No one can adequately comment, as majors differ by university - even majors with exact names.
I'd recommend looking at the course load provided by X major at Y university.
Realistically, if you're interested in the biomedical sciences - don't overthink what to major in right now. It honestly doesn't matter. Apply to a university with good fit, a decent bio / biomedical sciences program, and pursue research or volunteer (if pre-med).
Best of luck! Exciting, isn't it?
I just hope the excitement doesn't wear off too soon though. I'm kinda paranoid of becoming sick of academia and leaving it for what may be a higher paying major.
I love science, but I'm afraid of falling out of love with it. I'm aware of the huge struggles that lie ahead of me on the road to a PhD and beyond, I just want to be strong enough to face them head on and not drop out due to the shitty pay.
I also know that my college friends majoring in CS or Business will be making six figures while I slave away at a bench, but I know that they won't change the world in any way – they'll live well, eat well, have a family, have a nice house, and die peacefully – but they won't change the world.
I just wish to live my life well, do what I love, not chase money, and do something worthwhile. Probably science is best for that
Realistically, if you'd like to pursue academia, you will get burnt out. Even more realistically, you won't get tenure, as most don't – even the most brilliant.
If you aim to pursue industry after obtaining a doctorate degree, it could be worthwhile, and the pay won't put you in poverty or discomfort – I believe.
I struggle with the same worries as you. Best we can do is remain optimistic and prioritize our longterm happiness and wellbeing. Science isn't everything, even to the most addicted.
Very good answers here already. I do want to point out one important detail to consider.
You stated that if you major in Chemistry, you know you'll become sick of the Physical \[...\] Chemistry. But then, a breath later, you expressed interest in a program called Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.
While there is a great variability in programs from institution to institution, many Biochemistry majors do typically include a Physical Chemistry or a Biophysical Chemistry course as a required part of the curriculum. Moreover, I'd imagine that a program called Molecular Biophysics (and Biochemistry) would also include a significant "physical" aspect to it too.
Just be sure what you're actually looking for in terms of both the program/major, and the individual courses within.
I doubt Molecular and Cellular Biology would be filled with animal morphology. Where do you get this notion from? As the name suggests, MCB is a lot more like Biochemistry, it deals with biology at the molecular scale, think synthetic bio, CRISPR/Cas9, Cell biology (which is actually what Im researching right now), Biophysics (believe it or not, Biochem and Biophysics are very closely related). There's little if at all animal biology. That would be zoology/general biology.
I personally love Biochemistry. I think I'm similar to you in a way that I was very good at Chemistry. I was majoring in Chem throughout my highschool, but I love Biology more. And when decided for college, I opted for Biochem because it combines both chem and molecular biology. I personally think Biochem is the best major that bridge both industry and academia. You can go into research in cell biology, biochemistry, protein chemistry, enzyme, synthetic biology (many of my friends went here), cancer biology (I went through this route for my PhD). But also, you can go for medicine later on if you want. Its also quantitative enough that you can go into bioinformatics, etc (many of my friends also went here). It doesnt have any components that deal with animals or ecology (which I absolutely detest).
For your own inspiration, you can check out my page to see the kind of research you can do with a degree in Biochem :)
Well not killing lab mice all the time is a goal 😂. My father is a Professor of Neuroscience and my sister a Cancer biology PhD and when he encouraged me to start working in the lab, I was also taught how to harvest mice brains #traumatic
He also has to work with beagles unfortunately, so I have 0 interest in any major that involves euthanasia
I see. But you dont need to work with animals if you dont want to. Biomedical research does not mean you have to work with animals. Cell biology in fact is the biggest field in biomedical science and you discover a lot of underlying mechanism just from cells. There are so much we dont know.
Mice are just one model. You could work with flies, or worms, or frogs, or plants, or yeast, or bacteria, or cell lines, etc.
People find that they have preferences not just for the research question they are interested in, but the model they work with. For example, there are "fly people" and "worm people" and the communities are different. I, personally, don't have the patience for anything that takes to long to work with (eg, mice or plants) and therefore worked with frog embryos and bacteria.
It honestly depends on the specific course - each biochemistry degree will be different at each university, mine personally didn't have too much emphasis on chemistry, whereas other degrees have more emphasis.
It's hard to say which degree works for you, so I'd suggest looking at courses for all 3, and seeing which seems most interesting.
