Does anyone know if Biomeical Science is a good choice instead of Medicine?

[mosschops30]

Had a very pleasing parents evening last night, dd predicted Bs for evrything, but will possibly get As in some subjects with a bit more effort. Shes gone from getting Ds and has really upped her game because she wanted to do medicine. I encouraged her to do her best but know that she s not a straight A student thats required for Medicine.

However her maths teacher said she will def not cope with A level Maths, particularly at the 6th form shes applied to, and she needs that to do Medicine.

Ive looked into other things and in particular Biomedical Science which does not require Maths at most Unis but still has great career options and could possibly be used as post graduate entry into medicine if she still wanted to do it.

Does anyone have any advice or experience?

lelain, I haven't looked into this but did wonder how people finance what could be 7 years at uni. So are you saying they don't finance the extra with these wonderful loans and grants?

I don't want to put a downer on her choices, but A level Chemistry is really hard and unless she is an A grade science student at GCSE she may struggle. It builds on the GCSE knowledge and understanding so she really must fully understand chemistry at GCSE before heading into AS. Now is a good time to think about whether she is doing well enough at GCSE and thinking about strategies to get her up to a confident A grade rather than a maybe.

You also mentioned in your first post that she isn't a straight A student at GCSE and you thought this would be an issue for her applying for medicine - do you know whether it is a problem or not?

Bear in mind that subject teachers can be biased to bump up the numbers for A level, so may not give great advice. For example they could consider a C grade at A level Chemistry a success for your DD but it might not get her where she wanted. For some pupils they wouldn't have chosen the subjects they did if they had known what their relative chances of success were as they might have picked subjects that they would have enjoyed more, rather than for a specific end goal.

Also watch out for the allied medical professions that are churning out way to many graduates for the number of vacancies available. Physio is the obvious example, but I think it may also be true for OT now.

Sorry to be doom and gloom, but hopefully some food for thought.

One hand flapping

They are taking pictures with various amounts of ionising radiation, anyone can take a picture but personally I prefer someone who knows how to not fry my organs.

Mosschops
Has she considered clinical physiology? About 50% are still trained in hospitals and do their degree part time so you get paid to work, spend 1 - 2 days at uni and come out with a degree, a job and no student loan debt.

lela A friend of mine is now in her 4th year of medicine as a grad (she's 38). She's funding it all herself via loans/grants/bursaries - she freely admits she's got her head in the sand wrt all things financial but is very much aware that she will be graduating with a lot of debt. I guess she knows she should be earning good money and I suppose it's a calling.

Moonbells If you DC is allergic to Maths but wants to study Physics at A Level, it can be done. My yr 13 DC is predicted an A for Physics and hasn't taken Maths. Actually DC wishes had taken Maths with hindsight. But that's another story...

er not my DC - he's only 4 at the mo! Think you mean mosschops
I just work with radiographers!

moonbells Ooops. LOL.

Biomedical science is a great grounding course for any medical professional - but being a biomedical scientist is not the best paid profession! It's very interesting work and there will probably always be a job for your DD if she goes for it, including as a locum (so she could choose to travel around the country before deciding where to end up!)

I don't know about postgrad funding to become a doctor - if she can sidestep from a biomedical science degree onto a medical degree, she should be all right, but if she completes her first degree and then tries to go on to a medical degree, she will be paying full whack course fees, the same as overseas students pay, which is a lot more than national students. I expect this is still the same despite the changes in fee structures over recent years - and medical degrees are bloody expensive.

If Maths isn't her strong suit then probably best she doesn't do it at A level - but there will be elements of maths in the degree course. There has to be!
Pharmacy is very chemistry based, and maths is important in that too (I was going to do pharmacy with my double maths and chemistry combo but thankfully didn't get in - my friends who did do it were bored rigid! But of course most pharmacy students probably enjoy it)
Biomedical science is a very interesting field in its own right and does have the advantage of almost never involving interaction with patients

I hope she can get some independent (i.e. not from her school) advice on what the best thing to do would be - perhaps speaking to some admissions tutors at universities she is considering would be helpful, I don't know. My own school careers teacher was useless - I decided to do Food Science in the end and she asked me if I planned on taking Hotel Management with that, as she had no idea what Food Science entailed and thought it was like Home Ec.

I really hate the kind of rubbish school teachers peddle about A Levls for university admissions.

My DH teaches and does admissions for medicine at a major Russell Group university.

You do NOT need to take A Levl Maths to read Medicine anywhere in the country. Chemistry is compulsory, Biology is useful but not compulsory. But not Maths.

It's a normal route into medicine, i.e a 3 year degree then apply for the 4 year graduate medicine. I would think it would be financed in the same way i.e 9K tution fee loans together with grants and maintenance loans.

TBH, I think biomedical sceinces might be aiming too high if you dont expect her to get As at GCSEs.

She might be better looking at subjects where you expect her to get A at GCSE as that is more likely to translate into A at A level - I think it would be very unusal to go from Bs at GCSEs to A at level, whcih is what she'd need in Chem and Bio to get onto most biomed courses.

On another tack, you could point her in the direction of 'Women in Science' which I think is a programme of 'Headstart' which runs taster courses for this age group at universities in summer (my DS did a similar one and I do remember there being something specifically tailored for girls)

A's at A'level in biology and chemistry are not necessary for a biomedical science degree. In fact, many courses say chemistry is useful, but not essential as the course is not really chemistry heavy. Most accrediated biomedical science degrees have an A'level tariff of around 300 points. Be aware however that not all biomedical science degrees are accredited by the IBMS and will not therefore allow registration with the HPC (this includes some from very "good" universities).

Leeds uni arn't accredited because they say they are expecting their degree students to do better than work in NHS labs. I don't understand it tbh, DD has applied for a course that does and one that doesn't but then she maybe looking at graduate entry into Medicine, see what the future brings.

adamchic, tbh, I think that is a poor arguement from Leeds.

I know someone who did a non-accrediated degree at a v. good RG university, but can not register with the HPC, which cuts out a whole load of career options. OTOH, those people who do accrediated degrees don't have to work in the NHS and can also work in industry or academia - hence giving a good deal more career options.