Vet med or biochem?
Currently studying zoology in my first year but can't decide between transferring to do biochem or veterinary medicine. I know I want to work in a lab setting right now and I know I can do that with both degrees. Vet degree might be more useful as I have more options for the future, but my main interest is the biochem side of things. My question is how much biochem content is covered during the vet course and is it possible to do biochem research with a vet degree? I like to keep my options open for the future.
Original post by Mich999
I know I want to work in a lab setting right now and I know I can do that with both degrees. Vet degree might be more useful as I have more options for the future, but my main interest is the biochem side of things.
Veterinary Science is an incredibly competitive, long, expensive and demanding degree (with a relatively high dropout rate!).
If biochemistry is your passion then I would advise focusing on a 3-year Biochemistry Degree.
I've never seen or heard of someone transferring onto the vet course personally (excluding successful gateway/foundation year students) because its normally so over-subscribed and successful applications take years of planning.
My question is how much biochem content is covered during the vet course and is it possible to do biochem research with a vet degree? I like to keep my options open for the future.
Biochem teaching for vets is fairly basic - cell structures/metabolism/cellular signalling/reproduction/etc.
Theoretically you could maybe get a biochem research role...but doing a 3 or 4 year Biochem degree would be a far more effective and efficient option is that is where your passion lies.
I did zoology in 1st year, transferred to biochem in 2nd, finished and now I'm a 4th year vet student. You can pm me if you wanna talk.
I did try to find a job after graduating in biochemistry but the options are very limited. Your best bet would be getting experience while at uni, including doing a year in industry because the market is saturated with biological science grads so you need to stand out somehow.
But overall there's little chance your job will be strictly biochem focused unless you get into academic research (and the pay isn't great).
I have friends on my vetmed course who weren't 100% sure they wanted to be vets and they're all miserable and regret choosing to study it.
So if your goal is to work in a lab and you have no interest in clinical work whatsoever, I wouldn't bother with vet med.
It's a hard and mentally draining degree.
I did try to find a job after graduating in biochemistry but the options are very limited. Your best bet would be getting experience while at uni, including doing a year in industry because the market is saturated with biological science grads so you need to stand out somehow.
But overall there's little chance your job will be strictly biochem focused unless you get into academic research (and the pay isn't great).
I have friends on my vetmed course who weren't 100% sure they wanted to be vets and they're all miserable and regret choosing to study it.
So if your goal is to work in a lab and you have no interest in clinical work whatsoever, I wouldn't bother with vet med.
It's a hard and mentally draining degree.
Just wanted to agree with the above. I'm obviously only going off the info you provided, and I think if you are just wanting to do biochem, then vet med isn't the course you want to be doing and it will not open very many doors into biochem itself. We do a lot of biology in the sense of anatomy and physiology, chemistry is quite limited imo with just needing to understand basic concepts (A Level chemistry was way harder), and we only really had basic actual 'biochem' labelled stuff in the first 6 weeks of year 1 which I think the vast majority of the course chose to not learn because it's not all that relevant and was only a tiny aspect. It is focused on anatomy/physiology, animal health and welfare, pharmacology, parasitology, pathology, clinical skills etc, as obviously the main goal of vet med is to create vets, even though there are options of research etc too I think I'd be very miserable if I didn't want to be a clinical vet at the end, and you also have to do placements before and during the degree which are hands on and nothing to do with biochem. If the idea of being up at 3am, your 10th hour in the freezing cold with a possibly aggy farmer during lambing and dealing with all sorts of fluids and situations doesn't appeal, I wouldn't bother. A biochem degree will be much easier and be focused on your interests. You also can't just 'transfer' onto a vet med degree, you'd have to apply like everyone else and as above, it is incredibly competitive, you need to meet all the grade and work experience requirements, and I'm also not sure on the rules surrounding applying while you are on a degree and not in your final year, so I don't think it's a massively feasible goal unless you are completely dropping out of zoology and taking a year out to do this and are otherwise very serious about it.
Original post by Nessie162
I did zoology in 1st year, transferred to biochem in 2nd, finished and now I'm a 4th year vet student. You can pm me if you wanna talk.
I did try to find a job after graduating in biochemistry but the options are very limited. Your best bet would be getting experience while at uni, including doing a year in industry because the market is saturated with biological science grads so you need to stand out somehow.
But overall there's little chance your job will be strictly biochem focused unless you get into academic research (and the pay isn't great).
I have friends on my vetmed course who weren't 100% sure they wanted to be vets and they're all miserable and regret choosing to study it.
So if your goal is to work in a lab and you have no interest in clinical work whatsoever, I wouldn't bother with vet med.
It's a hard and mentally draining degree.
I did try to find a job after graduating in biochemistry but the options are very limited. Your best bet would be getting experience while at uni, including doing a year in industry because the market is saturated with biological science grads so you need to stand out somehow.
But overall there's little chance your job will be strictly biochem focused unless you get into academic research (and the pay isn't great).
I have friends on my vetmed course who weren't 100% sure they wanted to be vets and they're all miserable and regret choosing to study it.
So if your goal is to work in a lab and you have no interest in clinical work whatsoever, I wouldn't bother with vet med.
It's a hard and mentally draining degree.
hey man, I have the same confusion between biochem vs vet school, can I pm you to ask more about it?
Original post by _sanchez
hey man, I have the same confusion between biochem vs vet school, can I pm you to ask more about it?
sure no problem
Original post by Nessie162
sure no problem
Pmed
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