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Geology or Biochemistry degree?

Hey guys,

So I've received an offer to study biochemistry. Initially, I thought this is what I wanted to do - I had quite a strong interest in medicine but decided I'd prefer to go down the research route, so biochem seemed perfect. I am interested in both biology and chemistry so it seemed rational to pick this subject. However, I am now kind of having second thoughts. I've noticed that I'm not as interested in medical research/human biology as I was once before.

I've always loved physical geography and it is definitely my strongest subject, during both GCSE and A-Level. I thought about a geography degree during secondary school but after some research decided against it as it wasn't really sciencey enough for me. I also dismissed geology too without doing much research, as I believed it wouldn't be a very strong degree to have, so I focused more on the biology/chemistry route. After recently researching geology more deeply I've found that it actually looks very interesting, much like physical geography but much more scientific and much more in-depth.

It's such a tough decision to make because both degrees look interesting, I just cannot decide which one would be best for me. I'd love to hear from some people who are studying/have studied geology or biochem, how you're finding the course and what kind of job prospects are ect

Thanks!
(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

Original post by lcmari12
Hey guys,
So I've received an offer to study biochemistry. Initially, I thought this is what I wanted to do - I had quite a strong interest in medicine but decided I'd prefer to go down the research route, so biochem seemed perfect. I am interested in both biology and chemistry so it seemed rational to pick this subject. However, I am now kind of having second thoughts. I've noticed that I'm not as interested in medical research/human biology as I was once before.
I've always loved physical geography and it is definitely my strongest subject, during both GCSE and A-Level. I thought about a geography degree during secondary school but after some research decided against it as it wasn't really sciencey enough for me. I also dismissed geology too without doing much research, as I believed it wouldn't be a very strong degree to have, so I focused more on the biology/chemistry route. After recently researching geology more deeply I've found that it actually looks very interesting, much like physical geography but much more scientific and much more in-depth.
It's such a tough decision to make because both degrees look interesting, I just cannot decide which one would be best for me. I'd love to hear from some people who are studying/have studied geology or biochem, how you're finding the course and what kind of job prospects are ect
Thanks!

Hey, I feel the same way as you! What degree did you end up chosing?

Reply 2

Original post by DaydreamingTeen
Hey, I feel the same way as you! What degree did you end up chosing?

Hey, so I ended up choosing biochemistry - going into my final year soon! If you have any questions u wanna ask or need some advice feel free to drop me a message!

Reply 3

Original post by lcmari12
Hey, so I ended up choosing biochemistry - going into my final year soon! If you have any questions u wanna ask or need some advice feel free to drop me a message!

Oh cool! What made you chose biochem? (I'm on the fence with biochem vs geography)

Reply 4

With geo there's town planning as a job. But with biochem there's a direct job market. I have done some research, but I feel like your post, like your exact words lol

Reply 5

Original post by DaydreamingTeen
Oh cool! What made you chose biochem? (I'm on the fence with biochem vs geography)

So I sort of drifted towards biochemistry because of the career prospects - there are a lot of potential careers to choose from and the research field is so vast. Even if you didn’t want to go into a lab based job, there are so many other options in the pharmaceutical industry like clinical trials administration/medical affairs which one of my friends is actually doing as part of her placement year. I will say though that most graduate jobs in biochem/the pharmaceutical industry will require a masters or some form of post graduate study, as it’s quite competitive but there are still plenty of opportunities, and a lot of people naturally lead into a masters course after their bachelor’s which is what I plan to do. And if you decide you want to go into a completely different industry, biochemistry is still a very impressive degree to hold and you will be able to demonstrate excellent problem solving, data analysis and teamwork from lab projects.

I think what put me off the geology/geography route was that I couldn’t really find any examples of careers that I’d actually want to go into afterwards. Geography is still an excellent subject and you pick up a lot of skills from it but it doesn’t lead directly into an industry, whereas with biochemistry there’s so much choice - neuroscience, forensics, microbiology, pharmacology etc. I don’t know of anyone who studied Geography but one of my friends who studied Geology has recently graduated and works at BP, and another friend of mine studied Environmental Science and is now doing a placement year at EDF Energy - I think a lot of people in this field tend to go into the oil and gas industry if that’s something you’re interested in. Personally, I felt like I would be happier going more into the pharmaceutical industry or possibly branching into research and lab work, so that led me to picking biochemistry.

I hope this helps and let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know!

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