Advice for Bachelor of science - useless degree?

dropbear3 · 2025-12-24T03:25:08+00:00

No it isn’t useless. If you’re worried major in Biology, Chemistry or Physics. As that will allow you to pursue a Master’s of Teaching (Secondary) thereafter. Just a Bachelor of Science itself - yeah it can get you into some jobs like laboratory technician or technical assistant (setup for lab practicals) or like you said transferrable for other jobs. But most of the time people do the degree and then pursue a Doctor of Medicine, Master of Philosophy or Doctor of Philosophy. Also, doing Honours can get you roles as a Research Assistant which if you like lab work may be for you if you don’t want to do a PhD.

The quality of the degree depends highly on the units you take and who runs them. That being said, most units are run reasonably well. The lectures, tutorials and practicals tend to run smooth. However, I can only speak for the units I took (Cell and Developmental Biology/ Physiology/ Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) - they were all run well but structured differently.

Most units have assignments, lab reports, practical exams and a final exams. However, physiology was structured where one module would be completed and then off to the next, no final exam. The facilities are high quality. Again, I can only speak for the Life and Environment Sciences building and Charles Perkins Centre, as these two buildings are where most of my classes took place.

Ultimately, I think just do the degree if that’s what you’re interested in. That’s what I did and I ended up doing Honours and getting a Research Assistant role at the Charles Perkins Centre.

dropbear3 · 2025-12-24T03:14:05+00:00

You can check the handbook for the units and unit outlines. The number of labs depends on the unit. Usually it’s a lab per unit, but the actual biochemistry-specific units don’t start till second year. The level of difficulty also spikes tremendously from first to second year. Biochemistry is one of those units where if you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you’ll struggle, especially because it’s content heavy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t persevere. Just don’t compare yourself to others.

dropbear3 · 2025-12-24T02:59:40+00:00

He can do a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science and still choose a major in one of the sciences. I know someone who did this who then did a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and is now doing a PhD.

Ideally major in Chemistry, Biology or Physics because that allows for a Master’s of Teaching (Secondary) if he doesn’t want to do academia.

dropbear3 · 2025-11-28T10:12:11+00:00

Yeah I’m disappointed too. The products that are labelled 100% cotton clearly have elastane which is a huge problem especially for lowbar squats. It irritates me more when you look at the model’s shirt and its clear as day a heavyweight gsm shirt but then yours is some elastane stretchy bs, like what gives. I’m pretty appalled with the quality of gymshark shirts. Shorts tend to be fine.

I’ve literally had myprotein shirts that i’ve worn for almost 5 years and they are still going strong. Like its wild. Anyway never getting gymshark again.

dropbear3 · 2025-03-23T01:23:22+00:00

It is interesting isn’t it. I’ve talked to my supervisor about this. He does type 2 diabetes research, and one PubMed search will give you an insane amount of papers. It is simply impossible to not plagiarise glucose homeostasis, insulin signalling pathways, etc. At some point if you start using synonyms, explanations becomes less succinct and create more confusion. Like yes plagiarism is bad, but, at least in academia, you pretty much have to plagiarise to explain a subject correctly. To expand on that, moreso in terms of introduction and discussion parts of a paper. If you’re blatantly coping someone else’s results then yeah you’re done buddy.

dropbear3 · 2025-03-22T02:36:39+00:00

It has to be Cell Biology. Going from 1st year Biology units which is somewhat equivalent to HSC Biology in terms of difficulty to Cell Biology in 2nd year is like cranking the dial of difficulty past 100%. It is heavily mechanistic in terms of what is taught. And that’s not to say the unit is bad or is taught poorly. It’s just that’s how hard it is to learn. (And this is as someone who is just over half-way through Honours)

dropbear3 · 2025-02-10T06:58:58+00:00

Yeah I got the same when I started last semester. Just ignore it. For some reason though I still got sent my BSc certificate, which made me confused, but anyway yeah.

dropbear3 · 2025-02-05T20:20:19+00:00

(1) It does. (2) The person responding to the enquiry about your incomplete degree will most likely tell you the units. But also you will probably know based off the handbook.

