Med Science or Pharmacy plz help... (1 Viewer)

[dee777]

Hey everyone,
Im currently in Year12 and putting down my preferences for next year...i really want to do graduate medicine at sydney... The 2 undergraduate courses that im tossing between are pharmacy or medical science. Heres my reasoning but i really need some advice too...

- if i do pharmacy then that way if i dont do well in the gamsat i'll have something to fall back on whereas if i did medical science and didnt do well in the gamsat i wouldnt have too many options career wise.

-medical science is only 3years and if i change my mind about medicine n still wana do pharmacy i can do the gamsat and do only 2 more years for my Masters.

-both Medical science and pharmacy will give me a good science base which will help me with gamsat ...but which will be more beneficial ?

either way im gona sit for the gamsat BUT which to choose ...someone plz help =/

 

[@who]

im stuck between choosing B Med Science/ B Pharm / B Business. Perhaps a double degree might be the option. Apparently 3% of Post grad Med students come from Pharmacy whilst 28% come from the bio sciences/ med sciences, that clear anything? its in the med book from usyd.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Do whichever interests you more, is what I'd suggest.

 

[dee777]

thanks but how am i suppose to know which one "interests" me?? I know theyre both science based and i know that that will interest me...but yeah you havent really helped me here...

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Oh, well I assumed that pharmacy was more practical based and focused on pharmaceuticals (how they work, clinical settings, how to make them and whatever) whereas medsci was a regular science degree based mainly around theory (chemistry, anatomy yada yada). Vocational degree vs. theory degree I suppose.

 

[acehigh16123456]

i dont know wat i want to do for my first degree before going into medicine. there are both pros and cons for each degree. i cant decide between:

B Nursing - gives me a job, experience and knowledge for medicine etc
B Science - gets all the scientific groundwork for medicine like chemistry
B Medical sc - prepares me for medicine degree

can someone help me plz
they all interest me but which one would help in the long run before i get into medicine?

 

[Survivor39]

What I would suggest is that choose which ever is shorter because your end goal is to make it to Medicine. So I would recommend BSc or BMedSc, which are both 3 years in length.

If job prospect is what you are worrying about then I can assure you that if you do well in your degree (but didn't make medicine) you will have jobs available to you. e.g. teaching at university, a research assistant at unviersity labs/hospitals, or a hospital diagnostic technician. There are always research positions available because there are just not enough scientists in Australia.

In BSc/BMedSc, the degrees are more flexible than BPharm. You may choose to specialise in any area of science/medical science. For example, if you are interested in immunology or cancer biology, you can pick all your subjects in this area whereas you have no such choice in Pharmacy.

Please note that UNSW B MedSc offers a MedSc-MBBS transfer opportunity if you do well in the first 2 years of your degree.

I hope this helps.

 

[dee777]

What I would suggest is that choose which ever is shorter because your end goal is to make it to Medicine. So I would recommend BSc or BMedSc, which are both 3 years in length.

If job prospect is what you are worrying about then I can assure you that if you do well in your degree (but didn't make medicine) you will have jobs available to you. e.g. teaching at university, a research assistant at unviersity labs/hospitals, or a hospital diagnostic technician. There are always research positions available because there are just not enough scientists in Australia.

In BSc/BMedSc, the degrees are more flexible than BPharm.


I hope this helps.

Thanks so much it really did help
i think im sticking with Med. science...
is it true you can sit the gamsat as many times as you like?

 

[Survivor39]

Yes you can sit the GAMSAT as many times as you like. I think only the highest score from the two most recent attempts may count towards your application. Please double check.

 

[Addictd2]

There doesnt seem to be a use to take BPharm coz you wanna do Med. seems like a waste of time coz u have to do work placement and stuff to practice. and working in a pharmacy is boring you just stick labels onto boxes.

There isnt much difference between MedSci and BSc (in a pcol, bio, immu type major) coz I do a BSc and my friend does Med Sci and we end up taking the same subjects in first and third years. But if you don't want to do many electives and want a structured degree go med sci.

 

[Templar]

Yes you can sit the GAMSAT as many times as you like. I think only the highest score from the two most recent attempts may count towards your application. Please double check.

Only results in the two years prior to the year you intend to apply counts. So if you want to apply for 2010, then only 2008 and 2009 results are valid for that application.

You specify which result you want the uni to use for your application. Obviously you would go for the highest score, but the choice is up to you.

 

[lala2]

It depends. Everyone here seems to be leaning towards med sc, which is fair enough if you're certain you want to do med and can get in, as it's shorter. In defence of pharmacy--yes I'm biased--I say that med sc only saves you a year, and you have to be really sure that you can get in. Apparently a quarter to half of med sc applies for med, i.e. it's tough competition because everyone wants to get the marks, and at uni (USYD anyway) they scale so it's a ranking basically. And if you don't get in, make sure you're happy being a medical scientist.

Pharmacy proves certainty I think that's its main advantage. You know you will have something to fall back on should you fail to get in, and the career options are more varied than you think they are--hospital and community pharmacy, pharmacy board, nursing homes, pharmaceutical industry marketing and research....so yeah it's not just your local chemist.

If you want flexibility (career wise and subject-wise at uni), pick med sc (or Science). If you want certainty, pick pharm.

 

[Steth0scope]

Apparently 3% of Post grad Med students come from Pharmacy whilst 28% come from the bio sciences/ med sciences, that clear anything? its in the med book from usyd.

That's because HEAPS more med sci students apply than pharmacy students do.

At the end of the day, you have to prioritize and make a decision. I had to make that same decision as you last year and I chose med science and so far it's going pretty good. Don't pick Pharmacy if it's just "something to fall back on". Only pick it if you wanna do it. If you want to do med and that's your number one...then go hard at it dont go half hearted - do med science.