I’m currently a chemistry major, and thinking of changing my major to biochemistry or biological chemistry. I want to study pharmacy or pharmacology in the future. Biological Chemistry is better because it covers more biology courses that are prerequisites for pharmacy. However, I found that the biochemistry major at my college is American Chemical Society Accreditated, and the Biological Chemistry is not. Many people said that the accreditation is not that much important, but the advisor said that biochemistry would be a bit more helpful when applying to graduate school or to work in a lab after graduation. Biological chemistry is easier because I don’t need to take calc 3 and physical chemistry, which will probably lower down my gpa. If I choose biochemistry, I need to take more classes, and need to take the summer class in order to complete all the prerequisite any graduate on time. I prefer choosing biological chemistry because of the lighter workload and wider coverage on prerequisite, but I afraid that if I can’t get accepted to pharmacy school or changed my mind, I can’t get a job (probably regular lab) because my degree is not accredited. How importance is the accreditation? Which major would you recommend?
This is probably of minimal help, but at my kid’s school they told us the same thing: biochem was accredited by ACS, which would be a plus if applying to grad school, but would make little or no difference if applying to professional school(medical/dental/pharmacy).