Which chemistry course?

Selecting the right chemistry course and the right institution are paramount in a prospective chemist's life. An awareness of the jargon used in the description of degrees as well as knowing where to look for information, opinion and comment will be crucial to the potential chemistry student. Knowing how the application procedure works, in both the ideal and worst case scenarios, is also important. 

In 2007 the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)¹ listed 213 courses with chemistry (as a single subject) offered by 47 universities. If you consider all courses with the word chemistry in the title this rises to 738 courses (at 68 institutions) - a bewildering variety indeed. However, there are in fact only two main degree types on offer. These are: 

• bachelors qualifications (BSc), which typically take three years. BSc graduates are eligible for member-ship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC); and 
• undergraduate masters degrees (ie  MChem or MSci), which are four years' duration and may carry RSC accreditation for professional recognition in the form of Chartered Chemist status (CChem).²

Increasingly students are taking the MChem/MSci qualification if they want to pursue a career in the chemical industry or go on to do a PhD. Indeed some universities will not take a BSc graduate directly onto a PhD programme. This implies that a student needs to know what they are going to do after graduation even before starting a degree.  

Most universities, however, will allow students to transfer between MChem/MSci programmes and the corresponding BSc programmes, typically up to the end of the second year, providing they can meet specific academic criteria. Nevertheless, it is worth students putting as much effort into picking the right course first because motivational and psychological factors can complicate even the most straightforward course transfer.