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Forensic pathologists

Do I have to go straight to med school or go uni and get degree in forensics science / biomed science then get degree then go med school?

Reply 1

You can do either. Both can get you a degree in forensic pathology, as long as you do a degree in medicine (graduate or not)

Reply 2

Original post
by cee278
Do I have to go straight to med school or go uni and get degree in forensics science / biomed science then get degree then go med school?

What do you want your job to look like?

Do you want to be involved in the patient-facing*, clinically oriented aspect of forensic pathology? Where you'd need to be aware of the rest of medicine and surgery in order to come up with a diagnosis/report? Performing post-mortems, being questioned in court about cause of death etc? Then, yes, you need to study medicine and histopathology specialty training.

*The patient is usually dead but that still counts 🙃

Reply 3

Original post
by Democracy
What do you want your job to look like?
Do you want to be involved in the patient-facing*, clinically oriented aspect of forensic pathology? Where you'd need to be aware of the rest of medicine and surgery in order to come up with a diagnosis/report? Performing post-mortems, being questioned in court about cause of death etc? Then, yes, you need to study medicine and histopathology specialty training.
*The patient is usually dead but that still counts 🙃


Oh ok thank you

Reply 4

Original post
by AsBr2008
You can do either. Both can get you a degree in forensic pathology, as long as you do a degree in medicine (graduate or not)


Thank you , I think I will get my masters in forensics then go med school

Reply 5

Original post
by cee278
Thank you , I think I will get my masters in forensics then go med school

Are you currently in sixth form? What A-levels are you doing/will be doing/have done? If you're doing the right A-levels, you can apply for the undergraduate medicine degree. It is much cheaper and significantly less competitive than GEM. Also if you're going for GEM, I would recommend just getting a bachelors in any subject (you can do forensics) and then applying for medicine - a master's degree would be extra time and money for the same chances into med school (For GEM, I don't believe most care what your degree is in or whether it is undergraduate/postgraduate)

Reply 6

Original post
by AsBr2008
Are you currently in sixth form? What A-levels are you doing/will be doing/have done? If you're doing the right A-levels, you can apply for the undergraduate medicine degree. It is much cheaper and significantly less competitive than GEM. Also if you're going for GEM, I would recommend just getting a bachelors in any subject (you can do forensics) and then applying for medicine - a master's degree would be extra time and money for the same chances into med school (For GEM, I don't believe most care what your degree is in or whether it is undergraduate/postgraduate)


Oh okay, im currently doing lv3 applied science. Would you recommend I go straight into med school? And how are the ucat exams like how do you prepare for them content wise?

Reply 7

Original post
by cee278
Oh okay, im currently doing lv3 applied science. Would you recommend I go straight into med school? And how are the ucat exams like how do you prepare for them content wise?

Some unis accept the applied science BTEC (I think Bristol does, maybe more?), but your choices would be limited. Many unis also have a foundation year which accept applied science, so you could have a look at those, but the degree will be 6 years instead of 5. As for the UCAT, I haven't done my yet so there are better people to ask on this site, but I've heard medify is pretty good.

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