Biomedicine or Science?

[Wazupcharlz]

hi i was just wondering if i havnt decided if i wanna become a doctor or vet, should i chose biomed or science. And if i chose science and then decided i wanted to do doctor of medicine would that be harder to get in than a biomed student?

[slothpomba]

You can't get into Monash MBBS if you have done any other kind of degree, so if that is your intention, i was just warning you.

You can get into graduate medicine at melbourne or at monash out in the country somewhere or at a innumerable (not really) other number of uni's. If this is what you wanted to do, then read on...

Bio-medicine will most certainly by default satisfy the prerequisite subjects you need to get into graduate med or dentistry (For example melbourne doctor of medicine needs: Biochemistry, Anatomy & Physiology i believe). These are "built in" to the degree so to speak.

A science degree however, you have many majors, geology, physics, meterology, ect. You will still be able to get all the majors in Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology as long as you select them (Which usually means majoring in a life science/medicine ish area, eg Bachelor of Science in Physiology/Anatomy/....).

So, Science/Biomedicine will both get you to the same place eventually. They will not(sorry typo fixed) prejudice you over Biomed students if you have a Science degree, as long as you have the necessary prerequisites.

The Biomedicine/Science -> Graduate medicine path takes longer than just straight out undergrad medicine. 3 Years Undergraduate and 4 Years Post Grad for medicine. 7 Years (Which also happens to be exactly how long the government is willing to pay for you to go for uni (then you're full fee after that), go figure they worked it out nicely (unis are a business too))

If you're focused on medicine though, this extra 2 years shouldn't matter in the slightest to you.

So, my advice to you is, get into bio-medicine if you can, if not, cool dont stress, the world isn't over, you can do exactly the same thing through science.  

[Russ]

So, Science/Biomedicine will both get you to the same place eventually. They will prejudice you over Biomed students if you have a Science degree, as long as you have the necessary prerequisites.

What? There's pretty much no difference between biomed and science in terms of getting into graduate medicine. Otherwise yeah, agree with most of the above.

@OP: If you're still not sure of where you want to go, then it seems like the graduate pathway is for you. Biomedicine is a degree that centers around human biology and health, whilst science allows you a lot more freedom to choose your pathway. Either one will qualify you for graduate medicine (UoM will require you to take 2nd year subjects if you do science, other unis won't).


Start studying for the GAMSAT now lol

[shinny]

So, Science/Biomedicine will both get you to the same place eventually. They will prejudice you over Biomed students if you have a Science degree, as long as you have the necessary prerequisites.

What? There's pretty much no difference between biomed and science in terms of getting into graduate medicine. Otherwise yeah, agree with most of the above.

@OP: If you're still not sure of where you want to go, then it seems like the graduate pathway is for you. Biomedicine is a degree that centers around human biology and health, whilst science allows you a lot more freedom to choose your pathway. Either one will qualify you for graduate medicine (UoM will require you to take 2nd year subjects if you do science, other unis won't).


Start studying for the GAMSAT now lol

I assume that was a typo and he forgot to type the 'not', given the second half of his sentence.

[vexx]

There is absolutely no disadvantage of doing science over biomed!
Biomed is simply a preferred route because all subjects that are needed for any reason are covered- you can do an almost identical course in science if you decide to do it. They say somewhere on their website that you won't be at a disadvantage for doing science, remember this.
i'm currently not sure which i want to do even if i get the enter for biomed, as i really don't want to do calculus or data/experimental design in first year, and doing science means i can do better subjects.
please choose your undergraduate degree that suits you, not which has a better name as it does not matter aslong as you have all the prereqs.

[Russ]

offtopic but @vexx: calc1 and edda are pretty good ways to get H1s and boost your GPA

Anyway, if you do a science degree and do the UoM prerequisite subjects, your course is going to be pretty similar to what you'd do in biomed. So it's really not that big a deal (although there's a popular theory that the university will favour biomed students to justify it heh heh)

[iamdan08]

You can't get into Monash MBBS if you have done any other kind of degree, so if that is your intention, i was just warning you.

