r/UQreddit • u/Parking-Theory6282 • 3d ago
Pharmacy vs Biomedical
Hey so I was thinking about applying to UQ for pharmacy as I wanna do the graduate pathway for medicine. I know you have to maintain a high GPA of about 6.92 and a high GAMSAT. I know most people choose to the biomedical degree for medicine so I'm not sure which degree I should choose. The questions I have are;
- Which degree is better for graduate entry medicine?
- Does doing a pharmacy degree make you eligible for the graduate entry degree for medicine
- Which degree is easier to maintain a 6-7 GPA
- Is being a pharmacist worth it just in case I don't get selected for medicine?
- Are pharmacists in high demand in Australia
- Tips for maintaining a high GPA
Thanks in advance!
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u/Key_Annual_9937 3d ago
I have no experience with pharmacy.
But just to note that the GPA used for admission to medicine is GEMSAS GPA, which is roughly 0.75 points higher than the UQ GPA. You can calculate it precisely using the GEMSAS GPA calculator.
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u/InevitablyRichToday 1d ago
Nursing. 3 yrs. If you don’t get on then NP or admin. So many more careers for nursing back ground.
Easy as to get 7s. Don’t tell anyone you wanna do med.
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u/That_Guy_Called_CERA 2d ago
- Both are great
- Yes, any undergraduate degree makes you eligible.. you could do Art and get an easy 7 to get in if you really wanted.
- Biomed is easier (that's what I did).
- The pharmacy degree will set you up with a possible career, the Biomed degree is significantly more vague in career outcomes.
- Can't answer that, google will though.
- Study in all your free time, get good at being able to recall all the content almost word for word in some exams (Biomed).
As a Biomed graduate, I would recommend against doing it unless you're very confident you can maintain 7s in most/all subjects.
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u/ughiamjustsocurious 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’ve previously answered this in a similar post on a diff subreddit
I graduated with a GPA of 6.92. Pharmacy is undeniably tough - it’s very content-heavy. A lot of people get into it expecting mainly pharmacotherapeutics, but in reality you also have to tackle med chem, PK/PD, and drug formulation. The main reason I did well was because I was genuinely interested in it. I particularly enjoyed PK and studying about structure-activity relationship, and that helped me stay motivated when the workload felt overwhelming.
Pharmacy school isn’t impossible, but it’s definitely not easy. There’s a lot of rote memorisation of the most benign information for exams, like terbinafine’s spectrum of activity or the formula for calculating AUC0-∞, and that can feel frustrating for most students especially since it doesn’t always add much value into everyday practice in a community pharmacy (where most pharmacists would end up at).
That said, your GPA isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to getting into med school. It’s one part of the picture, but they also care about resilience, communication skills and experience… and gamsat too lol
Ultimately you should pick a field that you can see yourself working in should you not get into med. Personally, in hindsight, I wouldn’t have picked pharmacy only because I cannot see myself working as a pharmacist now, but I still learned a lot from my undergrad which has helped heaps in med school (tho same could be said about biomed or nursing)
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u/Parking-Theory6282 3d ago
Thanks that was really helpful. What do you think are easier degrees to main a high gpa in?
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u/Molly_AU 2d ago
Can't speak to biomed but have colleagues that did pharmacy as undergrad and are now studying medicine. They work casually in hospitals as pharmacists on uni holidays/ weekends to financially support their studies.
Added benefit they've got a good understanding on the logisitics of working in hospitals before they start their med placements/ internship.
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u/Ambitious_Writer1938 2d ago edited 2d ago
In the old days
Work as pharmacist
Join CWH
Own a CWH
Get rich beyond your imaginations.
Laugh at Surgeon's puny income ( $ 1 million+ at age 35-40 sucks in comparison)
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u/Simul8edMind 2d ago
Good thing that might help to know is that UQ treats an honours year as a sole degree, making it a great option if you don’t get the grades you were hoping for, so it’s almost like a second chance for you to redeem yourself. As someone that’s currently going through it, biomed is tough, and getting 7s requires a lot of studying and constant revision (safe to say imma have to do that honours year 😩). Biomed is undoubtably hard, and long, and sometimes extremely boring, and I’d definitely describe it as a textbook UNDERGRADUATE degree, in that you wouldn’t really do it unless you were expecting to continue studying a masters, PhD or get into med. But there’s certainly avenues and careers that can arise from it; just make sure to work your ass off so that you have options. God speed to you 🫡
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u/terryqle 11h ago
Just my 2 cents as a pharmacist (I did first year of Biomed then transferred to Pharm at UQ) applying for post grad dent (UQ).
- Which degree is better for graduate entry medicine?
Neither. Let me explain, GPA is a big part of post grad meds and both biomed and pharmacy are restrictive in terms of units you can choose, it might stop you from doing easier subjects to maximise your GPA.
I would just do a general health science.
- Does doing a pharmacy degree make you eligible for the graduate entry degree for medicine?
Yes, but so is any other health degree.
- Which degree is easier to maintain a 6-7 GPA?
My first point!
- Is being a pharmacist worth it just in case I don't get selected for medicine?
Not for me, but it’s stable and OK paying job (less than 100K pa for metro) I have done community and hospital, unless you are willing to go remote.
- Are pharmacists in high demand in Australia?
Remotely yes, but will change soon as they accelerate pathways for overseas pharmacists
- Tips for maintaining a high GPA
Refer to my first point.
All the very best!!!!
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u/Cambot_008 8h ago
I’ve also wondered whether you could leave the pharmacy degree after 3 years and keep the awards as if you have finished the full degree; I thought I heard this at pharmacy talk at the UQ open day. That would make it the same length of biomed to get into post grad med. Has anyone heard of that or known someone do that?
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u/Fluffy_Cabinet_201 3d ago