<p>The most popular majors in the College of Biological Sciences is Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior (NPB), Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, and to some degree Exercise Biology. These majors are extremely popular owing to the fact that they’re related to a professional health science field that a lot of people are interested in. This tends to lead a lot of people into thinking that if you major in these, then you will have a better shot at medical/pharm/dental/physical therapy schools. This is entirely untrue in that you can major in anything you want and still be competitive for those schools. For general Biological Sciences, its popular because some people just want a broad overview of everything and/or they just can’t decide on just one specific focus.</p>
<p>In terms of “selective” major, I’m assuming you mean that if you put these majors down as your major on college applications, it will be harder to get into UCD. For the College of Biological Science at least (or its what I’ve been told by a major advisor), as long as you are applying for a major under the College of BioSci’s umbrella, you would be judged the same. So the difficulty of getting in if you put down Exercise Bio or a less popular CBS major like Evolution, Ecology will be the same. Now if the major is outside of the CBS umbrella, say a less popular major like Asian American Studies, you might have a slightly easier time getting in. </p>
<p>Here’s something to think about. On your application, it tells you to list your primary choice for your major and a secondary choice for your major. Never choose a biological science major as your first and second choice. In general, try to choose two majors in two different colleges. That way, if the Admissions Committee decides the College of Biological Sciences can’t accommodate you even though you’re an intriguing applicant, you can have a second shot at a different college. The important thing that I’m trying to say here is you shouldn’t handicap yourself in admissions by choosing two selective majors. Choosing a less then desirable major as your secondary choice will merit some consideration from Admissions and that could get your foot inside the door. Once you get in, no one but yourself is going to stop you from changing your major.</p>
<p>I’m a transfer student. I’m considering double majoring in Computer Science and Biochem. Is that doable? Do you know anyone who has done something like that?</p>
<p>Assuming you have taken some of the lower division pre-req for Biochemistry and Computer Science at your previous institution, this is very doable. As Biochem does not require that many units for the major, adding on Computer Science classes as well should not be a major problem. Depending on where you are in terms of classes that you have completed, it might take you more then 2 years to graduate (I’m assuming that you transferred from a community college after 2 years, my apologies if I’m wrong). However, this is extremely doable and very beneficial to you.</p>
<p>I extremely recommend anyone majoring in the biological sciences to dabble a bit in computer science or some sort of quantitative analysis. The reason being is that the age of biological science/basic biomedical research has reached a point where quantity amounts are becoming extremely important. There’s a shift in basic bench research now where protein quantification and analysis is more important then just knowing that a certain RNA is being made like before. As computers are getting quicker, biological science researchers have started to utilize computers to do a lot of computational analysis that they haven’t been able to do before. This is where a computer science degree comes really in handy. There are lots of Bioinformatics classes at UCD that teaches you how to write and utilize existing programs to do these advanced analyses. Whether it is writing a program to create a 3D image of a protein or searching kilobases of DNA for analysis, this skill is extremely rare to find in an undergraduate biological science student. A lot of biosci graduates now are desperately seeking jobs right now and have a hard time doing so not because they are unqualified, but because there are so many of them with the same skill set. Everyone will have experience working in a lab, doing PCR, and protein extraction. However, you would be hard press to find a biological science graduate who knows how to analyze proteins using computer programs. Computer science and biochemistry/molecular biology is the thing of the future and getting an early jump on that will make you in demand once you graduate.</p>
<p>Do you know the average GPA of those in biological sciences? What is the average percent of students apply that are successful into getting into medical school? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi, my name is Kelly. – I’ve been accepted to Davis as a Chemistry major, and I’m looking to switch to Biochem. My overall goal is to make it into Pharmacy school (I very much intend to do as much research and as many internships as I can.)</p>
<p>I’m wondering at this point what to do about housing. - I know that there is a Health Sciences ATP for one of the dorms- which supposedly leads to a seminar for the subject in general (sounds great!), but I’m not quite a fan of the program being housed in Cuarto. I hear Cuarto is a very hard-to-be-social area. I’m very gregarious: trying to make friends wouldn’t be hard for me… but you know, it’s nice for that to be easier since I will be so busy.</p>
<p>So my overall questions: Is the Health Sciences ATP program worth it? Are there other (easy) ways to get -just- as much guidance? Or is it much better to just go with whatever dorm I seem to enjoy?</p>
