Hi there,

Thanks for a very useful reply. Most of my friends who, like me, want to go into research have gone straight into MSc's and PhD's so its nice to know that other people have worked in an unrelated area before embarking on a graduate qualification.
Depending on my enjoyment of the MSc I am hoping to go straight into a PhD or apply for the NHS HPC accredited Clinical Scientist training scheme.
Thanks for the help, any further comments are welcome.
D

Hi,
I graduated this Summer from Royal Holloway, University of London, with a First in Biology (Hons). Due to some bad decisions made at the beginning my degree my final transcript is now brimming with zoology and ecology related modules but not many biomed modules. Since the end of my second year however I have been doing some increasingly in depth reading, in my own time, into clinical oncology and am sure this is the area of research I want to go into.
To make matters worse whilst taking a year off to decide exactly what to do, rather than gaining work experience at biomed research or hospital labs I have had to take the first job that came along, an admin position at Oxford Uni, because unlike most other 21 year olds I haven't got the option of going back home and living for free, I have rent and bills to pay.
This has left me with only 4 weeks throughout the year and 2 months between the end of my contract and the beginning of the 2010/11 academic year during which to get some experience (which I'll have to secure well in advance of when I need it in order to be able to put it down on my MSc applications).
If secured early enough to put on my applications would this experience look good enough to get a place on a decent MSc in oncology or biomedicine. I was also going to apply for a place this year on the distance learning PGCert courses at either Newcastle (PGCert Oncology) or Staffordshire (PGCert Molecular Biology (which has a leaning towards biomedicine)), are these distance learning courses generally held in high enough esteem to enhance my application, I personally hadn't heard of them until recently, and are these particular courses good courses?
Suggestions are welcome from anyone who might have something useful to say.

Thanks in advance.