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Pharmacy or Biotechnology?

mso

Lurker
Hello Everyone :D
I'm an IB graduate and I scored 38 points. However, I really can't decide whether to enter the Pharmacy programme or the Biotechnology programme

Which is better/area of future-growth?

Moreover, is 38 in IB considered a good score? Will I be guaranteed a Pharmacy Interview?

Thanks a lot! :)
 

thedon5

Regular Member
I am also interested.

Does anyone know a rough overview of either course, what you'd be studying and the job prospects with each with a bachelor's?

My current backup to medicine is some sort of research, I was definitely keen to do a doctorate in pharmacy, now I'm considering the doctorate in biotechnology. What are the differences in research in these fields, are they very interchangeable (i.e. can I do pharmaceutical research with a doctorate in biotechnology), and how do they compare to research using a medical degree?

Thanks!
 

Sam

¿umm?
I think Pharmacy in Aus is a little bit bloated, but not entirely sure on that one.

As for research, it really depends on what you are in interested in - do you have a passion for drugs (drug design, dosage form science etc.) or biotech? Either of the fields are in pretty high demand in terms of industry research/development. In the end I would pick what you have a passion for, if you are dedicated enough in the field you pick you'll go far!
 

thedon5

Regular Member
Yeah I believe it is bloated there, here in NZ it should be OK though.

Well that's part of the problem, I have a passion for both really. I enjoy organic chemistry and the likes of biochemistry and drug delivery and doing some fairly basic biotechnology and gene technology in my biology course was definitely exciting as well.
 

Sam

¿umm?
Yeah I believe it is bloated there, here in NZ it should be OK though.

Well that's part of the problem, I have a passion for both really. I enjoy organic chemistry and the likes of biochemistry and drug delivery and doing some fairly basic biotechnology and gene technology in my biology course was definitely exciting as well.

Well you're going to get a heap of org chem and a fair bit of biochem with pharmacy, the amount of science you end up doing in pharm is surprisingly high. Dosage forms/drug delivery is a massive field which covers everything from physics to biochem. You get quite a broad, but obviously focused, exposure to different types of science. Naturally you'll get more pure science from a pure BSci, but you would miss out on the drug aspects of it.

Keep in mind if you do pharm, it's still a professional course. You'll spend lots of time on stuff like communication, social pharmacy, dispensing etc. You will have to learn how to be a pharmacist as well as the science behind it :p
 

Season

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
Also, probs a bit out there, but I was recently at a friend's poster presentation in Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering. There were a number of people presenting on drug delivery systems. It looked pretty fascinating. Of course that's an entirely different field also.
 

Cathay

🚂Train Driver🚆
Emeritus Staff
My current backup to medicine is some sort of research, I was definitely keen to do a doctorate in pharmacy, now I'm considering the doctorate in biotechnology.
Keep in mind that pharmacy itself is a professional course for becoming a pharmacist (much like medicine is a professional course for becoming a doctor), and is therefore about becoming a health professional and dispensing medication to patients; pharmacology on the other hand is a biomedical science discipline, and is more research-centred.

If my understanding of pharmacy vs pharmacology is correct (and [MENTION=14020]lulwut[/MENTION] could correct me on this), I'm under the impression that pharmacy has a couple of branches, one is about taking a known chemical known to have a certain effect (e.g. paracetamol) and formulating it into something you'd give to the patient (e.g. Panadol Extra), and the other is about the practice of dispensing medication on a daily basis (pharmacist); pharmacology on the other hand is the science of drug actions, whether it's the action of a chemical on the body (effects of a drug), or the action of the body on a chemical (things like how quickly it's absorbed and gotten rid of). Of course, other disciplines come into play as well - as Season mentioned.

Tl;dr: Think about what you mean by pharmaceutical research - if you mean "take an existing drug and formulating it into a medication to give to the patient", by all means go for pharmacy; but if you mean "discover/invent new drugs to do things not done before", perhaps it's pharmacology you're after?
 

thedon5

Regular Member
Yeah I do realise it is a professional course. Being a pharmacist is definitely not where my interests lie and at the end of the degree I would be thinking about whether to go into post graduate studies or try for graduate medicine.

Are the two interchangeable, pharmacy and pharmacology? I thought you can somewhat easily go from one to the other, even though they are quite different? I can't make up my mind really, they both interest me, pharmacy and pharmacology, problem is my parents likely aren't going to let me do a BSc so pharmacy is pretty much my only option, hence why I ask if they're interchangeable. They're OK with biotechnology though. I know that's a stupid reason but I don't really have a say in the matter unfortunately!
 

frootloop

Doctor
Moderator
but I don't really have a say in the matter unfortunately!
Um, yes you do. I realise a lot of people have fairly... pushy parents, but at the end of the day this is your life/education, and you have to do what *you* want, because just doing something to please your parents is probably a waste of your time and isn't going to make you very happy long-term.
 

