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

Medicine vs Biomedial science

Some say that biomedical science is a course that 'failed' medics take, and that it isn't as impressive.

Are you more likely to be employed for the same job e.g. in research, if you have a medicine degree, than if you have a biomedical science degree.

Also, if you take medicine and want to be involved in research, you would still have to work with patients as part of the uni course. Therefore, is it worth taking medicine? Can one become a doctor in research with a medicine degree?

Reply 1

ax12

Whilst a lot of people who apply for medicine also apply for biomedical science, it is still a difficult and 'impressive' degree.

If you are interested in research alone, study biomedical science. You will acquire the lab and statistical skills that you need, and learn far more relevant things, as well as making contacts and having careers fairs which introduce you to the varying research jobs that you can apply for.

If you decide to study medicine, you will definitely have to work with patients throughout your degree. It is a very demanding and stressful course, so if you don't enjoy it, it is incredibly difficult to do well. Whilst you can do research during your course and afterwards, there is no point in doing it if you aren't interested in working with patients and becoming a doctor.

Reply 2

StationToStation

Well, do you want to be a doctor? Medicine is a long and expensive degree and if you take it even though you don't intend to be involved in patient care you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money studying things you'll never actually use. There's no point in just doing medicine because "it's more prestigious". If you're interested in biomedical sciences and want to be a researcher, then you should do biomedical sciences at a good uni, get good grades and take up the research opportunities you can get.

Reply 3

nexttime

Original post by Student150

Some say that biomedical science is a course that 'failed' medics take, and that it isn't as impressive.

You're going to dedicate extra years of your life to a less relevant degree because it is less "impressive"?

Medicine is longer, harder, more expensive, less relevant. You could be well on your way to your first PhD by the time you'd finished medicine...

There are plenty of "impressive" universities that offer biomedical science, if that really is your thing. Oxford, for example. Your options are also not limited to biomedicine - there are lots of degrees that offer themselves to medical research. For example, I have a friend ho did chemistry and is now doing drug synthesis work, I even know people that did physics and are now doing conversion courses to work in biophysics. There is also physiology, genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, the list goes on...