BSc Medical Science

PLL

I am seriously considering applying for this course. I have been a Business major up until now and feel I want a change. I always loved science, particularly Biology. I was good at science in school achieving A's but I believe this would obviously be a lot more challenging but could anyone tell me how challenging? Also what would the career prospects be once I have finished.

Dingle_berry

PLL wrote: »

I am seriously considering applying for this course. I have been a Business major up until now and feel I want a change. I always loved science, particularly Biology. I was good at science in school achieving A's but I believe this would obviously be a lot more challenging but could anyone tell me how challenging? Also what would the career prospects be once I have finished.

Second level science is like second level business. It introduces the basics of economics etc and a few skills like balancing a balance sheet. Second level biology leaves you knowing the very basics of the major biological science fields.

Is it the an accredited/approved (Bio)Medical Sciences degree? As in the UCC, DIT, GMIT or UU one? If it is then it is essentially a BSc in pathology. It trains you to perform tests on bodily fluids and tissues to help in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease.
Medical scientist jobs have been scarce with the HSE recruitment embargo but that seems to be easing. Graduates also make good PhD candidates due to their broad knowledge of disease.

If it's a medical science BSc from anywhere except the 4 institutions above it is basically a biology degree with an interesting title.

Have a look at www.amls.org (the professional body for medical scientists in Ireland) and www.ibms.org (the UK version)

Edit: I forgot to add that another career route would be technical support/repp-ing/sales for companies like sarsdet, serosep, Roche, Siemens, Abbott, cruinn, dako, etc

PLL

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Second level science is like second level business. It introduces the basics of economics etc and a few skills like balancing a balance sheet. Second level biology leaves you knowing the very basics of the major biological science fields.

Is it the an accredited/approved (Bio)Medical Sciences degree? As in the UCC, DIT, GMIT or UU one? If it is then it is essentially a BSc in pathology. It trains you to perform tests on bodily fluids and tissues to help in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease.
Medical scientist jobs have been scarce with the HSE recruitment embargo but that seems to be easing. Graduates also make good PhD candidates due to their broad knowledge of disease.

If it's a medical science BSc from anywhere except the 4 institutions above it is basically a biology degree with an interesting title.

Have a look at www.amls.org (the professional body for medical scientists in Ireland) and www.ibms.org (the UK version)

Edit: I forgot to add that another career route would be technical support/repp-ing/sales for companies like sarsdet, serosep, Roche, Siemens, Abbott, cruinn, dako, etc

Thank you for the detailed reply. Yes it is accredited. The course I am interested in is in GMIT.

The more I research the field the more I want to do it. I just worry about it overwhelming me. I wanted to do a BSc in Biomedical Science when leaving school but chose Business as I found it easier. Now I realise that I want more of a challenge, but I don't want to do it just because it is interesting if I am not going to do well if that makes sense.

Would you be able to give me any info on the way a degree like this is scored I.e. Exams, Lab Practicals, Reports, Groupwork?

Dingle_berry

PLL wrote: »

Would you be able to give me any info on the way a degree like this is scored I.e. Exams, Lab Practicals, Reports, Groupwork?

The best person to advise you on that is the course director. The degree that I did is no longer available but when I did it everything but the research project had a written (essay) exam. Most had elements of continuous assessment. The MSc only has a few essay exams.

The class sizes on these courses are usually quite small, <60 students. So it is easier to get individual help from lecturers. If you would like to look at the subject, there is a very good series of books called "fundamentals of biomedical science" by the oxford university press.

It would be worth your while to try and find out first hand about the job before you commit to the degree. As your local hospitals lab managers if you could do a few days work shadowing. There are always a few people who start the course but can't stand the sight of blood or human tissue or the smells.