You can't get into their undergrad MBBS program, but you can get into their graduate MBBS program.

[vexx]

offtopic but @vexx: calc1 and edda are pretty good ways to get H1s and boost your GPA

Anyway, if you do a science degree and do the UoM prerequisite subjects, your course is going to be pretty similar to what you'd do in biomed. So it's really not that big a deal (although there's a popular theory that the university will favour biomed students to justify it heh heh)

a bit different. i'm quite interested in the 2nd and 3rd year cores for biomed though, just experimental design/calculus seem so boring to me, especially the former. as in science i'd be doing 2nd year biochem subjects in first year instead^^ but no physics (disadvantage for gamsat, but can self-study over some holiday)
calculus easy GPA boost? are you serious? i've heard it's quite difficult.. for someone who gets ~40 for methods, will getting close to an HD for calculus be very difficult?

[Russ]

The 2nd year cores for biomed are awesome, true (also hard, but extremely interesting). Physics on the GAMSAT is weird, they say it's year 12 level but then put stuff on there that's well above.

Calculus 2 is really hard, that's true. Calculus 1 is somewhere between methods and specialist, but the quality of teaching is invariably much better than high school so you get used to not being able to use a calculator. The only real danger is that you won't want to study; if you get a 40 in methods then you're definitely able to cope with the subject. Something a friend said (maths masters student arghhh) was "if you complete the questions they set before SWOTVAC and then do past exams during SWOTVAC, you're guaranteed an H1...but nobody does that because it's horribly boring".

I found EDDA interesting and the exam is boosted up to increase students marks. It's set out of 120 marks, but whatever you get is calculated out of 100. So an 83/120 -> 83/100, which makes it much easier to do well.

[vexx]

^ oh wow thanks for that. i was under the impression that calculus was harder the specialist, well that's good then. maybe doing some work through the semester won't be too bad- i probably can set aside a little amount of time.
i'm still not sure what EDDA is, i thought it was probability/statistics, which to me sounds horribly boring ahah. is that what it is? hmm

[happyhappyland]

Which one will be easier to get a high GPA? Is there subjects in biomedicine which is NOT a prerequisite but is REQUIRED for your biomed degree that is difficult?


I was thinking of nonstandard entry if I dont do well in my vce year, so a good GPA would be advantageous

[Russ]

i'm still not sure what EDDA is, i thought it was probability/statistics, which to me sounds horribly boring ahah. is that what it is? hmm

Pretty much, but there's a focus on epidemiology since it's in biomed. They don't teach stuff from normal 1st year stats and they include thing specific to health sciences (like rankings in clinical trials for example). It's really just statistics and analysis of data to draw conclusions. Not hard, pretty boring though.

Which one will be easier to get a high GPA? Is there subjects in biomedicine which is NOT a prerequisite but is REQUIRED for your biomed degree that is difficult?

Science is easier to get a high GPA in, you can pick subjects that you're strong at and still take the prereqs. Biomed has core subjects that are hard...and double weighted, so a low mark counts for twice as much. (converse is also true though ). That said, getting a 7.0 GPA is never easy, regardless of your subjects/course.

[vexx]

^ thanks for the info.
still thinking of choosing science over biomed though..

[crayolé]

^ thanks for the info.
still thinking of choosing science over biomed though..

Yeah same

I see you're pretty active on MSO vexx ;]

[monicak]

i havnt decided if i wanna become a doctor or vet, should i chose biomed or science.

I'm pretty sure that you have to do science, not biomed, in order to be eligible for veterinary science at UoM. This was the case for the old bachelor of vet science degree, however the eligibility criteria may have changed for the new DVM. Have a closer look at this website (http://www.vet.unimelb.edu.au/futurestudents/dvmpathways.html) and contact the faculty.

I was in the same situation: wasn't 100% certain whether I wanted to pursue vet or med. I chose science, as, at the time, it was the only pathway into vet. Bear in mind that you should be able to choose subjects up until the end of 2nd year, which will allow you to be eligible for both graduate degrees