Biochemistry degree

8

Hey everyone! Fairly quick one but basically I'm looking at doing a biochemistry degree at uni and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/experiences on this. I'm looking mostly at york uni however anything anyone has to say is appreciated, mostly I'm wondering what the bio/chem split is as I enjoy bits of chem but want to do something more biology focused.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

A biochemistry degree is not a degree in biology and chemistry, nor is it a degree in biological chemistry. It's a bioscience degree in molecular/cell/developmental biology etc. Generally you'll probably have at most one or two dedicated chemistry modules in first year and thereafter none whatsoever.

If you want to study chemistry at degree level (in any capacity) you really need to be doing an actual chemistry degree (or joint honours course with chemistry as part of it, including natural sciences courses incorporating chemistry).

Reply 2

username7292318

14

Original post

by Spartacus__103

Hey everyone! Fairly quick one but basically I'm looking at doing a biochemistry degree at uni and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/experiences on this. I'm looking mostly at york uni however anything anyone has to say is appreciated, mostly I'm wondering what the bio/chem split is as I enjoy bits of chem but want to do something more biology focused.

Biomedical science is another degree you can look at

Reply 3

University of York

Official Rep

13

Original post

by Spartacus__103

Hey everyone! Fairly quick one but basically I'm looking at doing a biochemistry degree at uni and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/experiences on this. I'm looking mostly at york uni however anything anyone has to say is appreciated, mostly I'm wondering what the bio/chem split is as I enjoy bits of chem but want to do something more biology focused.

Hey,

I didn't study Biochemistry but I studied at York so if you have any questions about student life etc., feel free to get in touch!

Hazel 🙂

Reply 4

LittleFire10

14

Original post

by Spartacus__103

Hey everyone! Fairly quick one but basically I'm looking at doing a biochemistry degree at uni and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/experiences on this. I'm looking mostly at york uni however anything anyone has to say is appreciated, mostly I'm wondering what the bio/chem split is as I enjoy bits of chem but want to do something more biology focused.

I assume that you’ve already done this but have a good read of the core and optional modules for biochemistry at York (and other unis) as each one will be slightly different. This will allow you to get a feel of which unis do modules that you are interested in.

Reply 5

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

18

Original post

by Spartacus__103

Hey everyone! Fairly quick one but basically I'm looking at doing a biochemistry degree at uni and just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/experiences on this. I'm looking mostly at york uni however anything anyone has to say is appreciated, mostly I'm wondering what the bio/chem split is as I enjoy bits of chem but want to do something more biology focused.

Hi @Spartacus__103

I'm a biochemistry student at Lancaster, currently in my final year.

As mentioned above, biochemistry is at it's core a bioscience degree, rather than an interdisciplinary degree like natural sciences. I chose Lancaster for biochemistry because my passion is "small" biology, I'm really interested in cellular and subcellular science. I also wanted the option to study some chemistry if I had the chance, and I'd noticed that most biochemistry courses didn't offer any chemistry, or offered one "chemistry for biosciences" module.

The way the biochemistry course works at Lancaster is that there's three pathways, "biochemistry", "biochemistry with genetics", and "biochemistry with biomedicine". The "biochemistry" pathway offered me the option to study all the areas I was interested in, and avoid other areas of biology I was slightly less interested in!

In first year, nearly half of my degree was chemistry, and I attended chemistry lectures alongside pure chemists as well as natural scientists. After first year, the amount of chemistry reduces, typically 3 modules each year which are a combination of analytical and organic chemistry. However, I could switch onto the other pathways to reduce the amount of chemistry and study more biology modules.

Looking at the modules a university offers is super important, as they can vary massively between universities despite the courses having the same name. I'll link the biochemistry course at Lancaster, I believe the pathways are more clearly explained in our bioscience prospectus if you think you'd be interested.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions about studying biochemistry.
Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador)

Biochemistry degree

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