<p>I’m so sorry, but I don’t have the numbers for the average GPA of those in the College of Biological Sciences. I am not sure either if that number is released by the College. As for the percentage that apply and are successful in getting into medical school, Davis doesn’t keep track of their medical school applicants. Unlike some of the other East Coast schools, UCD and I presume the majority of the UCs do not write committee letters (a composite letter of recommendation which also states that the school’s pre-health committee endorses your application for medical school). So the only way the UCD pre-health advising office would know who applied and who got in would be if the applicant self-reported to the school. Being that most people would only want to report successes and schools would try to skew these numbers to favor their department, you should be wary of the actual percentages that schools give you. I wish I could be of more help in this matter. If you are dead set on obtaining this number, the best method to obtain this information if you are going to UCD is to go into the pre-health advising office in South Hall and ask for Linda Scott. If anyone would know about the actual number you’re looking for, she would. </p>
<p>@Kellyette</p>
<p>That’s great that you’re ambitious early. To answer your question, either this program started after my 1 year stint at the dorms in 2007 or it wasn’t highly publicized back then. One of the pros of this program in my mind is that you get to live near/with like-minded people. This can either drive you to work pretty darn hard or it can drive you crazy living with over-ambitious/type A/gunner personalities. Personally, I would want my living area to be as low stress as possible, a kind of escape from school as you may. Although I did study a lot, seeing people studying all the time while I’m trying to watch TV would sort of freak me out and bring out the neuroticism in me. </p>
<p>Cuarto sort of gets a bad reputation because it’s located slightly off-campus. I had friends living in Cuarto and it was not bad at all. Social connections are what you make of it and it really depends on the type of people living around you, which is highly random. A pro fro living in Cuarto is that it’s really close to the University Mall, which includes a Starbucks, Trader Joes, a pearl tea joint, and Forever 21. Cuarto isn’t horrible as people make it out to be.</p>
<p>As for the resources available to you, there should be an abundant amount. Maybe the Health Sciences ATP might have private events, but in general, the pre-health advising department does a good job of putting on seminars ever so often. To get information about this, go to the pre-health advising website and subscribe to their email list-serv. This will let you know about all the seminars they hold and the opportunities to get internships in the health sciences. </p>
<p>Personally, I would go to what ever dorm you seem to enjoy. College is rude awakening for a lot of people and it exposes a lot of bad studying habits/skills. For the first few quarters, it’s more important to refine your study skills and get good grades. As for the internships, your 2nd or 3rd quarter would be a good place to start them. Any of the professional health fields will require a lot of sacrifices and time is one of them. Eventually you’re going to have to make choices and how you balance them will be important. Best of luck.</p>
<p>So do you think that UC Davis thoroughly prepares you for medical school? And, I know a lot depends on the student, but I just want to know if many students receive a good GPA/MCAT score to get into a good post-grad or if it only the very very best.</p>
<p>What should I major if I want to become a pharmacist? Many people say it doesn’t matter until you go on to grad school, so I was thinking of majoring in biochemistry. Do you think that’s a good idea?</p>
<p>So I’m looking at the general catalog for Fall 2011, and some classes have the professor just listed as “Staff”. Will those be updated eventually, or is there just no way to know who your professor will be for some classes?</p>
<p>From my previous posts about the opportunities available at Davis, I am pretty confident that they prepare you well here. GPA/MCAT is usually student dependent and how much time you’re willing to spend on things and how motivated you are. For medical school at least, it is usually the best of the best. </p>
<p>@iamaspork
There’s a sort of tendency for people who are interested in pharmacy to gravitate towards biochemistry and chemistry as their undergraduate major. As most pharmacists end up being intimate in their knowledge different drugs and compounds, most people see these two majors as being stepping stones/a test of sorts to see if they’re able to spend the rest of their lives being involved at this level. But in all fairness, it matters very little what major you end up doing. As long as you complete the required pre-requisites for pharm school, you will definitely be considered for a seat. The reason why most people tend to major in the biological sciences is because it allows you to be able to knock out the pre-reqs for pharm school and complete the required major courses. If you major in the humanities or social science, you would have to take the major courses for those AND the pre-reqs for pharm school, which is a pretty daunting class. So in summary, you can major in what ever your heart desires, but it’s easier to stick to something in the sciences (and because it serves as an early litmus test to see if you can tolerate all that memorization).</p>
<p>@JeSuis
Yes, this is a by-product of the ever dwindling budget issues that the UC system is dealing with. When I first started at Davis, there were not that many “Staff” listings in the catalog, but they are now more and more common for the mainstream, freshmen heavy courses. There’s a two-fold answer to this. One being that the department has not sat down with the lecturers and professors to decide who will take what classes yet. The classes with the “staff” listings are usually taught by lecturers (non-faculty professors who do not do research and are just paid to teach). With the budge the way it is, the axe has come down hard on these lecturers and now its up the faculty professors to teach these lower division classes usually taught by lecturers. Faculty members usually claim the upper division courses and try to avoid these freshmen classes like the plague. So as a student, you’re basically being stuck in between professors who are trying to pull ranks to avoid teaching these classes. </p>
