Medicine, Dentisry or Pharmacy?

I’m so torn between whether I should choose Medicine, Dentistry or Pharmacy. I’ve done work experience for all of them and I enjoyed them all so much. I have the right grades and subjects for them too but I’m just so confused which one would be the best career in terms of salary, flexibility and providing a comfortable life.

I’m so torn between whether I should choose Medicine, Dentistry or Pharmacy. I’ve done work experience for all of them and I enjoyed them all so much. I have the right grades and subjects for them too but I’m just so confused which one would be the best career in terms of salary, flexibility and providing a comfortable life.

Hi Anonymous0ph13,
Honestly, that is such a tough decision & can see why you're struggling to decide. Congratulations on the grades btw!
So, with medicine, your salary would depend on where you work. If you're in London, your starting salary would be:
£37k per year (full time).
You're in the hospital on shifts quite often with 1 or 2 days off. Being a doctor in a hospital is chaotic & you're often running around everywhere (so you always have something to do). If you like that, great! Your wage would increase with experience but that all depends on what type of doctor you are. I suppose medicine is a great course as you have the option of specializing in anything you want in medicine. You can pick high intensity medicine or low intensity medicine with decent wages. With medicine, you have the flexibility of any career your want & aren't stuck in one career unlike the other two.
With dentistry, it is quite relaxed & chilled out. What's good about dentistry is that if you own the practice, you choose your schedule. Plus, your pay is decent with it being:
£50k to £101k per year.
Salary is great, flexibility if your choice thus leading to a comfortable life.
You have different career options from there & can specialize in different dental careers. If you want to go into different areas of the body, you're pretty much restricted to just the mouth which is a downfall.
With pharmacy, your salary would start from £30k per year & gradually increases depending on what you specialize in next. You could become a pharmaceutical scientist if you want to. Specialize or management roles have a salary of £50k per year.
Thing is, pharmacy is a high stress job which can lead to burnout.
By the looks of it, medicine & dentistry is quite good as they are both flexible & there's quite a lot you can do with it unlike pharmacy. They all have their downfalls though & their good parts.
Does this help? If you want to discuss this more let me know.
Kind regards,
Jiya Mahmood
Forensic Medical Science Year 2
University of Bradford Student Room Rep

Hi, I love chemistry a lot and think pharmacy is a calm environment and how is stressful? Do you think it would be a mistake to go for pharmacy. Just would like a honest opinion and not biased

Hi Anonymous0ph13,
Honestly, that is such a tough decision & can see why you're struggling to decide. Congratulations on the grades btw!
So, with medicine, your salary would depend on where you work. If you're in London, your starting salary would be:
£37k per year (full time).
You're in the hospital on shifts quite often with 1 or 2 days off. Being a doctor in a hospital is chaotic & you're often running around everywhere (so you always have something to do). If you like that, great! Your wage would increase with experience but that all depends on what type of doctor you are. I suppose medicine is a great course as you have the option of specializing in anything you want in medicine. You can pick high intensity medicine or low intensity medicine with decent wages. With medicine, you have the flexibility of any career your want & aren't stuck in one career unlike the other two.
With dentistry, it is quite relaxed & chilled out. What's good about dentistry is that if you own the practice, you choose your schedule. Plus, your pay is decent with it being:
£50k to £101k per year.
Salary is great, flexibility if your choice thus leading to a comfortable life.
You have different career options from there & can specialize in different dental careers. If you want to go into different areas of the body, you're pretty much restricted to just the mouth which is a downfall.
With pharmacy, your salary would start from £30k per year & gradually increases depending on what you specialize in next. You could become a pharmaceutical scientist if you want to. Specialize or management roles have a salary of £50k per year.
Thing is, pharmacy is a high stress job which can lead to burnout.
By the looks of it, medicine & dentistry is quite good as they are both flexible & there's quite a lot you can do with it unlike pharmacy. They all have their downfalls though & their good parts.
Does this help? If you want to discuss this more let me know.
Kind regards,
Jiya Mahmood
Forensic Medical Science Year 2
University of Bradford Student Room Rep

hey i don’t think doing pharmacy is a good idea. it’s a very saturated job, stressful (especially in community), pay isn’t as good as people make it out to be, very little career progression, don’t pick it because you like chemistry, i did the same thing and now i’m dropping pharmacy to go do something else