Help!!!! Thoughts on Biological Sciences and future career

[Watermelon46]

Dc is year 13 and taking biology, chemistry and maths. (Predicted 3 x A*, 9x 9 at gcse and 1 x 8).

Has discounted medicine, veterinary and dentistry.

Is interested in Biology mainly, and thinks Biological sciences (Birmingham possibly) sounds interesting.

Does not have any idea what to do career wise long term but wants to have high earning potential.

Any thoughts on this course in particular and possible career once completed. Or any experience of other courses which would fit with these A levels?

tia

To keep her options open your DD should choose a course with sufficient modules and opportunities to develop her statistics, programming and bioinformatics. Ideally also degrees where she could have a year abroad, preferably at a high standing US institution. Then during her first year she can consider whether she would be interested in the options below, many of which would require her to acquire suitable experience in addition to her degree. Also of course choices will depend on her personal qualities and capacity for intense, long hours. She would also have to consider that for some jobs, even though a masters or PhD may not be a prerequisite, she will be competing with others who have those a higher degrees and therefore have more advanced knowledge and skills.
Patent law or even straight law (aiming for commercial law where her scientific knowledge could be helpful)
Equity research for certain large investment banks.
Research aiming for pharma / biotech R&D (highest salaries in USA but would need to be at a level to be sponsored for a visa), this would include laboratory work with analysis or pure bioinformatics.

Clinical trials, initially in an academic unit but that will lead to related careers in pharma.
Financial sector, accountant, consultancy etc
Clinical laboratory scientist with the potential to qualify eventually as a consultant (genetics has the highest number of entry posts at present).
Medical and scientific writing or editing (not particularly well paid).

It seems the best medical research jobs are for medical doctors.

@Kendodd , can you define "best" jobs as you meant it? Other posters seem to be interpreting "best" as highest paid. Not sure that's what you meant. Or if you would value any other way to define "best."

Whichever route he wants to pursue, he will need at least one more degree after his BSc. For any research pathway he'll need a PhD, and it might be necessary to do an MSc to get there. For consultancy roles he's likely to need a PhD and a business qualification to advance quickly

Sorry @Watermelon46 I'm slightly late to your thread but DD2 would echo what @NoNotHimTheOtherOne said (although she is a little way behind her on the career path!). DD2 did biomed for her first degree, decided during what was a fairly vocational course at a solid mid-rank university which included a year in the NHS that she wanted to follow a slightly more academic path thereafter, into research.

So she switched to a ultra-high ranking university for her Masters, worked like a dog, giving up her sport (not as high a level as your DS but she played all over the country representing her university during her under-grad) and part-time work in order to aim for a distinction (the Masters equivalent of a First). She duly got that and has been told she's a strong candidate for a PhD in her chosen field, though she's taking some time off to travel first.

She's not money-oriented so is more likely to end up working for an NGO or medical charity than in industry, but we shall see.

Yes, she wants something well paid as well.