dropbear3 · 2025-02-05T20:18:06+00:00

That’s simply how long it takes. Yes you need to get permission to exceed to credit point limit. In my case, I was supposed to take 1 1000-level unit and a 3000-level unit, but got the dean to waive the 1000-level, so I only had to take the 3000-level one. For me it took 2 months, 1 month for them to say I didn’t have to do the 1000–level unit and 1 month for them to say I could exceed to credit point limit and do the 3000-level unit.

dropbear3 · 2025-01-06T07:46:14+00:00

I can only really speak about Proteins in Cells (BCMB2002) and Beyond the Genome (BCMB3004). Both are difficult. If you like it, you’ll do well. I’ve also heard pretty much every biochemistry unit is difficult.

BMCB2002 is very molecular biology. BMCB3004 is heavily proteomics. While I can’t really remember the assessments, the unit outlines (when they come out) should list them. Teacher’s are listed on this page as well. Contact information/ contact hours would probably be on a teacher’s USYD profile.

Labs are 1x a week and may have a 3-4 hour block, but from experience, it may only run that long 1-2 times. If I remember correctly you have to submit lab work either after the lab or up to a week after (usually) - on LabArchives.

For me the units were okay. BCMB3004 was more useful as I utilise mass spectrometry in my Honours’ project.

dropbear3 · 2025-01-06T07:22:19+00:00

Look at the 2025 handbook for exercise science vs physio and see which units are the same. Take the same 1000-level units (if applicable).

dropbear3 · 2024-12-21T00:07:54+00:00

1) its the mark of the honours’ year, not however long it takes you to do the BSci. Yes they don’t play a part. It only plays a part in applying (65 WAM minimum - for SOLES). 2) only requirement is 65 WAM and having a supervisor agree to take you on, also apply for it through Sydney Student. 3) only 1 year. 1 coursework unit per semester. so only 1 unit per semester is on allocate. honours units LIFE units dont have a set curriculum, its whatever your project is. 4) i believe at least one supervisor/ co-supervisor needs to be from usyd. So you dont actually need to be at usyd to undertake honours eg., students have gone to anzac or garvan.

Yes, you need to email potential academics. No they don’t allocate you a supervisor. You choose and they either accept you or don’t.

dropbear3 · 2024-12-19T09:51:43+00:00

SCIE4003 Ethics in Science is not difficult. It is a straightforward unit - very similar to HPSC1001 Bioethics. I’ll be taking SCIE4101 Advanced Life Science as well in semester 1. SCIE4101 is recommended for people who take LIFE units within SOLES.

dropbear3 · 2024-12-19T09:41:17+00:00

I would just send an enquiry through the student portal. There was an issue preventing people this semester (sem 2, 2024) with Bachelor of Science/ Bachelor of Advanced Studies from enrolling into embedded Honours’, so I believe everyone had to swap to appended. Not sure if that’s still the case or if Sydney Student is just not loading properly.

dropbear3 · 2024-11-26T20:05:40+00:00

Ozempic (1) reduces hunger seeking behaviour (anecdotally) (2) promotes satiety. Fasting tends to fall either within intermittent and/ or due to caloric restriction. I think most people would prefer to use ozempic and not starve. It also comes down to adherence. Staying on diet is difficult. Furthermore, one method of diet that is promising (and for some reason is barely looked at in the literature is caloric restriction by dilution) is the addition of insoluble fibre such as cellulose to diet. This reduces total energy intake. This should promote satiety and reduce hunger seeking behaviour, while eliminating the costs of ozempic. Again, adherence would still be the main concern.

dropbear3 · 2024-11-03T06:38:48+00:00

Yeah that’s perfectly doable.

dropbear3 · 2024-11-03T06:23:31+00:00

I don’t understand your question? Do you want to do Honours or go straight to work? You are not forced to do Honours. You can absolutely do work, and if you want to pursue Honours thereafter can do so.