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Season

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
Are the two interchangeable, pharmacy and pharmacology? I thought you can somewhat easily go from one to the other, even though they are quite different? I can't make up my mind really, they both interest me, pharmacy and pharmacology, problem is my parents likely aren't going to let me do a BSc so pharmacy is pretty much my only option, hence why I ask if they're interchangeable. They're OK with biotechnology though. I know that's a stupid reason but I don't really have a say in the matter unfortunately!

Your parents are only trying to protect you from unemployment. I get a little annoyed at university academics who tell applicants to do straight Arts. Or even International Development - (I know no one who got a job from that degree!). Unemployment is no fun. Generally speaking engineering, and pharmacy have fairly acceptable employment opportunities. For most science degrees you'll have to do further study, or make yourself attractive to corporate guys. Though that said, there is always room at the top.

Probably a good idea to check out the pharmacy programs you're interested in and see what their research priorities are.
 

Sam

¿umm?
If my understanding of pharmacy vs pharmacology is correct (and @lulwut could correct me on this), I'm under the impression that pharmacy has a couple of branches, one is about taking a known chemical known to have a certain effect (e.g. paracetamol) and formulating it into something you'd give to the patient (e.g. Panadol Extra), and the other is about the practice of dispensing medication on a daily basis (pharmacist); pharmacology on the other hand is the science of drug actions, whether it's the action of a chemical on the body (effects of a drug), or the action of the body on a chemical (things like how quickly it's absorbed and gotten rid of). Of course, other disciplines come into play as well - as Season mentioned.

Tl;dr: Think about what you mean by pharmaceutical research - if you mean "take an existing drug and formulating it into a medication to give to the patient", by all means go for pharmacy; but if you mean "discover/invent new drugs to do things not done before", perhaps it's pharmacology you're after?

Drug discovery generally involves pharmacists, we learn the chemistry of the drug action where as pharmacology learns the physiology behind the interactions etc. But yeha, mostly correct.
 

thedon5

Regular Member
Um, yes you do. I realise a lot of people have fairly... pushy parents, but at the end of the day this is your life/education, and you have to do what *you* want, because just doing something to please your parents is probably a waste of your time and isn't going to make you very happy long-term.

I'm not doing it to 'please' my parents. 'Pushy' isn't a good way to put it, it's a bit more than that. if I want to still be accepted at home, then I can only choose between professional 4-year degrees, it's as simple as that. So yes, I have very little say in pharmacy vs pharmacology as I don't want to be living alone on my own non-existent income. In this instance, I don't think I'd lose any sleep over the matter though, I think I still prefer pharmacy in any case.

Still not sure of whether to consider biotechnology, I guess there aren't many people here doing it?

@Season : Yeah I did have a look, I'm looking at pharmacy at Auckland, research is definitely a component of the degree. To what extent, I'm not entirely sure.
 

mso

Lurker
Thanks everyone for your reply but I still have a couple of questions :)

Pharmacy in The University of Auckland needs 29 in IB and I got 38. Is 38 a good score in IB? Will I be guaranteed an interview?

Moreover, I still cannot decide whether to enter Pharmacy or Biotechnology as I think Biotechnology is definitely the area of future-growth and I'll be a unique student, but Pharmacy tackles more areas in Science.

Furthermore, is Chemistry in Pharmacy hard? Because I'm into Biology more than Chemistry :S

Thanks a lot you guys! I really appreciate it :)
 

thedon5

Regular Member
Thanks everyone for your reply but I still have a couple of questions :)

Pharmacy in The University of Auckland needs 29 in IB and I got 38. Is 38 a good score in IB? Will I be guaranteed an interview?

Moreover, I still cannot decide whether to enter Pharmacy or Biotechnology as I think Biotechnology is definitely the area of future-growth and I'll be a unique student, but Pharmacy tackles more areas in Science.

Furthermore, is Chemistry in Pharmacy hard? Because I'm into Biology more than Chemistry :S

Thanks a lot you guys! I really appreciate it :)

Yes that is enough, that is the guaranteed score required in the interview. I have talked to one of the interviewers, there are usually around 200 applicants reaching the cut-off, they slim that down to around 100 to do the course. Often the problem is most of the people applying have no interest in pharmacy and are only applying because their parents told them to. They like for you to have volunteered at a pharmacy for at least a day. So you should be fine, I'd say you're almost guaranteed a spot.

I'm also still not sure about your last question.
 

