Majors

[anonymous1]

I want to either major in human structure and function or Microbiology, Infection and Immunology.

In second year do we have to choose subjects related to the major we will be doing in third year?

Also what majors do you guys recommend? what will be some points i should consider when choosing between the above mentioned majors?

Thanks

[banditkeith]

Is this Biomed or Science?
It tells you what prereqs you need for the major if you select it in the study plan.
Or you could just go on to the handbook and click on each individual subject in that major to see what is needed.
I can't remember the name of the subject but there is at least one prereq if you want to do Microbiology, Infection and Immunology

EDIT: Also, I asked if it was Biomed or Science because for Microbiology, Infection and Immunology, there is a subject for Biomed students that is an equivalent to the one in Science

[charmanderp]

Mentioning your plans for postgraduate study or career aspirations would be useful!

[Starlight]

Science yeah? I think there are certain prerequisites in 2nd year that have to be undertaken. The majors page for science doesn't work atm.

For Human structure and function: https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2012/!R01-AA-MAJ%2B1018

For microbiology .... : http://www.microbiol.unimelb.edu.au/students/ungrad/micro_bsc.html

[Starlight]

What do you ultimately want to do at the end of your degree?

[simpak]

You should take miim20001, miim20003 , phys20008 and anat20006

[anonymous1]

Thanks guys, i understand it somewhat better now

[ItsSKC]

Ill give you the same advice that Chris Briggs gave me, think very carefully about why you want to study an Anatomy major or a Physiology major (This includes HSF), as there are very limited career paths for these. It is a particular major that you would go down if you wanted to pursue research in these areas. Many students pick these majors cause they believe it will help them in future when they study medicine/dentistry/physio etc but what will you do if you dont get into these courses. Will you be happy with what you chose. Also the third year anatomy subjects are probably going to have a quota on them from next year onwards, according to one of the professors who teaches the subject. They were apparently over-enrolled and the cadaveric material is limited. Having said that studying anatomy at melbourne uni is a wonderful experience as its one of the few places where you get hands on dissection experience, something that even some med students dont experience at other unis.   

[anonymous1]

Ill give you the same advice that Chris Briggs gave me, think very carefully about why you want to study an Anatomy major or a Physiology major (This includes HSF), as there are very limited career paths for these. It is a particular major that you would go down if you wanted to pursue research in these areas. Many students pick these majors cause they believe it will help them in future when they study medicine/dentistry/physio etc but what will you do if you dont get into these courses. Will you be happy with what you chose. Also the third year anatomy subjects are probably going to have a quota on them from next year onwards, according to one of the professors who teaches the subject. They were apparently over-enrolled and the cadaveric material is limited. Having said that studying anatomy at melbourne uni is a wonderful experience as its one of the few places where you get hands on dissection experience, something that even some med students dont experience at other unis.

Thanks for the advice, you've sort of scared me actually, i definitely don't want to end up with just a science degree, i am looking at doing postgrad and understand it is very competitive. I guess right now i will wait and sit the gamsat, we get results back before sem2 of year 2 so i guess it won't be too late to change the choice of major by then...

once again thanks a lot for the advice, at the end if i don't get into postgrad, which inshallah i will, i will probably end up enrolling in another undergraduate course of some sort...

[simpak]

Yeah I'd recommend not doing the major just because you wanna do med. better to do something that gives you more options. The only reason I'm leaning back to physiology is because I love it so much and if I majored in it I would probably be very happy ending up doing research in it!

[Cuddlekins]

What do you think the job prospects are for pharmacology and  pathology majors? I know both these will lead in to Research. Would majoring in either these two be a "safer" option than a hsf major?

[Russ]

If you don't mind working for Big Pharma, pharmacology is a massive industry and you can look into drug design and so forth and working privately. Bachelor's alone wouldn't be worth much though.

[ItsSKC]

If you don't mind working for Big Pharma, pharmacology is a massive industry and you can look into drug design and so forth and working privately. Bachelor's alone wouldn't be worth much though.

That isnt completely correct, I have actually spoken to people who have entered pharma with just bachelors and in fact someone who has been in the position where she was in the position of interviewing for positions in pharma. The general consensus is that you are better off showing that you have experience in the area you are interested in, in her case clinical trials, rather than pursue higher research degrees. I guess ill share the experience she told me. She graduated with a PhD from the burnet institute/unimelb and she wanted to enter the pharmaceutical companies. She was wildly unsuccessful in her attempts. She went back and voluntered for a clinical trial, lol so they tested some drugs on her. She then voluntered at a hospital. These gave her the shoe in that she needed. She now interviews many people and she and her colleagues dont actually think its neccessary that a PhD is neccessary. 

[ItsSKC]

What do you think the job prospects are for pharmacology and  pathology majors? I know both these will lead in to Research. Would majoring in either these two be a "safer" option than a hsf major?

As far as i know pathology and pharmacology provide you with a much greater range of options. Dont quote me though cause i didn't do those majors, just word of mouth.

[VivaTequila]

I was thinking Pharmacology, but would a straight Chemistry major be likely to yield more job prospects if I failed to get into Med?