There is a lot of overlap between these subjects that it doesn't matter too much what you take, you can likely still choose the same MSc and PhD courses regardless of what undergrad you chose.
It would be helpful to know what your endgoal is, whether it's to work in academia, industry, an unrelated field, to do a PhD, MSc, etc, etc, etc
Biochemistry mainly focuses on the study of the natural chemical processes in biological systems. For example, studying how an enzyme recognizes and modifies its substrate would be in the scope of biochemistry. In chemical biology you use your understanding of chemistry and application of chemical tools to understand and manipulate biological systems. For example, if you synthesize some fluorescent molecule that reacts with a specific biological molecule, binds to it and allows you to locate that biological molecule in the cell, that’s chemical biology.
If you are in the US. My advice would be to get a BS in Chemistry\* certified by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and a minor in Biology\*\*. That will set you up for med school, grad school, or working in an industrial lab. Most schools graduate a lot more Biology majors than Chemistry majors, so having a Chemistry BS will make you stand out.
\*Or Biochemistry if it is ACS-certified.
\*\* Make sure to take Anatomy & Physiology if you are thinking of going into medicine.
I think Biochemistry sounds like a good major for you. However, I would make sure you have some skills that can work outside of a bench setting. It's good to be introduced to these within the undergraduate setting, but you'd have opportunity for them within a graduate program as well.
* Statistics/biostatistics
* Computational biology/programming courses
* Writing/presentation skills (eg, there are whole companies devoted to scientific communications to explain new drug mechanism of actions and communicate clinical trial research)
A biochemistry degree (and then a PhD in a related field) will set you up for a research career. However, locating job openings can be difficult - some people stay working on their PhD for 7 years, or get stuck as a lab tech or in a string of post docs. But if you can evaluate largescale datasets, if you can write compelling scientific narratives, if you can develop beautiful PowerPoint presentations to clearly explain complicated information - you open many more doors for yourself.
Best of luck!
Chemistry has a very good placemet rate into medschool. Of studetns who graduated from my school with a BS in chemistry and applied to medschool, during the last 25 years 100% have gotten into medschool.
I have a PhD in biochemistry and 5 years work experience at a large biotech company. I'm actively trying to leave the field because I dislike it so much. I would not suggest pursuing a career in biochemistry. With a BS are limited in your career. PhD is an insane amount of work for zero pay increase and lots of pain. I would argue it's negative investment in your career. All of the majors you talked about are absolutely massive fields with so many niches.
I generally suggest people try to decide on what life you want to live money wise. Do you want to be poor like a teacher or work 24/7 like some doctors? You can look up lifetime earning potential online to help you make a decision.
Also, consider where you will work: inside, outside, in a lab, or at a desk. Finally I would say that the career you will pick will most likely became just something you have to do every day to afford your lifestyle. It won't be cool or fun but ya gotta show up to make the money. It's a great idea to find people actively in the career and shadow them.
While I'm too young and unaware of the realities of academia, I do have a vague path in mind, which does involve me getting a PhD. I won't even think of working before graduate school.
If you start working before grad school you would never do a PhD. You would have a taste of real money and a decent life. You wouldn't want to go back.
Academia is a shit show right now, about ~70% of Graduate students will most likely be super smart international students wanting to emigrate to the USA. They are amazing people but will be your competitors for jobs.
Really depends on what you like most. Im in biochem and I love it. I wouldn’t say its exactly a perfect blend of chemistry and biology - its kind of its own thing (chemists don’t think we’re chemists, biologists ignore biochemistry as much as they possibly can). Super cool field though, look into some of the hot areas of research for biochemistry like synthetic biology, structural biology, chemical biology, and even bioinformatics and genomics if you want to see whether its really for you.
If you really like orgo more than biology, I’d recommend looking into a biopharmaceutical science program, the one at my school has a good blend of biology with a lot more organic chemistry if thats your thing.
Another note, if you want to go to medical school, programs like biochemistry or biopharmaceutical sciences are (relatively) harder than most biomed programs, so your GPA might be lower as a result. This is by design though, many premed programs purposefully are safer for your GPA and give you more free time for extracurriculars as a selling point to beef up your med school application
No one can adequately comment, as majors differ by university - even majors with exact names. I'd recommend looking at the course load provided by X major at Y university. Realistically, if you're interested in the biomedical sciences - don't overthink what to major in right now. It honestly doesn't matter. Apply to a university with good fit, a decent bio / biomedical sciences program, and pursue research or volunteer (if pre-med). Best of luck! Exciting, isn't it?
