If you\u2019re considering applying for a natural sciences degree, then chances are you haven\u2019t completely decided where your future lies. Not everyone has their life planned out after their studies are over. A lot of people can\u2019t decide, after finishing school, which single subject they want to study – it\u2019s a big decision! A natural science course allows you to try out multiple subjects and see what it’s actually like doing these subjects at university without committing to one single topic of study. Which is great for indecisive people like me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn\u2019t decide whether I wanted to commit to a biology degree after finishing A-levels. So a degree that gave me a bit more time to think about my choices seemed a great idea. Due to my specialisation pathway, I was able to study four subjects in my first year (archaeology, biology, chemistry and environment). Then two subjects in my second year (archaeology and chemistry). Eventually dropping down to a single subject (chemistry) for my final two years of study. This delay in choosing my \u201cspecialist subject\u201d (think Mastermind- but without the big black chair) was invaluable to me. I ended up specialising in a subject that I really wasn\u2019t expecting to!
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Although the workload for studying multiple subjects is demanding, the variety of assignments means that things don\u2019t get too repetitive throughout your degree. You may think the life of a science student would be full of labs, labs and more labs, but natural scientists also get a chance to take a break from this routine. In first year, there would be days where I\u2019d go from doing maths-based assignments for chemistry, to writing an essay about ecosystems for an environment course! The diversity of work means that you get to use different parts of your brain all the time. Your degree will never get monotonous.
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Undoubtedly, the best thing about natural sciences is the unique atmosphere of the course. Small year sizes mean that you get to know people in your own year and people in other years too. This is pretty much unheard of in a university setting because most courses have more than 150 people per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may sound cheesy but NatSci really is like a family (a strange, dysfunctional family). With the natural sciences common room as our home. You will spend so much time here with your course-mates outside of lectures; whether it\u2019s working through assignments together or just taking a lunch break. Once a week, the entire cohort gathers for NatSci hour, usually to hear a talk from someone in industry or academia. This also means we can munch on free (!) pizza. These events often turn into a social occasion, with the chance to talk with other students on different pathways. We can also ask older year’s advice about particular topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, the pressure of studying multiple subjects can get daunting. You have to handle a contact-hour heavy timetable along with multiple deadlines from different subjects. As well as anything you do outside of your course, occasionally, this can be a little stressful. However, the support system within natural sciences is incredible. The multitude of staff within single-subjects, are always happy to answer any questions related to their area of expertise. There is also a dedicated team of NatSci staff who are all incredibly approachable and always there to help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with your buddy from the year above, each student is assigned a supervisor for the duration of your degree. Meetings twice a term are the perfect time to bring up any worries you might be having. These could include deadline worries or anything going on in your personal life that may affect your studies. Anything that directly impacts your studies goes through them, and they\u2019re always at the end of an email if something happens during term-time that you need to discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For academic issues, Dr. Katherine Selby (director of our board of studies) runs a drop-in session weekly. During these drop-ins she is always happy to discuss any problems that come from working between subjects. For example: when four subjects set five deadlines within four days of each other, she\u2019s happy to try and liaise between different members of staff, in order to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more day-to-day issues, there are three members of staff who are permanently attached to the NatSci common room. Professor Roddy Vann is one of the brains behind the formation of the natural sciences programme here at York; and is the sounding board for many of our weird and wacky theoretical ideas for improvement around the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two other members of staff really deserve their own blog post, but I\u2019ll have to just do them a separate paragraph instead. Ali Thompson and Sarah Wright are the two course coordinators. They are quite possibly angels sent from above (ask other students- they\u2019ll agree with me). The two of them tend to be the first port of call for any problem (big or small). They are genuinely concerned about the welfare of every student. We think that they\u2019re so wonderful, that we nominated Ali to win the \u201cMost Supportive\u201d member of staff in the University for 2016!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s actually a lot more than 3 things to look forward to about studying natural sciences at York, but I didn\u2019t have the space to write them all. If I haven\u2019t managed to persuade you with tales of free pizza then I don\u2019t know what will. I\u2019ve now been here for two and a half years and am still so glad that I picked this course!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Variety (is the spice of life) If you\u2019re considering applying for a natural sciences degree, then chances are you haven\u2019t completely decided where your future lies. Not everyone has their life planned out after their studies are over. A lot of people can\u2019t decide, after finishing school, which single subject they want to study – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56],"tags":[81,655,407,746,295,122,98,670,277,161,15],"class_list":["post-4683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-sciences","tag-archaeology","tag-biology","tag-chemistry","tag-community","tag-course","tag-lectures","tag-maths","tag-natural-sciences","tag-staff","tag-studying","tag-support"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n