| How does chemistry compare with pharmacology? It seems are if it might be easier to find a job with a pharmacology degree? My son "likes" chemistry. Not sure how much. |
| Seems like the question is does he want to be a pharmacist-lots of people who like chemistry would not! If he doesn’t then a chem degree is better. |
| Has he considered Chemical Engineering? |
| Either is a great pathway to a variety of careers, including working for a pharmaceutical company, which can be very lucrative. This is the type of major where you will get a job if you are successful in most undergrad programs. A student coming from the University of Arizona or Brown with an undergrad in pharmacy will have similar opportunities and outcomes for job placement. They will both be making more money than a kid graduating from Harvard with a degree in sociology. |
As a chem major myself, you will need more than an undergrad degree to get a good job in chem. The track can be very academia focused. |
The post isn't implying that they will land as a senior director of regulatory at Eli Lilly first year out of college, its saying they can get a job that will pay 100K as a cog in one of the companies and continue to grow and figure it out. |
With an undergrad degree? Absolutely not. |
Not with a bachelors in chem. ChemE or Materials E (which also requires a lot of undergrad chem), yes, but even then the best jobs are for those with masters or PhD. |
An undergrad Chem E isn't landing a 100k job out of college either. A PhD, maybe. |
He doesn't want to be a pharmacist. He likes chemistry. Trying to suggest other majors that are "similar" to chemistry. A lot of schools have Pharmacology majors which seems to be about 1/3 chemistry. The rest is biology and more specific courses regarding pharmacology. https://agsci.psu.edu/academics/undergraduate/majors/pharmacology-and-toxicology https://www.sju.edu/degree-programs/pharmacology-and-toxicology-bs |
+1 Chemistry requires at least an MS and really a PHD to do more than "grunt work for someone else". My own kid loves chemistry and decided upon Chem Eng, because they didn't want a PHD and "lab work" wasn't their thing. For them it's the perfect major---uses math and applications and chemistry, and you can do far in career without ever getting an MS+ |
+1 Bio and Chem are both majors where you need a PHD to do the "real work". And the pay for those with only a BS/BA is dismal typically |
What kind of chem does he like? He may like materials science (it's an engineering degree). Mat Sci is a broad field that can cover anything from metallurgy to polymers. |
Thanks for those links. I wasn’t really in tune with undergrad pharmacology programs. One field that has some chemistry in it - possibly quite a bit if you choose - is forensic science. Probably not very lucrative though. |
A PharmD degree usually leads to job as a Pharmacist. Chemistry is a serious degree, but has somewhat limited career options. ChemE also is hard and has more career options. |