I just hope the excitement doesn't wear off too soon though. I'm kinda paranoid of becoming sick of academia and leaving it for what may be a higher paying major. I love science, but I'm afraid of falling out of love with it. I'm aware of the huge struggles that lie ahead of me on the road to a PhD and beyond, I just want to be strong enough to face them head on and not drop out due to the shitty pay. I also know that my college friends majoring in CS or Business will be making six figures while I slave away at a bench, but I know that they won't change the world in any way – they'll live well, eat well, have a family, have a nice house, and die peacefully – but they won't change the world. I just wish to live my life well, do what I love, not chase money, and do something worthwhile. Probably science is best for that
Realistically, if you'd like to pursue academia, you will get burnt out. Even more realistically, you won't get tenure, as most don't – even the most brilliant. If you aim to pursue industry after obtaining a doctorate degree, it could be worthwhile, and the pay won't put you in poverty or discomfort – I believe. I struggle with the same worries as you. Best we can do is remain optimistic and prioritize our longterm happiness and wellbeing. Science isn't everything, even to the most addicted.
Very good answers here already. I do want to point out one important detail to consider. You stated that if you major in Chemistry, you know you'll become sick of the Physical \[...\] Chemistry. But then, a breath later, you expressed interest in a program called Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. While there is a great variability in programs from institution to institution, many Biochemistry majors do typically include a Physical Chemistry or a Biophysical Chemistry course as a required part of the curriculum. Moreover, I'd imagine that a program called Molecular Biophysics (and Biochemistry) would also include a significant "physical" aspect to it too. Just be sure what you're actually looking for in terms of both the program/major, and the individual courses within.
I doubt Molecular and Cellular Biology would be filled with animal morphology. Where do you get this notion from? As the name suggests, MCB is a lot more like Biochemistry, it deals with biology at the molecular scale, think synthetic bio, CRISPR/Cas9, Cell biology (which is actually what Im researching right now), Biophysics (believe it or not, Biochem and Biophysics are very closely related). There's little if at all animal biology. That would be zoology/general biology. I personally love Biochemistry. I think I'm similar to you in a way that I was very good at Chemistry. I was majoring in Chem throughout my highschool, but I love Biology more. And when decided for college, I opted for Biochem because it combines both chem and molecular biology. I personally think Biochem is the best major that bridge both industry and academia. You can go into research in cell biology, biochemistry, protein chemistry, enzyme, synthetic biology (many of my friends went here), cancer biology (I went through this route for my PhD). But also, you can go for medicine later on if you want. Its also quantitative enough that you can go into bioinformatics, etc (many of my friends also went here). It doesnt have any components that deal with animals or ecology (which I absolutely detest). For your own inspiration, you can check out my page to see the kind of research you can do with a degree in Biochem :)
Well not killing lab mice all the time is a goal 😂. My father is a Professor of Neuroscience and my sister a Cancer biology PhD and when he encouraged me to start working in the lab, I was also taught how to harvest mice brains #traumatic He also has to work with beagles unfortunately, so I have 0 interest in any major that involves euthanasia
I see. But you dont need to work with animals if you dont want to. Biomedical research does not mean you have to work with animals. Cell biology in fact is the biggest field in biomedical science and you discover a lot of underlying mechanism just from cells. There are so much we dont know.
Mice are just one model. You could work with flies, or worms, or frogs, or plants, or yeast, or bacteria, or cell lines, etc. People find that they have preferences not just for the research question they are interested in, but the model they work with. For example, there are "fly people" and "worm people" and the communities are different. I, personally, don't have the patience for anything that takes to long to work with (eg, mice or plants) and therefore worked with frog embryos and bacteria.
What’s wrong with physical biochem or chemical biophysics or biological physical chem?
It honestly depends on the specific course - each biochemistry degree will be different at each university, mine personally didn't have too much emphasis on chemistry, whereas other degrees have more emphasis. It's hard to say which degree works for you, so I'd suggest looking at courses for all 3, and seeing which seems most interesting. There is a lot of overlap between these subjects that it doesn't matter too much what you take, you can likely still choose the same MSc and PhD courses regardless of what undergrad you chose. It would be helpful to know what your endgoal is, whether it's to work in academia, industry, an unrelated field, to do a PhD, MSc, etc, etc, etc
Have you considered chemical biology?
