I am currently a second year Chemistry with Biomedicine student, and could not be happier that I chose this course. At 17 years old I found the decision of what degree to do at university incredibly stressful. I wasn’t too sure what career I wanted and didn’t want to risk losing opportunities through my choice of degree. Looking back, I was unnecessarily worried, your degree choice should be what you enjoy and are interested in, and Chemistry with Biomedicine ticks these boxes for me!
I am still glad I picked chemistry because this area of study gives you so many transferable skills. My research, argument and literary skills are constantly being practised and improved with our lab reports and essays, but also through more informal assignments of presentations and posters. You also quickly develop better analytical and mathematical skills through the data you collect in the lab, or data you find in scientific journals.
The biomedicine side to my degree appealed to me because I was always interested in medicine and medical research. Whether that will involve me pursuing something like pharmacology is still a question, but for now this choice is allowing me to take modules I am really interested in and enjoy, such as looking at chemistry within cells, and proteins and much more. The biomedicine modules are very different from the standard chemistry modules, which allows you to learn and explore a diverse range of chemistry.
Lab days are a big part of most science courses, with one full day once a week. I was both excited and nervous about the formality of labs because I knew we would be using far more dangerous chemicals, and more advanced machinery. However, you are constantly surrounded by a team of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and lab leaders who will answer any questions – they are also brilliant at finding a way to help you solve problems! My confidence has grown quickly, and lab days have become my favourite part of the course – being around all your peers, and working in a group means that those days are always fun.
I am glad that when choosing a course, I put aside my stresses about the future, and instead just chose a course I knew I would enjoy. I had always loved chemistry and biology and didn’t want to stop learning more about them. My advice to anyone else, would simply be to do what you enjoy.
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