neuroscience or medicine?

Hi! I'm a year 12 student looking at university options.

I'm really fascinated by the brain and how it works - I'm just not sure which course to pursue. I know medicine is long but you can specialise into neuro related subjects and is more patient focused. And I know neuroscience is more lab focused.

Any kind of detail on what these courses are like, the kind of jobs they go into, the pros/cons would be great!!

Reply 1

Democracy

Original post

by Sammyishumannn

Hi! I'm a year 12 student looking at university options.
I'm really fascinated by the brain and how it works - I'm just not sure which course to pursue. I know medicine is long but you can specialise into neuro related subjects and is more patient focused. And I know neuroscience is more lab focused.
Any kind of detail on what these courses are like, the kind of jobs they go into, the pros/cons would be great!!

First question you need to ask yourself is "am I interested in being a doctor" which means having a basic interest in all of medicine including specialties that have very little direct relation to the brain. Medical school is 5/6 years long and with Foundation Training and Internal Medicine Training, it might be 11 years (after you start university) that you actually get to work in anything directly related to the brain.

Work experience can be very useful in helping you decide whether medicine is for you (or not).

This question has been asked many, many times over the years so if you do a search you'll find even more answers.

Reply 2

Darcey08374

Original post

by Sammyishumannn

Hi! I'm a year 12 student looking at university options.
I'm really fascinated by the brain and how it works - I'm just not sure which course to pursue. I know medicine is long but you can specialise into neuro related subjects and is more patient focused. And I know neuroscience is more lab focused.
Any kind of detail on what these courses are like, the kind of jobs they go into, the pros/cons would be great!!

Hi!

I was super stuck between these two even when I applied and actually ending up applying to three med schools and two neuroscience courses. I found that this kept my options open and if I changed my mind I could go either way- you could also do this with four med schools and 1 neuroscience course.

I’ve personally chosen medicine after a long time of deliberating. I researched a lot into both courses/career options and these are the pros and cons I can think of!
It’s also important to consider than you can do medicine then intercalcate (so do a year between 3 and 4) in neuroscience so actually do both!

Medicine (obviously has LOADS of pros and cons, these are the main ones COMPARED to neuroscience):

Cons
- longer course
- harder to get into (need ucat/interview/work experience)
- if neuro is what you are interested in then it’s a long way to go!

Pros
- more practical and people facing
- more job security
- more options for specialisation after
- less hardcore science (that’s a pro for me- I hate lab work and super hard concepts!)
- bigger community (med soc etc)

Neuroscience

Cons
- May be difficult to find work after, especially if you don’t want to work in a lab
- can also be long (masters, phd etc)
- isn’t people facing
- less contact time (at the unis I looked at it was not a lot at all and a LOT of Independent work)

Pros
- easier to get into (this might be a pro for some people)
- super interesting especially if you like the brain
- opportunity to specialise really deeply into something

I would recommend you get some work experience to help you decide if medicine is for you!
Overall I would say neuroscience is looking at the science behind the brain and scientifically how it happens whereas medicine is looking more at the practical side and how we can help it if it goes wrong. Medicine is obviously less research based and much more people facing (more communication etc) and more applying the science rather than researching the theory behind it. However, medicine does offer opportunities for research and you can almost do neuroscience and medicine if you do medicine but not the other way around if that makes sense?

Happy to answer questions about particular neuroscience courses/getting into them/application process etc as I did a lottttt of open days haha!! I also found the courses for neuro that I looked at were much less engaging which personally put me off.

Ultimately I think it’s deciding whether you want to do science or medicine - whilst interlinked I found I didn’t want to sit in lectures and learn hardcore chemistry and then do practicals in a lab, I wanted to be able to speak to people and help in a hands on way. Everyone is different so it’s whatever suits you but id defo try and get some work experience and go to open days to speak to people who have done the courses!

Reply 3

McGinger

Get some relevant work-experience for Med - like regular volunteering/work in a care-home. Then decide if you want a patient focussed role in healthcare, or a more theoretical, academic career in something like Neuroscience.

Reply 4

jn3

Hey. I am final year Neuro student and going to MSc clinical neurology next year with plans to apply to GEM after that. Unlike you, I didn’t consider medicine until I started studying neuro. I did placement on a ward and a lot of my course is clinical application and so I decided I’d like to have my own patients and be involved in the day to day diagnostics and problem solving that comes with neurology. My point is, nothing is set in stone. You could do medicine and then decide to be in research or you could do neuroscience and then do grad entry medicine like me. I agree with previous comments to gain as much experience as you can to decide what most interests you but ultimately you can change in the future. This decision is for your initial uni life, not forever. St John ambulance for patient facing experience, dementia ward volunteering (you may have to be 18 not sure) or even shadowing on one off days. Reach out to doctors, researchers, nurses, anyone in a relevant field. I am told I have a better shot at specialty training post med school with neuro experience, extra degrees and I have papers published so it may be beneficial to you to keep options open.

Reply 5

user_17

Original post

by Sammyishumannn

Hi! I'm a year 12 student looking at university options.
I'm really fascinated by the brain and how it works - I'm just not sure which course to pursue. I know medicine is long but you can specialise into neuro related subjects and is more patient focused. And I know neuroscience is more lab focused.
Any kind of detail on what these courses are like, the kind of jobs they go into, the pros/cons would be great!!

hey i've just finished year 13, and in year 12 i applied to neuroscience/ biomed courses, and ended up firming Natural Science from Durham to do biology and psychology. but this year i've decided i'm going to apply for medicine.
my reasons for this were:

•

in terms of career afterwards, medicine has a much clearer path and there are also more options. with neuroscience i didn't want to just be stuck in a lab as a career. also i'm sure all the careers you'd get with a neuro degree could be done with a med degree

•

i really like human anatomy, which would be covered more, and more interesting in med school

•

medicine is focused very much on humans, rather than a lot of neuro courses use rats/ non human animals for research

•

if i do change my mind, i'd rather do a med undergrad and neuro masters, than neuro undergrand and postgrad med. this is just personal preference i think

•

i'm thinking i'll intercalate in med school/ do a masters after as i'm still interested in neuroscience. i've also considered potentially being a physician-scientist in the far future, where you're basically part time doctor, part time researcher (which you might be interested in)

if you're not fully sure on doing medicine, you could always apply for neuroscience and then see how you feel (like me) or not apply and take a gap year so you have some more time to figure out what you want to do!

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