University requirements

fried-wounding

1

Do I need to take physics in AS level if want careers that involve biology (maybe medicine)?

No.

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by fried-wounding

Do I need to take physics in AS level if want careers that involve biology (maybe medicine)?

Not as far as I know. The main subject requirements are Biology and Chemistry.

Physics is required for medicine at Cambridge, but that's a full A Level, not AS.

Even for subjects like Biophysics and Mathematical Biology, you would need Maths primarily and Physics A Levels as a secondary subject. See:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/physics-with-biophysics-bsc
https://www.dundee.ac.uk/undergraduate/mathematical-biology-bsc/entry-requirements (requires chemistry and either biology or physics)
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mathematics/mathsmsci-biology/#entry-requirements

Bioinformatics is something where Physics is used, but it's mostly a postgrad qualification. Also, any bioinformatics jobs that are quantiative in nature tend to accept degrees in physics, maths, and engineering.

Biomedical engineering mostly requires maths, but it can ask for one of the sciences at full A Level (as opposed to AS). If this is something you want to do, they are more or less expecting you to have maths and physics (since it's practically a mechanical engineering degree in a biomedical context).

Reply 3

McGinger

18

No - no Uni is going to specify an AS in Physics as a requirement for Bioscience.

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by MindMax2000

Not as far as I know. The main subject requirements are Biology and Chemistry.

Physics is required for medicine at Cambridge, but that's a full A Level, not AS.

Even for subjects like Biophysics and Mathematical Biology, you would need Maths primarily and Physics A Levels as a secondary subject. See:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/physics-with-biophysics-bsc
https://www.dundee.ac.uk/undergraduate/mathematical-biology-bsc/entry-requirements (requires chemistry and either biology or physics)
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mathematics/mathsmsci-biology/#entry-requirements

Bioinformatics is something where Physics is used, but it's mostly a postgrad qualification. Also, any bioinformatics jobs that are quantiative in nature tend to accept degrees in physics, maths, and engineering.

Biomedical engineering mostly requires maths, but it can ask for one of the sciences at full A Level (as opposed to AS). If this is something you want to do, they are more or less expecting you to have maths and physics (since it's practically a mechanical engineering degree in a biomedical context).

Cambridge medicine don't require physics, you just need to have done maths or physics (after the compulsory biology and chemistry) to realistically make a competitive application, as those without one or the other (i.e. 3 full STEM subjects) do not generally manage to achieve competitive scores in interview.

Natural sciences at Cambridge would most likely expect the third A-level to be maths for bio natsci applicants, although in principle it's not required. But likewise I think those without a third STEM subject will not be able to make a competitive application for much the same reasons as above, and also for natural sciences specifically they have a first year maths paper which if a student hasn't done A-level Maths, will necessitate they cover at least a good chunk of AS Maths in the summer before starting to my knowledge.

Original post by fried-wounding

Do I need to take physics in AS level if want careers that involve biology (maybe medicine)?

No. Cambridge is the only medical school which requires a third STEM subject at all, all others have no preference for your third A-level.

Physics isn't required for any other bioscience degree - as noted above it may well be required for engineering degrees which have a bioscience slant (e.g. biomedical engineering) however those are first and foremost engineering degrees, not bioscience degrees.

It may be useful to have done physics and/or maths to A-level for biochemistry specifically as it involves a bit more maths and physical science elements, but isn't really essential outside of Oxford.

For all other bioscience degrees at basically any other uni, while having a third STEM subject would be useful to improve your overall scientific literacy, it's not required from an admissions perspective.

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