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MSci Chemistry and Biochemistry

I’m thinking of accepting my unconditional offer to study the joint honours in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Southampton university. I like both subjects and I found this course whilst trying to decide whether to study chemistry or Biochemistry at uni so it seemed like the perfect course for my interests. My only concern is after graduation whether I will be disadvantaged if I go into either biochemistry or chemistry, as I will have less knowledge of each subject compared to others who did just the one subject due to there being less modules studied for each subject...what are people’s thoughts on this...?
Outside of academia it won't make any difference.

The main thing to note is on the chemistry side you will only do organic and either inorganic or physical chemistry. This might restrict your options for a PhD if you wanted to go into the other area (e.g. if you did inorganic and wanted to do a physical/theoretical chemistry PhD, or did physical chemistry and wanted to do something with inorganic chemistry). On the biochemistry side you may be less suited for a structural/cell biology project compared to a molecular biology project, but you could probably go into either, and for chemical biology/biological chemistry or more "foundational" areas of biochemistry/molecular biology/genetics you'd probably be very well qualified with the more extensive chemistry background.

@CheeseIsVeg is in that department and might know some doing that course or know more about it otherwise. However I highly doubt it's going to negatively affect your graduate prospects, except in the sense you'll be more focused on the particular intersection of chemistry and biology (biochemistry degrees in the UK tend to skew much more to the biology side, this course is more akin to biochemistry as studied in e.g. the US where it's much more chemistry oriented; research goes in both directions so you have options no matter what). That won't make a difference outside of academia generally, and is actually a positive in academia since the whole point of a PhD is to specialise a great deal in some small area of your field.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by artful_lounger
Outside of academia it won't make any difference.

The main thing to note is on the chemistry side you will only do organic and either inorganic or physical chemistry. This might restrict your options for a PhD if you wanted to go into the other area (e.g. if you did inorganic and wanted to do a physical/theoretical chemistry PhD, or did physical chemistry and wanted to do something with inorganic chemistry). On the biochemistry side you may be less suited for a structural/cell biology project compared to a molecular biology project, but you could probably go into either, and for chemical biology/biological chemistry or more "foundational" areas of biochemistry/molecular biology/genetics you'd probably be very well qualified with the more extensive chemistry background.

@CheeseIsVeg is in that department and might know some doing that course or know more about it otherwise. However I highly doubt it's going to negatively affect your graduate prospects, except in the sense you'll be more focused on the particular intersection of chemistry and biology (biochemistry degrees in the UK tend to skew much more to the biology side, this course is more akin to biochemistry as studied in e.g. the US where it's much more chemistry oriented; research goes in both directions so you have options no matter what). That won't make a difference outside of academia generally, and is actually a positive in academia since the whole point of a PhD is to specialise a great deal in some small area of your field.

Thanks so much for tagging me but you basically nailed it! :lol:
Original post by sciencequestion8
I’m thinking of accepting my unconditional offer to study the joint honours in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Southampton university. I like both subjects and I found this course whilst trying to decide whether to study chemistry or Biochemistry at uni so it seemed like the perfect course for my interests. My only concern is after graduation whether I will be disadvantaged if I go into either biochemistry or chemistry, as I will have less knowledge of each subject compared to others who did just the one subject due to there being less modules studied for each subject...what are people’s thoughts on this...?


Hi there :hello:
I'm actually a 2nd year chemistry student at the University of Southampton and one of my close friends is studying biochemistry!
What I know is that both departments are extremely supportive and there is option for a lot of variety and should you want to change at any time, say, after finding you prefer one sort of chemistry over to biochemistry, you absolutely can! Please don't worry!
It does sound as though this course would be very suited to you and you will get the best out of both in your interests, I wouldn't worry about not doing certain modules that full chem/biochem students do because if there is something you would rather do etc that you find through your course, you can speak to your personal academic tutor about it :yy: they are super supportive and can help you out with anything pretty much!

Something I've always admired about Southampton is that you do get some really cool module choices so make sure you make the most of it for your course!

When it comes to graduating and careers in chem/biochem, think about careers where you will stand out by having both chem and biochemistry experience! E.g pharmaceuticals, drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, links to ecology etc. There are tons!
Careers are great for the department, they always run sessions etc talking about your options and recently I went to one run by alumni talking about how they got to their careers, anything is possible you will not be limited as you have so many transferable skills too!
Feel free to ask any more questions! :smile:
Cheese
(edited 5 years ago)

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