Pharmacy or Biomed

Hi, I’ve been offered these two courses at uni, I’m currently yr 13, and am not sure which one to pick out of the two. If there is anyone who does either of these courses or has done both, could you please advise which one you would recommend. Thank you ☺️

Reply 1

oliviacranfield3

I haven't done either but I was debating the same thing. I decided to go for pharmacy because i decided i wanted to learn about the process of manufacturing, distributing and dosages or the drugs aswell as how they effect the body. I think BioMed is alot more complicated, exploring every aspect of medicine and biology including; how cells, organs and systems function in the human body and treatment of human diseases.

I also was thinking about my prospectus after university, doing MPharm, if I pass my degree I will have another year of training and be a qualified pharmacist with a job prospectus. Whereas, BioMedicine i believe is more complicated, so you can apply the degree in a some Jobs and will be a qualified biomedical scientist.

It depends on preference I know, just thought I'd share my thought process, hope it helps :smile:

Reply 2

waffle9090

Well my plan was/is doing a gap year to reapply to dentistry. Biomed and pharmacy is a back up. This year I was offered both biomed and pharmacy and was thinking of deferring it to 2022 whilst opening a new application to reapply to dentistry. Incase dentistry doesn’t work out again, I will then have the option of taking either biomed or Pharmacy. I hope this is possible. In the worst case scenario I would then have to choose between biomed or pharmacy so needed a little help deciding which one to go for. I wasn’t intending on doing graduate entry medicine/dentistry as I’m aware this is very difficult. What would you advise?

If things don’t go to plan after my gap year should I just take biomed/ pharmacy to apply graduate entry? And which career has great job prospects?

Thank you

Reply 3

waffle9090

Original post by oliviacranfield3

Ah thank you so much, this is very helpful. I’m struggling to decide between the two as I was originally going to to Biomed as a back up option as it most similar to what I was planning on doing - dentistry but at the same time I’m aware that it is a lot more oversubscribed, there’s so many people with biomed degrees. On the other hand there will always be a need for pharmacists, I think it’s easier to get a job straight out of uni/training but I think the career might get a bit repetitive - but so does any other career I guess.

Reply 4

waffle9090

Hmmm yes I’ve also read that pharmacists don’t get paid enough for their work. Ok thanks for the advice, I’m more likely going to take a gap year and reapply but my fear is that maybe I’m not cut out to be a healthcare professional after getting 4 rejections and history is going to repeat itself.

Reply 5

oliviacranfield3

Original post by waffle9090

You're welcome and yes i think pharmacy will be repetitive also, biomed degree will be tougher but maybe more rewarding. For me I liked the content of the pharmacy degree and the idea of having a higher likelihood of getting a job after graduation because I know I am going to be a broke uni student after uni.

Hope everything goes well

Reply 6

waffle9090

Original post by oliviacranfield3

Thanks! And yes there’s pros and cons to each career I suppose. Ahahah we’re all gonna be broke uni students. Good luck with your application!!

Reply 7

waffle9090

Yh UCAT was definitely an issue (2580 B1) which led to 2 pre-interview rejections and 2 post due to lower interview performance. I’m not sure where I went wrong with ucat, I did soooo much preparation, close to 10,000 questions + reviewing them but never improved, I suppose my techniques were wrong. Any trips on improving ucat and interview performance (I tend to get really nervous and stutter as a result)?

Thank you so much!!

Best to take a gap year and reapply if you want to do dentistry. I did the same and don’t regret it. Courses such as biomed and pharmacy tend to be in clearing anyway so if you didn’t get into dent then you can always find something in clearing

Reply 10

waffle9090

Original post by Dexter3456

Oh I didn’t realise pharmacy is usually in clearing - thanks for that! Yes that’s a very good point actually I can always apply through clearing. Thank you!

Reply 11

lovinglife302

I was in your position last year trying to decide. Ultimately I think the question comes down to: do you want to know the hard science and mechanisms of the body and how the drugs work (a little bit) or do you want to know how drugs work in depth and have that patient contact>