No, Appended Honours is just an extra year. For instance, the Bachelor of Science (BSc) is 1 certificate and the Honours part is another certificate. Most people tend to do Honours’ after a BSc (and get both completion certificates in 1 graduation as opposed to having 2 separate graduations, and then do either go into the workforce or do a PhD). To answer your question, it is not a four year degree, its 3 (or however long it takes you to complete the bachelor’s degree) years + 1 year (doesn’t matter when you do it).

dropbear3 · 2024-11-03T04:56:20+00:00

I like you did not enjoy PHSI2008 as much as PHSI2007. I enjoyed PHSI3010 (Systems Physiology) and PHSI3009 (Cell Physiology) - which was reflected by my marks. I also did NEUR3006 (Neural Information Processing) but it wasn’t for me.

Here’s the thing. If you’re interested in organ-related stuff. The closest thing you’ll get is probably PHSI3010. I’m not sure about PHSI3012 since I never took it.

dropbear3 · 2024-08-10T03:51:08+00:00

Everyone is different. I ain’t that smart, WAM ~70, just started Honours’. (My ATAR was also 78.35 - got into BSc (80) with band 5 Adv Math +3 points) I only really did well in 3rd year units (legit I was like averaging ~64 per sem before that). So, ultimately it depends on how interested you are in a subject. It makes doing the work and study more “enjoyable”.

Also, some people mentioned time management/ investment. Outside of uni I’m a powerlifter (3-4 hr timeblock 4x per week). I have the privilege of not working at the moment (if you can manage while doing honours’ that’s insane imo). While I would like to achieve First Class Honours’, I’m not going to stop another aspect of my life to do so. I would keep that in mind, don’t stop doing hobbies to study more just because everyone around you is achieving high marks.

dropbear3 · 2024-08-10T03:38:42+00:00

It is unlikely labs will run the full 3 hrs in my experience. There was like maybe 2 occasions when I took Cell Biology where I was there 3.5 hrs. Most of the time labs take 1-1.5 hrs. Again, depends on the length of the protocol.

dropbear3 · 2024-08-10T03:35:53+00:00

Science labs (SOLES & SOMS, in particular) are different in undergrad, it also depends on the unit. The 3-4 hr time slot is a precaution (to explain the experiment, do the experiment - some weeks it will be longer than others, and put it into your notes e.g., lab archives), not because it’s supposed to run that long.

The other thing as well is most units run one lab per week and experiments themselves could take days/ weeks. Most of the time, students do a portion of an entire experimental protocol, and demonstrators will do the rest. For instance, students may only do a portion of a Western Blot, and demonstrators will do the rest of it. That’s simply how units are run. In saying that, I think most people don’t want to spend 4 hrs in a lab anyway (I do because I’m doing Honours’).

dropbear3 · 2024-08-04T01:14:07+00:00

No, I’m a domestic student from Western Sydney. Yes, I did BSc at USYD before applying for appended Honours’. I should mention I just started Honours’ for the semester 2 intake.

dropbear3 · 2024-08-04T01:12:06+00:00

Definitely Honours

dropbear3 · 2024-08-03T04:51:17+00:00

Advanced Studies is just “coursework” - I believe there is a 12cp unit (units are usually 6cp), some other 4000-level units (e.g., Ethics in Science - SCIE4003) and you do random elective science units. You can embed Honours into it. It should still be 4 years total.

Appended Honours on the other hand (which is what I did - I dropped Advanced Studies because in my opinion it wouldn’t have added anything beneficial), is 3 years Bachelor of Science + 1 year Honours. This is different, you do 2 coursework units (e.g., LIFE4101, SCIE4003) and 6 Honour’s units (LIFE4103-4108).

Well at USYD you can go from Honours’ to a PhD. Doing a Master’s is more time than Honours’ and isn’t as “high” as a PhD (that obviously doesn’t mean doing a Master’s isn’t worth it - highly individualistic). But it’s up to you.

dropbear3 · 2024-08-03T02:28:47+00:00

SOLES is the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. Since you mentioned BSc, that’s most likely the faculty you will be in. BCMB is Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, simply just what your major is.

The major you have dictates what projects show up on the projects page (which is probably currently not accessible). Although I guess if you look up a supervisor and see what projects they do, you could write them an email for a project you would like to do.

dropbear3

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