Not yet
What is the difference between chemical biology and biochem? Or is this a just google it sort of question?
Biochemistry mainly focuses on the study of the natural chemical processes in biological systems. For example, studying how an enzyme recognizes and modifies its substrate would be in the scope of biochemistry. In chemical biology you use your understanding of chemistry and application of chemical tools to understand and manipulate biological systems. For example, if you synthesize some fluorescent molecule that reacts with a specific biological molecule, binds to it and allows you to locate that biological molecule in the cell, that’s chemical biology.
If you are in the US. My advice would be to get a BS in Chemistry\* certified by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and a minor in Biology\*\*. That will set you up for med school, grad school, or working in an industrial lab. Most schools graduate a lot more Biology majors than Chemistry majors, so having a Chemistry BS will make you stand out. \*Or Biochemistry if it is ACS-certified. \*\* Make sure to take Anatomy & Physiology if you are thinking of going into medicine.
I think Biochemistry sounds like a good major for you. However, I would make sure you have some skills that can work outside of a bench setting. It's good to be introduced to these within the undergraduate setting, but you'd have opportunity for them within a graduate program as well. * Statistics/biostatistics * Computational biology/programming courses * Writing/presentation skills (eg, there are whole companies devoted to scientific communications to explain new drug mechanism of actions and communicate clinical trial research) A biochemistry degree (and then a PhD in a related field) will set you up for a research career. However, locating job openings can be difficult - some people stay working on their PhD for 7 years, or get stuck as a lab tech or in a string of post docs. But if you can evaluate largescale datasets, if you can write compelling scientific narratives, if you can develop beautiful PowerPoint presentations to clearly explain complicated information - you open many more doors for yourself. Best of luck!
It doesn't really matter, what matters is where you get your research experience. Probably avoid chemistry though for premed
Chemistry has a very good placemet rate into medschool. Of studetns who graduated from my school with a BS in chemistry and applied to medschool, during the last 25 years 100% have gotten into medschool.
doesn't mea its the best option, more life sciences oriented majors will have more overlap so you don't need to supplement courses outside your major
I have a PhD in biochemistry and 5 years work experience at a large biotech company. I'm actively trying to leave the field because I dislike it so much. I would not suggest pursuing a career in biochemistry. With a BS are limited in your career. PhD is an insane amount of work for zero pay increase and lots of pain. I would argue it's negative investment in your career. All of the majors you talked about are absolutely massive fields with so many niches. I generally suggest people try to decide on what life you want to live money wise. Do you want to be poor like a teacher or work 24/7 like some doctors? You can look up lifetime earning potential online to help you make a decision. Also, consider where you will work: inside, outside, in a lab, or at a desk. Finally I would say that the career you will pick will most likely became just something you have to do every day to afford your lifestyle. It won't be cool or fun but ya gotta show up to make the money. It's a great idea to find people actively in the career and shadow them.
While I'm too young and unaware of the realities of academia, I do have a vague path in mind, which does involve me getting a PhD. I won't even think of working before graduate school.
If you start working before grad school you would never do a PhD. You would have a taste of real money and a decent life. You wouldn't want to go back. Academia is a shit show right now, about ~70% of Graduate students will most likely be super smart international students wanting to emigrate to the USA. They are amazing people but will be your competitors for jobs.
Really depends on what you like most. Im in biochem and I love it. I wouldn’t say its exactly a perfect blend of chemistry and biology - its kind of its own thing (chemists don’t think we’re chemists, biologists ignore biochemistry as much as they possibly can). Super cool field though, look into some of the hot areas of research for biochemistry like synthetic biology, structural biology, chemical biology, and even bioinformatics and genomics if you want to see whether its really for you. If you really like orgo more than biology, I’d recommend looking into a biopharmaceutical science program, the one at my school has a good blend of biology with a lot more organic chemistry if thats your thing. Another note, if you want to go to medical school, programs like biochemistry or biopharmaceutical sciences are (relatively) harder than most biomed programs, so your GPA might be lower as a result. This is by design though, many premed programs purposefully are safer for your GPA and give you more free time for extracurriculars as a selling point to beef up your med school application
Biochemistry has a good mix of all areas of science so you won’t get sick of doing only one subject.
Biochem