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Coursework in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics prepares students for advanced studies in cell and molecular biology. The program is also recommended for pre-medical students because it allows students to take the majority of courses required for admission to medical school in the process of completing this major. (For more information, see Pre-health Professions.)

The department does not permit multiple concentrations within the biology degree program. All of the curricula require preliminary work in physics and chemistry because many important biological concepts are based squarely upon principles in the physical sciences. Also, each curriculum includes upper-division work in the biological sciences so that students will receive reasonable breadth and depth in their degree program. Because of the sequential arrangement of courses students are urged to consult the descriptions for the prerequisites of all their courses.

Although course electives are listed for most of the majors, new electives are always being added to various programs. Therefore, we highly recommend that students seek advisement prior to enrolling in elective courses in their major.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Understanding the process of science: students can design an experiment with the appropriate control groups to test a hypothesis.
• Quantitative reasoning: students can interpret a graph or dataset to determine if the results of an experiment support or reject a hypothesis.
• Relationship between science and society: students can weigh the costs and benefits to society of the use of recent scientific and technological developments.
• Evolution: students can explain the role that variation between individuals plays in the processes of natural selection and evolution.
• Relationship between structure and function: students can explain how a change in the structural characteristics of a molecule, tissue, or organism will affect its function.
• Information flow and storage: students can describe the mechanisms of information flow in classical and molecular genetics and predict the outcomes of crosses.
• Pathways and transformation of matter and energy: students can explain how a carbon molecule flows through a biological process or system.
• Systems (i.e., Living systems are interconnected and interacting): students can predict the consequences of how a change in one aspect of a biological or complex system will affect other aspects of the system.