[Perpetual Motion]

I am currently doing my GCSEs I'm getting A-B grades and I am very interested in biology and mostly in physics, I'm looking to do a science subject A level in the near future.

but I really don't see a good career path in physics as I struggle to see what job I could get, However biology offers allot to do with hospitals and health care medicine ect.
as for chemistry i hardly know of any job opportunities.


which subject opens the most opportunities?


Thank you for reading.

[timo]

According to Wikipedia, an A-level refers to "advanced" courses in school grade 12 and 13. That does not sound like being a real career decision (my "Leistungskurse", which I believe may be the German equivalent of an A-level, where relatively unrelated to what I went for in university - which I consider as a plus). Unless I am wrong about "not a career decision", I recommend choosing based on talent, current interest, teacher, timetable, nice and (if of opposite sex) good-looking fellow students, ... (possibly even in that order).

[Klaynos]

To do a science at degree level most UK universities will expect you to have the corresponding a-level and maths.

I would suggest you think more about what you enjoy studying, and what you enjoy reading about.

The careers you can do with any of the three traditional sciences are many and varied, if you are that concerned take a look at the careers sites for people like the institute of physics. Physics for example is a discipline that is greatly desired for a lot of grad-programs for companies that you probably wouldn't expect, like law firms... But I do think that at a-level and degree you really do need to consider what you enjoy, else you're unlikely to stick with it.

[GradSchoolShopper]

Perpetual Motion, on 28 November 2011 - 04:18 PM, said:

I am currently doing my GCSEs I'm getting A-B grades and I am very interested in biology and mostly in physics, I'm looking to do a science subject A level in the near future.

but I really don't see a good career path in physics as I struggle to see what job I could get, However biology offers allot to do with hospitals and health care medicine ect.
as for chemistry i hardly know of any job opportunities.


which subject opens the most opportunities?


Thank you for reading.

This is a tough question. In the technological age that we live in today, many technological positions are intertwined with one another in mixed fields like biophysics or medical physics, biochemistry, etc.

I can't help much with prospective jobs of chemists and biologists, but physics is a very wide field, and misconceptions are abundant. As a physicists, you have quite a large array of job possibilities that are not necessarily strictly in academia.

You can find more information about what you can do with physics in the Society of Physics Students website. They have a very good resource called "Careers using physics" that lays out quite a number of possibilities for a physics career - some of them very surprising.
http://www.spsnation...iles/index.html

Purdue university has a list of companies that frequent their career center and hires their graduates. It's an interesting and diverse list of companies outside of academia as well: http://www.physics.p.../whohires.shtml

Notice, also, that there are several hospitals in that list. Physicists do have jobs in the medical field!

You can also visit the American Institute of Physics Statistics Center to see some stats about job prospects and salaries (in the US) for physics majors:
http://www.aip.org/s.../emptrends.html

Whatever you decide, I wish you good luck!

[Klaynos]

GradSchoolShopper, on 6 January 2012 - 06:21 AM, said:

Notice, also, that there are several hospitals in that list. Physicists do have jobs in the medical field!

When I started my physics degree, which wasn't all that long ago, the NHS (national health service) was the largest single employer of physics graduates in the UK.

[Greippi]

It really depends on whether you're considering going to university, it's perhaps best to keep that option open if you're not sure.
These days, a lot of the most exciting science stuff is multidisciplinary. I did biology and chemistry (as well as history) for A-level, went on to do a degree in biochemistry and am now doing a PhD involving biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. I am very glad I kept my options open, and wish I'd been able to do maths or physics at A level.

For now I'd say stick with what you love doing, but keep your options open. Unless you have other subjects you want to do, I'd say perhaps you should do all 3 sciences at AS level, and then when it comes to deciding what to continue on to A level you'll be able to make a more informed choice about what to pick. There are a whole host of career options available that you have probably never considered, and won't be able to know whether you'd like to do them until you're further on in your academic career. How about scientific research? During AS levels you'll learn which areas you find most interesting, and you'll learn what degree courses are be available.

This post has been edited by Greippi: 6 January 2012 - 02:15 PM