Major in biochemistry or chemistry?

[LandSpeed]

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Hello,
I was trying to get some advice about what to major in. I've got it narrowed down to chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego... which one is a better prep for med school? Which one will get me the best job when I graduate? Which one is a better fall back in case I decide not to go to med school? Thanks for the advice 🙂

 

[Omyss]

Biochem.

 

[Caesar]

Biochem.

seconded.

 

[LikeClockWork]

seconded.

Thirded

 

[smcin001]

quadrupled

I find it much easier not having to with scary quantum crap.

 

[onslaught61]

biochem cause I'm doing it, son. There's two of them though, biochem with emphasis on bio and biochem/chem. The chem path is supposed to be harder, hence why I chose bio.

 

[BlackSails]

quadrupled

I find it much easier not having to with scary quantum crap.

The Quantum crap is what makes chemistry fun!

Im majoring in biochem, but im going to focus on the physical side of it. Since we have to take biophysical chem anyway, ill take adv biophysical chem, and probably stat mech for fun 😀

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Im doing both, because the difference bw biochem and chem is like 3 classes and 2 seminars

 

[paranoid_eyes]

ewwww chemistry....😴

 

[Bacchus]

Biochem... screw quantum and instrumental analysis! (I switch from chem to biochem because I didn't want to do all the "physcial" labs associated with classes.)

 

[gsquared]

My vote goes for Biochem. I am a straight bio major at the moment, but biochem seems much more stimulating. That, and taking gen+ochem fmean that a large part of the chem part of biochem will already be taken care of 😉

 

[Piyush]

biochem, my school also had a specialization in the biochem for biotech and genetic engineering, made it even more worth it...be warned that the biochem courses might bring down a GPA a tad bit.

Cheers

 

[kristwt323]

I'm not from Cali and where I'm from Biochem is the harder major to choose. It requires basically all the classes to get a chem degree and most of the bio classes plus you take the biochem classes on top of that. I thoroughly enjoy biochemistry and it has worked for me, but it is, at least, just as hard as chem at my school. As for engineering you can't even compare the two degrees because they are completely different. My boyfriend is a bio engineer and he knows a lot that I don't but I have a huge knowledge base that he doesn't so you can't really compare the difficulties.

 

[BMBPSU2008]

Hello,
I was trying to get some advice about what to major in. I've got it narrowed down to chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego... which one is a better prep for med school? Which one will get me the best job when I graduate? Which one is a better fall back in case I decide not to go to med school? Thanks for the advice 🙂

My biochem degree had all of the Med School prerequisites built into it. I am also minoring in chemistry.. which is just 5 more credits in 400 level Chem courses.

But.... my girlfriend is a chemical engineer She just got a job at Chevron STARTING at $85,000 a year. You wouldn't make half that with a BS in Biochemistry.

My opinion? If you like Chemistry, do ChemE and take med prereqs on the side. 👍

 

[BlackSails]

This may be true in Cali, but at the places I've been, biochem is what you switch to (from chem or engineering) if you want to graduate early and/or protect your GPA. Biology is even easier, but the degree is also more worthless.

At NYU Biochem is one of the harder (and larger) majors.

To be a chem major, you have to take the "core" classes, which include, in addition to the general studies:
Gen Chem w/ Labs
Orgo w/ Labs
PChem I and II

for biochem, you then have to take (all of which are offered through the grad dept)
Biochem I/II
Experimental Biochem
Biophysical Chem

for Chemistry, you have to take the PChem Labs, and then 3 upper level chem classes I think. Maybe Pchem III also, im not sure.