Sam

¿umm?
Thanks everyone for your reply but I still have a couple of questions :)

Pharmacy in The University of Auckland needs 29 in IB and I got 38. Is 38 a good score in IB? Will I be guaranteed an interview?

Moreover, I still cannot decide whether to enter Pharmacy or Biotechnology as I think Biotechnology is definitely the area of future-growth and I'll be a unique student, but Pharmacy tackles more areas in Science.

Furthermore, is Chemistry in Pharmacy hard? Because I'm into Biology more than Chemistry :S

Thanks a lot you guys! I really appreciate it :)

I can't really speak to the difficulty of Auckland, but the chem in Otago is fairly tough. In saying that though, I haven't heard of anyone actually failing it. If you put in the effort of making sure you study and really understand how it works then it should be easy enough to do fine in! Studying pharmacy involves a lot of chemistry (naturally), so you want to consider that before you choose to study pharm.

38 is a pretty decent IB score, you'll breeze into the program as long as you can BS the interview (shouldn't be hard).

In the end no one here can really help you pick between biotech and pharm, it's up to you. My advice is to do whichever you are most passionate about, both degrees will have a hefty focus on science and post grad in either of them you can really focus into a specific area you have interest in. I personally love Pharmacy, but your mileage may vary. Remember that you aren't locked into a specific path just based on your undergrad, lots of people do X undergrad and end up post-grad in Y field.
 

mso

Lurker
I can't really speak to the difficulty of Auckland, but the chem in Otago is fairly tough. In saying that though, I haven't heard of anyone actually failing it. If you put in the effort of making sure you study and really understand how it works then it should be easy enough to do fine in! Studying pharmacy involves a lot of chemistry (naturally), so you want to consider that before you choose to study pharm.

38 is a pretty decent IB score, you'll breeze into the program as long as you can BS the interview (shouldn't be hard).

In the end no one here can really help you pick between biotech and pharm, it's up to you. My advice is to do whichever you are most passionate about, both degrees will have a hefty focus on science and post grad in either of them you can really focus into a specific area you have interest in. I personally love Pharmacy, but your mileage may vary. Remember that you aren't locked into a specific path just based on your undergrad, lots of people do X undergrad and end up post-grad in Y field.

That's so true!
I will study hard, I'm sure about that :) I just have to rethink and try to choose between both! It's a really tough decision as I'm passionate about both haha :)

Thanks again for your help :)
 

Sam

¿umm?
That's so true!
I will study hard, I'm sure about that :) I just have to rethink and try to choose between both! It's a really tough decision as I'm passionate about both haha :)

Thanks again for your help :)

Yeah, it's a tough choice for sure. You'll make the right one no doubt though! If you have any other specific questions about pharm just post, I imagine the Otago course is very similar to the Aucks one.
 

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thedon5

Regular Member
I can't really speak to the difficulty of Auckland, but the chem in Otago is fairly tough. In saying that though, I haven't heard of anyone actually failing it. If you put in the effort of making sure you study and really understand how it works then it should be easy enough to do fine in! Studying pharmacy involves a lot of chemistry (naturally), so you want to consider that before you choose to study pharm.

38 is a pretty decent IB score, you'll breeze into the program as long as you can BS the interview (shouldn't be hard).

In the end no one here can really help you pick between biotech and pharm, it's up to you. My advice is to do whichever you are most passionate about, both degrees will have a hefty focus on science and post grad in either of them you can really focus into a specific area you have interest in. I personally love Pharmacy, but your mileage may vary. Remember that you aren't locked into a specific path just based on your undergrad, lots of people do X undergrad and end up post-grad in Y field.

That is one thing I just want to confirm. Is this the case with these two fields? Can I choose pharmacy, complete postgrad studies in that then get a job in biotechnology later in life? Or is it possible to do undergraduate pharmacy, then postgrad biotechnology?
 

Sam

¿umm?
That is one thing I just want to confirm. Is this the case with these two fields? Can I choose pharmacy, complete postgrad studies in that then get a job in biotechnology later in life? Or is it possible to do undergraduate pharmacy, then postgrad biotechnology?

I would probably advise talking to someone in the field of biotech, but I imagine there would be ways to cross over.
 

mso

Lurker
Yeah, it's a tough choice for sure. You'll make the right one no doubt though! If you have any other specific questions about pharm just post, I imagine the Otago course is very similar to the Aucks one.

I will :) I just want to make sure that chemistry won't be a tough course :p Is it only organic chemistry or are we going to take physical chemistry, mole calculations, redox... etc.? I know it's a stupid question but I'm really curious to know :p
Thanks [MENTION=14020]lulwut[/MENTION] and [MENTION=19227]thedon5[/MENTION] :):)
 

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