I am a current undergrad in Pharmacology and i plan on getting a Masters and Ph.D. eventually. But I’ve heard that you don’t have to do the EXACT SAME major in grad school as your ug major. So I’m just wondering if in general, can a bachelors in pharmacology allow me to pursue:
A) biochem?
B) Chem?
C)Pharmacy?
D) Pharmeceutical chemistry?
E) Neuroscience
F) Anything else?
I’m asking because i have one semester left before I can’t really switch majors anymore. So if say biochem allows me to do more things then I better weigh it out and think it over.
If you take the prerequisites, then yes. Neuroscience is a more interdisciplinary field, so people from a variety of majors go into that. Chemistry and biochemistry are disciplines, so people tend to have the undergraduate major, but if you take enough of the coursework and know the research methods then you can be competitive for PhD programs in those fields. (Pharmaceutical chemistry is simply a branch of chemistry, so the same thing applies.) Pharmacy is a professional program and you can get into that with any major, as long as you take the prerequisites.
However, I think you are going about this slightly wrong. The point isn’t really to keep your options as wide open as possible; inevitably some doors close as you progress through school and career. That’s okay. The point is to hone in on something you find really interesting. If you really like pharmacology and that’s what you want to study, it doesn’t really matter if you can pursue a PhD in neuroscience because that’s not what you want.
I just have no idea about what the employment outlook for these majors are like. I think i would enjoy something that’s like 60~70% chemistry and the rest biology, and pharmacology or pharmceutical chem fits that pretty well.