<p>So to answer your question (after my long rant), usually the “staff” listing gets resolved at an unspecified time. It can be instantaneously when you’re registered for the class or it can be that the first time you hear the professor’s name is when he/she introduces themselves to the class on the first day. I know this sucks because it’s hard for you to get on ratemyprofessor.com to check out who’s a scrub and who’s an absolute stud at teaching. But that’s how the University of California’s ship is sailing these days and it looks like stormy waters for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>i’m a 90s UC grad and i have siblings who graduated in the 80s and 70s and we all had “staff” listings in the course catalog–in other words, this is not a recent budget-related phenomenon! and it was okay. we didn’t need to know every intimate detail about a professor before taking the class (such intimacy is unknowable til u actually experience the class/professor for yourself anyway). one person’s “scrub” could very well be the next person’s “stud”. it’s all subjective.</p>
<p>don’t see how gloom and doom rants are very helpful to 17-year-olds who are already anxious about the upcoming changes in their lives.</p>
<p>As stated earlier, the “staff” listing requires a two fold explanation. One being that departments have not decided who’s teaching what (which accounts for the majority of the listings). The second being the budget cuts. It is not a new thing that just showed up, but it is more frequent now due to budget cuts.</p>
<p>It might not be an issue to know who you’re professors are back in the day and it still might not be for people now. But with the resources available now to examine a professors teaching style with input from former students, it would be unwise to not tap into this resource. If you are given two professors, one who loves testing unimportant little details and one who is enthusiastic and presents the material in a way where it is easier to learn, who would you choose? Granted sites like ratemyprofessor.com has some questionable reviews, some of the feedback on the professors are very helpful. Yes, it can be subjective, but knowing the professors tendencies and testing style can be helpful to your learning. In the same way that back in the day, you probably passed on information about professors through word of mouth, students now utilize the internet to increase their networking ability. In summary, some professors can teach and others are better off just doing research, so knowing this beforehand would save you a lot of frustration and tears.</p>
<p>I find that the gloom and doom rant is important because as students or future students of the UC system, they need to know the true landscape of what is happening. Besides painting a nice, opportunity-filled, picturesque picture of Davis, I really want these 17 year olds to know that not everything is bright and shining here. You hear on the news all the time about millions getting slashed from the UC system, but that’s just numbers that most can’t even fathom anyways. The true impact of this money disappearing from the UC system can be seen on the first day of CHE2A where students cant even find a spot to sit on the stairs leading to the actual seats. I am always here to help answer general questions about the biological sciences and how to get into professional schools, but I certainly WILL NOT lie about the state of our University of California system. If any of you prefer to hear only the good things of the UC system, then its better to not read my posts. But if you want to be informed about what you are going to be dealing with for the next 4 years of your life and not be blindsided by the things you will face, then this is a good thread to check out.</p>
<p>no, even if there is a trend, the individual is what matters most.
no, but if you’re living in the dorms you’ll have to walk to class which might be a pain. whenever i didn’t have my bike i hated having to walk to class.
i didn’t learn how to ride a bike until the spring before i started, so you have time… i love biking now too
but you shouldn’t be late as long as you leave soon enough, and you can definitely walk from class to class within 10 minutes.
oh and if you live in tercero it might not be a problem at all</p>
<p>A trend, especially one that accounts for the high school level, is not going to be really be effective and would not give you much data. If there was data on this, there would not be a strong correlation between the two. I’m pretty sure you know that Lowell contains pretty ambitious and high achieving individuals, but people’s goals in life changes in college. That’s not to say that people lose all forms of intelligence, but their habits and tendencies begin to slightly change. Some people kick it into high gear in college and become really motivated. While others become decide that kicking it with their friends is more worthwhile then studying or going into class. With that said, I do know of one person from Lowell who got into med school this year. However, this is more of a testament to his strong work ethic and motivation rather then where he went to high school. </p>
<p>Biking is a fun experience your first year. As one poster alluded to, if you live on one of the farther dorms, riding a bike is especially beneficial. If you have classes that only allow you 10 minutes to get to the other class, a bike would really help you out here as well. At the beginning of the year as a freshmen though, you probably won’t have much experience with how to deal with hundreds of other cyclists speeding past to you or the notorious bike circles. You’ll eventually learn how to deal with this though! After my sophomore year, I used my bike less and less just because I hate dealing with some pretty bad bikers who tend to fall into me during rush hours. The bus system is pretty good, especially if you live off campus.</p>