A confused second year undergrad student..

[Guest Hilde]

Hey everyone, supposedly I'm in the biochemistry specialist program here at University of Toronto and I have just completed a biochem course and checked my mark. I have not done very well at all. My second year GPA turned out to be even lower than my first year and people have always advised me not to do the biochem program if i want to get into medical school, and I think they are right. I want to switch to the program pathobiology but i'm not sure what the career prospects are with a degree in that in case I get rejected by medicine. In my biochemistry friends' opinion, biochemistry seems to be the best background as it is so fundamental and it will lead you to just any career in the biomed area, other programs such as pathobiology, or microbiology, pharmacology or toxicology do not seem to be as strong or prepare you as well. It seems like biochemistry is the best possible choice, and I'm uncertain about leaving the program for another. Am I gonna be making a big mistake? Please help..I really don't know what to do. Anyone else out there has been in my situation before?

[Guest fox]

When I was in second year my marks dropped substantially from first year. Second year turned out to be my worst year... I was in Molecular Biology and Genetics and my only good marks were in Org Chem and Biochem (funny, considering your situation). I thought about switching to biochem, but then stuck it out and everything worked out fine. At my school, second year was the worst for a lot of us. I wouldn't rush and switch your major just because you had a few bad marks. Intro courses are notoriously hard. My second year intro genetics was my lowest mark in all four years!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I chose biochem for the same reason. In research, having a background where you understand molecular biology and molecular techniques (ie identifying receptor genes in physiology) does help, but I can't think of too many career options that come out of biochem. Many of the people I graduated with took off to teach English in Japan and Korea because the options here weren't so hot. And depending on how poorly in the program, that could affect grad school and other avenues to the "biochem jobs."

 

I'd study what you're interested in. Yes, you should have a backup but pathobiology sounds like the kind of degree you can use to get into the same grad programs (ie Pharmacology, there are lots of jobs in industry with a grad degree in this field) that could lead to jobs in the traditional sense.

[Guest cheech10]

If you like patho, go for it. Chances are if you want a career in biomedical sciences, you'll want at least a masters, so it doesn't really matter all that much what your undergrad degree is in. Most programs (at UofT anyway) accept students from a variety of majors and don't care too much about it. Even if you decide against a masters, the major you choose isn't that important for job options in industry, its more your familiarity with a subject and your skill set.

[Guest OncologyMike]

Is this limitation of a Biochem degree only in Ontario?

I've never heard of these prospective job difficulties.

Why would this be so? Wouldn't larger companies need people for labs etc? I don't see the problem. Can someone perhaps expand on this?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I never really looked that hard for jobs in biochem, but I didn't have people knocking on my door either. And as I said, I didn't know that many people who got jobs with just the BSc in biochem, and worse many of the grad students in biochem seemed to be heading the way of the academic. That's a great career, but not everyone can become a University associated researcher or prof.

 

My impression of the private sector opportunities for jobs is that the area isn't the sizzling area of opportunity biochem profs make it out to be for 1st and 2nd year students. The biotech industry is quite unstable (for example the collapse of Celera stocks a few years back) and the pharmaceuticals are a bit better, but they too can be unstable with the long times to get drugs to market and risk the drugs won't get FDA (or Canadian) approval. And even for those jobs that there are, if you want a good solid job where you're more than a test tube jockey, you're going to want a grad degree or an MBA (though you usually get those after working for a company for a few years.)

 

I think it is pretty easy to get a job as a pharmaceuticals rep with a biochem degree. But then again, you can often get into this area without a BSc at all - a good friend of mine works in that area and has a BA in English and Contemporary Studies. And another was thinking of switching from teaching into that area with a BA in History and a B Ed

 

I think the reasons profs often tell students biochem is a potentially lucrative field are twofold. As I somewhat touched upon in my last post, molecular biology has become the main form of experimentation in many labs and many current profs don't 100% understand this area. I know this was the case with the lab I worked in - the profs all did PhDs in physiology and pharmacology in the 70s and 80s and never really covered modern theories of transcription, translation, and other such things that are the basis for Western, Southern blots, PCR and RT PCR.

 

The other reason might be that they see a lot of promise in the area with the completion of the human genome project (which, by the way, flooded the market with molecular biologists who had been otherwise preoccupied!) advances in biotech, and new areas of drug and medical test development. I'd be wary about this though. The biotech industry recently has had some problems with concerns over genetically modified organisms (moreso in Europe than here) and while some of the new drugs and tests coming out are great, in some cases they are so prohibitively expensive (ie remicade/infliximab and BRCA screening) that the health care system is reluctant or careful about using them. People have been fooled into thinking technologies (ie the Video Phone or the monorail) would explode faster than they did before.

 

But I could totally be wrong. After all, I went straight for med school after undergrad so these are my general impressions from what friends have done. And I've heard rumours the situation is different in the US. In fact, come to think of it, one of my lab partners in undergrad did take a year off an worked in Boston for a year. He was offered a fairly good jobs (no specifics) with only 2 years of biochem under his belt. So there may be opportunities I don't know of. But I'm not sure biochemistry is the goldmine, relative to other biological disciplines, that some of us were led to believe (ie me!).

[Guest k8termd]

Hi Hilde

It seems as though you are also worried about switching programs because you believe that biochemistry would be the best prep. for med school. Please realize that the fundamentals of medicine are made up of more than just biochemistry-based principles (ex. anatomy and pathology). Yes, biochem will prepare you for some subjects, but there are other areas of medicine that you won't have covered. I am not trying to put biochem down, I just want you to realize that very few undergrad programs will totally prepare you for medicine. Furthermore, everything you need to know in medicine will be taught to you when you get there.

My advice would be to take what you interested in (because that is what you will do well in), but ensure you get all the prereqs for whatever schools you are interested in.

Good luck.