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Should I study biology or chemistry?
Biology is a great major if you want to dissect things that couldn’t possibly be your neighbor.
I don’t think they even do human dissections in anatomy until medical school.
If you want to get into medical school, you’ll need biology more than chemistry.
I’m not planning on going to medical school. Which major do you think has more practical
applications?
In theory, chemistry lets you better understand the ingredients in modern day processed food.
In reality, it can make you a really good home brewer.
I think you think primarily with your stomach.
If you study biology, you have a good foundation for moving on to nursing, physical therapy,
veterinary medicine or even farming.
Why farming?
You have an understanding of the mechanics of plants and animals.
What are some useful applications of chemistry?
Work at the lab testing people’s blood for signs of various diseases or disorders. Become
a chemist at a factory and make their medicines or plastics or some other product advertised
as better living through chemistry.
That’s plastic.
Yes, chemistry is a flexible career. You could even go into pharmacy school with a degree
in chemistry, assuming you don’t want to be a chemical engineer.
Can you work in a chemical factory with a chemistry degree?
Sure, without even going into petroleum engineering. Or you could just learn to test water chemistry
and work for a utility at a cushy rate.
Which major do you think I should take? Or, rather, which classes?
You gain significant career options from either one. However, you do end up with a lower average
pay rate outside of medicine or even inside of it because the whole life sciences are
in a glut.
Of what? I don’t see hordes of unemployed biologists – just liberal arts majors.
The life sciences have had their pay rate go down because so many people working with
pipettes are replaced by machines and computerized analysis. There is still some work, from the
field to analysis, but not as much.
Then I’m going into chemistry.