Chemistry vs Natural Sciences

Original post by KingNurple

Hello, I made a post previously asking about Lancaster University for UCAS Extra and I have had lots of people telling me to apply for Natural Sciences more than Chemistry. What's the main difference between the two and do employers find one better?
I would like to do a MSc in nuclear decommissioning and waste management at Birmingham after the degree so would it be better to do Natural Sciences? If so what pathways should I take for it?
Thanks for answering all of my questions aha

Hi @KingNurple

Natural Sciences allows for a lot of freedom in the modules / topics you study as it allows you to take modules from different degree schemes.

Whether you should take Chemistry or Natural Sciences is completely up to you. Both would give you a strong science degree. Does the MSc Nuclear Commissioning course have entry requirements that specify which degree courses they’ll admit?

My advice would be to consider whether you’d prefer to study just chemistry or if you’d prefer to study another one or two subjects alongside chemistry. How much you’ll enjoy the course should be your top priority.

Let me know if you have any questions about student life at Lancaster.

Tineke
Lancaster Student Ambassador

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 2

Original post by KingNurple

Hello, I made a post previously asking about Lancaster University for UCAS Extra and I have had lots of people telling me to apply for Natural Sciences more than Chemistry. What's the main difference between the two and do employers find one better?
I would like to do a MSc in nuclear decommissioning and waste management at Birmingham after the degree so would it be better to do Natural Sciences? If so what pathways should I take for it?
Thanks for answering all of my questions aha

Hey!

I’m Oliver and am currently a third year in natural sciences at Lancaster studying synthetic chemistry and biochemistry pathways so hopefully I can give some insight into both natural sciences and chemistry.

Chemistry at Lancaster is great as it gives you a deep insight into all areas of chemistry such as organic synthesis, catalysis, thermodynamics, kinetics and even computational quantum chemistry which is a very exciting field. Single honour chemistry has less optional modules but allows you to really focus in depth on a specific field and build up a full profile of all aspects of chemistry. I have really loved all of my chemistry modules with my favourite definitely being the organic chemistry modules as I find it fascinating investigating the reactivity of different functional groups.

As Tineke said, natural sciences is a much more flexible degree allowing you to study pathways across two or three different departments which gives scope for you to follow multiple interests and see how different subjects interlink. At Lancaster we have pathways across all branches of chemistry, physics, maths, biology, geography and psychology, along with many more. The full list of pathways for Lancaster along with the modules currently run can be found here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/natural-sciences/

For anyone choosing pathways I would always say to follow where your interests and passions lie and there is always to to alter you pathway choices as you progress through your degree. After first year many of the modules are optional so you can really get creative with how much you weight each pathway. For me this was extremely valuable as I was able to drop my physical chemistry pathway after first year to allow for a greater focus on biochemistry.

If you are interested in nuclear decommissioning, I would say that any of the chemistry, physics or engineering pathways would be great and you could even combine it with something such as environmental science. I know we currently run an environmental chemistry pathway too which currently has a module called "The Causes and Consequences of Environmental Radioactivity" in third year which could be interesting.
Just to note that some pathways such as physics, engineering and environmental chemistry are double weighted so can only be taken with one other pathway.

In terms of employability, both degrees will really stand out to employers so I would definitely go with whichever you think you will enjoy more.
Hope that is helpful and best of luck with your decision 😊 Feel free to ask me any other questions if you have any

Oliver (Student Ambassador)

Reply 3

Original post by KingNurple

Hello, I made a post previously asking about Lancaster University for UCAS Extra and I have had lots of people telling me to apply for Natural Sciences more than Chemistry. What's the main difference between the two and do employers find one better?
I would like to do a MSc in nuclear decommissioning and waste management at Birmingham after the degree so would it be better to do Natural Sciences? If so what pathways should I take for it?
Thanks for answering all of my questions aha

Hi there,

I have just graduated from the BSc Natural Sciences at Lancaster and thought I could add some insight, I'm currently studying an MSc in Mechanical Engineering. I've also secured a graduate scheme in Nuclear Fusion starting in September. The variety of subjects and working that Natural Sciences offered was definitely a plus to my application. The one potential drawback to Natural Sciences is that employers may not know what you have specialised in from reading your degree title, this would likely be less of an issue in applications for Masters courses though.

With Natural Sciences at Lancaster, you could study Chemical Engineering alongside one of the Chemistry pathways, the engineering component could be quite relevant to nuclear decommissioning depending on the area of nuclear decommissioning that you want to go into. Overall, studying the pathways that look interesting to you would be the best way to go. If you wanted some more insight then there are open days in July where Natural Sciences and Chemistry should be offering information talks, etc.

Good luck with all your choices and if you have any more questions just let me know!

-Bethan (Lancaster University Student Ambassador)

Reply 4