hard working. Interestingly, they also lived with their parents in Nottingham and socialised a lot less.

Also, my course is partly essay based and thus has the subjective marking that Arts students get (any Arts degree student will tell you that getting a First is very very hard and over 80% is considered to be of journal quality). Whereas pure chemists can and do consistently attain >80%, I know of no BBC students that can do this.

Biochemistry is a practical as well as a theoretical subject and that means lots of hours on campus, and continual assessment as well as exams. Some of my friends do low contact time courses (4 hrs per week as apposed to my 30 ish hrs) and can doss most of the term, and it is very difficult not to be narked when their degree is considered equal to yours when their university life is generally less labour intensive and stressfull. However, I have respect for Arts students and do not have a problem being friends with them. I find that the more contact time I have the more motivated I am, so I might find motivating myself difficult if I did an Arts degree.

However, I am under the impression that biochemistry is a very good area to go into. Certainly, if my Uni's investment is anything to go by, they've just spend millions building a huge new building dedicated to Biomolecular Sciences research and are about to start on an extension to this which is twice the size of the original!!! People with biochemistry degrees can go on to be accountants etc because the skills you learn are highly transferrable. However, it more specifically targets you to do research i.e. help cure cancer, design drugs for disease treatment, become a sales rep for a company that sells research equipment, or involved in more clinical jobs. The people that have dropped out of my degree (about 25% I think) probably have more of a problem with the workload than finding it interesting. I find that the more work I do the more I enjoy it, whereas I hate my degree when I'm behind. During term time I spend 9 or 10am to 10pm on campus, try to study for 11 hours per day, I'm currently heading for a 2(i) and have been offered a PhD. And I'd say I'm of above average intelligence compared to others on my course, but certainly quite a few of my colleagues are more intelligent than me.

The University of York is a very nice university and has a better reputation than Nottingham, in general. Its is ranked 5A and 5B for Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences respectively (Notts is 5A and 5A respectively, and Oxford 5*A and 5A respectively, for a comparison). The campus is nice, big and green, although the architecture is a bit bizarre in places. I was told that Biochemistry is becoming more chemical in general, and I was told that the York degree has a bigger chemical component than most, however, the BBC degree at Nottingham has even more. When I was applying for degrees I was accepted at York, but decided not to go there because of the poor night life(and I wanted the more chemical degree at Notts). Norwich was my clubbing city at college, and York is like Norwich in the north but with a lot less nightclubs (and there aren't very many in Norwich!!). However, York is a beautiful city, probably has a very nice pub culture, but would be more suited to make a nice post-graduate city like Oxbridge IMHO.

Hope this helps,

Roz.

Reply 6

Unregistered

black_dragon_9

Hello,

I'm doing my 3rd year of Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry (BBC) at Nottingham, so I can give you a rough idea from my experience at Notts.

Hiya
Just wondering if you had any experience of he Biochemistry and Genetics course from friends etc? That's my insurance course...

Nottingham is my city but I think I would move out anyway if I went there because the campus is pretty far from where I live, and weighing up either the cost of a car & petrol or public transport, plus 10-20 hours a week just travelling, it's not that much cheaper to luve at home.

rosie

Reply 7

black_dragon_9

6

crana

Hiya
Just wondering if you had any experience of he Biochemistry and Genetics course from friends etc? That's my insurance course...

Nottingham is my city but I think I would move out anyway if I went there because the campus is pretty far from where I live, and weighing up either the cost of a car & petrol or public transport, plus 10-20 hours a week just travelling, it's not that much cheaper to luve at home.

rosie

Hello,

Yeah, I have a few friends that do Biochemistry and Genetics (BG). They're in quite a few of my lecture in the medical school, but obviously do additional more genetics orientated modules. Its a respected course, is three years long and has a year long research project in the final year. You can browse through some of the modules you'll be doing by looking at
http://winster.nottingham.ac.uk/modulecatalogue/asp/main_search.asp
and searching for modules 'by offering uni' of genetics, and also biochemistry. Level 1 = first year and so on. There is a website that lists the exact modules a BG student does, but I think that's only available on campus.

Roz.

Reply 8

black_dragon_9

6

black_dragon_9

Hello,

Yeah, I have a few friends that do Biochemistry and Genetics (BG). They're in quite a few of my lecture in the medical school, but obviously do additional more genetics orientated modules. Its a respected course, is three years long and has a year long research project in the final year. You can browse through some of the modules you'll be doing by looking at
http://winster.nottingham.ac.uk/modulecatalogue/asp/main_search.asp
and searching for modules 'by offering uni' of genetics, and also biochemistry. Level 1 = first year and so on. There is a website that lists the exact modules a BG student does, but I think that's only available on campus.

Roz.

Oh hang on, no, it has it here...
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/prospectuses/undergrad/modules.phtml?code=000211
Under the 'modules' tab.

Roz.

Biochemistry anyone??-York?

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