I’m currently in my penultimate year of an undergraduate degree in mathematics. I’ve been thinking about changing fields completely. I love maths, so I intend to graduate with this degree and I’m certainly not considering switching subjects. However, I’ve always been drawn to biology and chemistry.
Note: I am currently studying in the UK. (I would be prepared to study in another country, e.g. in the US or somewhere in Europe)
I have two questions:
- How do I figure out whether this is really worth it and whether I’d be happy studying biology and related subjects?
I’ve read some biology undergraduate texts (and enjoyed every second), but is this enough? And chemistry was my favourite subject at A level (equivalent to the AP or SAT in the US I think).
- Now suppose I had decided to change careers. Suppose I wanted to become a biochemist and do research in say genetical engineering (pardon my lack of knowledge in this area if ‘a biochemist doing genetical engineering’ sounds like gibberish; I hope the overall meaning is clear). What steps would I have to take after I get my maths degree to achieve this goal?
I have thought about
- Taking a gap year to learn the undergraduate biology/chemistry needed for a masters in these subjects
- Explaining my situation to the university that I would want to attend (to study biology/chemistry) - perhaps they would let me attend some lecture courses.
I could try but I’d rather not attend biology & related lectures in my final year at uni (as the workload will already be huge).
What would you do?
