Job opportunities with Med. Sci. (2 Viewers)

[Ritaann]

So. Preferences close today ... ((wipes sweat off brow))... <always a last minuet neddy>

I've for the longest time has had B med. sci at the top of the list, only course flexibility is whats giving me doubts -- with Med sci. the job opps. seem wishy washy and I was hoping someone could spell it out for me. Also at the site it mentions;

((This three-year degree program provides the basis for a career in biomedical research and is an appropriate first degree for students planning to enter graduate medical or paramedical programs.))

what exactly is paramedical?

 

[physician]

U can get into Medical research if thats something ur interested in, ahh... to tell u the truth im not entirely sure.

I had medical science as my 2nd preferance for quite a while, a few days ago it jumped down to my 5th, and today im going to change it to my 6th at UNSW and 7th at USYD

The only reason I have Med. Sci as one of my preferences is to get into Medical research as a back up if I dont get into Engineering.

Have u considered a B science? one of the Lecturers at USYD told me B science actualy offered a wider range of subject choice... (if ur not sure what u wanna do ltr on)... Not sure about Jobs though!!!

If I was to do Med. Sci I would want to go on to another degree after the degree was complete, unless i got into Medical research which would be cooooooooool!!!

 

[+Po1ntDeXt3r+]

paramedic.. lik ambulance staff

 

[sydneyphoenix]

Physician is right, there are many more options in Bachelor of Science or Science (Advanced) compared to Medical Science. In fact, you can do almost all the majors offered in Medical Science by doing Bachelor of Science (I think infectious disease and immunology are exception).
I know that it is possible to move from Bachelor of Science (Advanced) to Medical Science through second year entry, but is it possible to do it the other way around, i.e. move from Medical Science to Science (Advanced)? It says in the faculty handbook that you can transfer into Science (Advanced) 'from BSc or any of its streams'. Do specialist degrees within the science faculty such as Medical Science count as a stream of Medical Science, or is the reference to 'BSc or any of its streams' only about BSc(....) such as BSc (Bioinformatics)?

 

[tennille]

You can transfer from any other streams of science to advanced science. However, you need a weighted average mark of >75. I'm quite sure you can transfer from medical science into advanced science. I rang up about that once.

 

[sydneyphoenix]

Thanx for that bit of info.
When you mean weighted average of 75%, I suspect you mean that they take the difficulty of course into account, right? I mean 75% in Math1003 and Math1903 (Advanced unit if you didn't notice) are not really in the par, I believe.

 

[SeDaTeD]

No, it takes into account how many credit points each unit is worth. The difficulty difference between normal advanced is taken into account by scaling.

 

[bscienceboi]

Medical Science is usually just research careers. Its really just "a glorified B Science".

The "Medical" resricts you from entering certain regular BScience streams such as ecology, physics, astronomy and all non-medical/human-related courses. Hence B Science is more broad and free.

Most MedSci I know cant handle 3 years, they drag it out to 4 years with 2 semesters part-time. It may be a good idea to aim for honours.

 

[Case Study]

Having just finished B Med Sci at Sydney Uni and going onto honours in Immunology, I can say the job opportunities are not so great, unless u're into research. Lad technicians, assistants, research officers etc are examples but u will need honours.

As for being able to do all the med sci units in a BSci degree, thats not true. First year probably yes, but 2nd yr, the course is set so that u experience more or less ALL the medically related courses, that includes biochem, molecular gen, histology, anatomy, immunology, microbiology, infectious disease, cellular & neuro physiology, pharmacology, pathology (The only 2nd pathology course) + others. So basically there is no way a BSci person can do all these units in their 2nd yr.

Ofcourse having to do all this for 2nd yr means your timetable will be full on and u wont get much of a break. When I did my 2nd yr, it was 8am to 5pm Mon-Fri (Although I hear the course has been changed to reduce the load). But the advantage is u're qualified to choose any medically related senior courses in 3rd yr.

Also the course is highly competitive, so anyone worrying about getting into graduate courses such as Medicine would probably be better off doing just a BSci to get a higher GPA.

Anyways hope it helps to anyone interested in doing Med Sci.

 

[sparkl3z]

yeah, as case study said, it is mainly a research degree, so if you don't like researching you might find it a bit boring. but there are also many pro's about it, i mean i find it interesting to research, you can find cures to diseases if you're lucky, you can identify cancers,they also work with doctors, sending them test results.. also, you can make huge contributions to medicine and the general public. If you go to do postgraduate studies or medical studies after completing the degree, that's when the job opportunities increase. Many people like myself are considering post graduate research, or a medicine degree after doing medical science, if you want to think about a medicine degree, doing science might help you, but personally, i'd find it better for myself to do a medical science degree then just a B of science, after all, the name has medical in it, hence it is more related to medicine, you will gain more knowledge for yourself if you do decide to undertake it instead of a normal science degree.

 

[Collin]

Apart from medical research, the B.Med.Sci seems a bit narrow in terms of general job options. Infact, alot of people just do it as an effective preparation for Graduate Medicine (hence, if they get turned down for that.. in which the chances are quite high, considering the tough competition, you'd effectively be stuck with a 'dud' degree). If you're unsure about what you wanna do, a better idea would be to do a generalist Bachelor of Science degree instead, in my opinion.