Tcd Human Health and diease vs tcd Science

Mavis200

I am a sixth year student with a interest in science and biology. I was wondering if someone could please tell me the difference between human health and disease and science with respect to content and career opportunities. Also I noticed that science offers a B.A and HHD offers a B.Sc. Will this impact on future career opportunities? If I was to choose science I would hope to specialise in molecular medicine. Is a science degree in molecular medicine more beneficial then a degree in Human health and disease? I hope to go into disease research.
Thanks for your time.

Kwekubo

Mavis200 wrote: »

Also I noticed that science offers a B.A and HHD offers a B.Sc. Will this impact on future career opportunities?

This has no practical significance. They are just titles indicating that Science is an older course at Trinity while HH&D is a newer course.

NeuroCat

Mavis200 wrote: »

I am a sixth year student with a interest in science and biology. I was wondering if someone could please tell me the difference between human health and disease and science with respect to content and career opportunities. Also I noticed that science offers a B.A and HHD offers a B.Sc. Will this impact on future career opportunities? If I was to choose science I would hope to specialise in molecular medicine. Is a science degree in molecular medicine more beneficial then a degree in Human health and disease? I hope to go into disease research.
Thanks for your time.

Careers wise, you'd be well suited to further research in biomedical sciences with a degree in Molecular Medicine. It's almost like a Biochemistry degree with an emphasis on Pathology. I can't speak on HH&D since I don't know anyone in it.

Hey, I'm in 3rd year HHD. Our course is especially designed and focused to produce graduates to work in clinical medical research, so in a nutshell you'd be ideally placed to go into research from HHD. As well as an extensive education in human biology etc you'll have modules teaching you how to read and appraise scientific literature, how research is conducted & funded, how to write PhD proposals, how to write reports and make presentations- basically giving you a foundation to work within the academic world of science. This all culminates in your final year where you will join one of the research teams headed by the leading researchers in Trinity to undertake a research project which forms a large percentage of the marks for your degree. If you're interested in doing research it really is the perfect degree for you to go into. Of course graduates from science are also suited to research careers, but if it's specifically clinical, health/disease focused research you're most interested I would say HHD would be the better option for you.

If you have any other questions about the course feel free to PM me!

HeyBref

Hi piratequeen, I'm in 6th year and am seriously considering applying for Human Health & Disease in Trinity for next year. I'm interested in Biology and learning about health sciences. Could I please ask you some questions about the course? Not all of them are extremely important, I'd just like to have an idea about certain aspects of the course
Firstly, I don't study Chemistry at school- will this put me at a disadvantage for next year? I hear that there is a lot of Chemistry in the first year of HH&D, but is this LC- level Chemistry or is it more advanced? I'm scientifically inclined (I study Biology and Physics) so I think I could catch up on what I've missed, but would it be very difficult to do?
Secondly, what are the hours like for HH&D?
Is the course very difficult/ how is the workload? I'm a hard worker and always up for a challenge, but I'm just curious, in any case!
Do you have any specific pointers to give to one thinking of doing this course? Like, is there anything surprising about the course that you found out, that you may have liked to have known about before applying? If you know what I mean.
Do you know what the job opportunities for graduates are? I know medical research is a big place to go into after graduating, however, do you think you could give me a specific example please?
Lastly, do you have any idea how this course fairs up to Biomedical, Health & Life Sciences in UCD?

Thank you for your time, I'm just extremely curious about this course, I think it sounds very interesting and something that I may like to study P.S. I just joined Boards.ie this evening, so apologies for any lack of Boards etiquette in my post!

Bogger_92

Hi,

Im in 2nd HHD and our class have been having this debate for the past week or so, on the difference between Science and HHD. we all pretty much conclude, and no offence to any science student, that:

a- the lecture material is slower in science, the first year is spent pretty much bringing everyone to a level of knowledge that is roughly equal. while second year has the science students learning what we learned in the first term of first year.

b- you do not specify into an area of your interest until 3rd year. whereas in HHD you are automatically in an area.

c- we have a smaller class and have more intimacy with the lectures who teach us, which most find helpful.

d- however to HHD's detriment it seems to be geared towards further education so if you are going for HHD its a great course if you say, would like to pursue either a M.Sc or a PHD in medical areas. (or graduate medicine), where as science you may be more geared for a specific career (however further qualifications are pretty much a must for any aspiring scientist)

regarding chemistry: Chemistry is a part of first year, it can be challenging for people who have not done it before, however there is a chemistry course offered the week before freshers week(or was last year) do this if you do not want to spend all your time studying chemistry :P

hours wise first year is fine: about 24-30 hours peak then down to about 17 in second term.

any surprises: well the course shares lectures in second year with first year medical students and we also do dissection of cadavers to learn anatomy, which is a great tool and very interesting. you also share lectures and labs with science students which is nice to keep up some of those lab skills. its a good course if you are interested in the area of human biology, and up and coming research into novel therapies and maybe thinking about research/ graduate medicine.

comparing to biomed in UCD - I know no one in that course so I cant comment without speculation any questions dont hesitate to contact me

Hey, the 2nd year pretty much answered it all as well as I would! I didn't have Chemistry for my LC and was a Biology & Physics student like yourself. You may find the Chemistry a little difficult in 1st year, but there is the pre-freshers catch up course and I found my knowledge of Physics helped a bit too so don't panic, with a bit of work you'll catch up with everyone else just fine.

The workload is as Bogger_92 described, it's light enough in first year and scales up in 2nd year onwards as the material gets more difficult, but that's the same in most courses.

Some people found the amount of maths you'll do in the 1st term of 1st year to be a surprise and weren't prepared for it. The maths is slightly more advanced than what you do at Ordinary LC level so if you struggle with maths you might find it hard but if you're doing Physics I'm sure you'll manage fine.

Career prospects is hard to say as we have no graduates yet but there is a huge amount of options you'll be ideally suited for as a HHD graduate. Some people in my class & the final years are planning on sitting the GAMSAT to study grad med. Many aim to do a masters or PhD (pretty much essential for anyone wanting to work in the science world) and then go on to work within academia or industry. There are lots of research positions around who specifically want graduates with a background in human clinical medicine which HHD is designed to deliver.

I also know no one from the UCD course so I can't comment on it sorry! Feel free to ask any more questions, or PM me, as you think of them!

NeuroCat

Mavis200 wrote: »

I am a sixth year student with a interest in science and biology. I was wondering if someone could please tell me the difference between human health and disease and science with respect to content and career opportunities. Also I noticed that science offers a B.A and HHD offers a B.Sc. Will this impact on future career opportunities? If I was to choose science I would hope to specialise in molecular medicine. Is a science degree in molecular medicine more beneficial then a degree in Human health and disease? I hope to go into disease research.
Thanks for your time.

The B.A and B.Sc are, for all intents and purposes, equal. It's a matter of tradition that several of the departments award a B.A. Molecular medicine is basically a biochemistry degree with a focus on pathology. Any degree with a decent biochemistry foundation is excellent because it's very applicable to all health science fields.