<p>first, i am undecided about biology or biochemistry. I am going to be pre-med and i'd like to hear about your opinions on the two majors.</p>
<p>also.. the application.. what is up with this? i mean yeah, geneseo is my safety but am i really supposed to put down the other, more prestigous schools on this?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>It’s not going to be used against you. When I went to an admissions session they basically just liked to say “Our students are also applying to Colgate, Hamilton, Cornell, etc etc”. They are trying to solidify a reputation of being ranked up there with top privates. I’m in a similar position but it’s nothing that would hurt any chances.</p>
<p>No clue about biology.</p>
<p>I’m not an 100% sure about this, but I think both majors cover the same bio/chem med school reqs, so it boils down to how much higher level chem you want to take (obviously biochem is going to be more chem-oriented).</p>
<p>There are virtually no bio/chem med school reqs - you can go to med school on a communications major if you have a high GPA and great MCAT scores. However, most pre-med students are bio majors because not knowing the stuff bio majors know puts you at a significant disadvantage on the MCATs.</p>
<p>You need to be good at math if you want to do biochem. Biochem majors are required to take up to and including calculus III (bio majors do calc II) and are required to take analytical physics (calculus based physics and a significantly harder class than general physics, which bio majors take).</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the schools, it won’t really matter. Geneseo was a safety for pretty much everyone I knew, too.</p>
<p>If you want some more details on the biochem/biology major the Geneseo website has a good course bulletin outlining requirements for the two in detail.</p>
<p>I would say the BS in bio and biochem degrees are nearly the same. Both are somewhere around 72 or 73 credits (If I recall correctly) and they are almost identical for freshman as far as classes go.
The main differences show up your last two years where biochem majors have to take a full year of biochem, some specific labs and a semester of p-chem. There are some other differences but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.</p>
<p>The biology degree is a little less structures the last two years where you’ll be aking many of the same classes but you may have more of a choice as to what you take. </p>
<p>Also a note about the biochem degree here. The good thing about it is that you can choose a more biology oriented biochem degree or a chemistry oriented one. You’re allowed to fill many biochem degree requirements with classes from both the bio and chem department depending on what you like. </p>
<p>There really is a lot more detail to it, but it would too long a post. What I can say though is that many students I know have gone in as biology major and switched to biochemistry at the end of their freshman/early sophomore year without problems. The degree requirements overlap enough that you can probably decide after coming to the school and seeing what you like. </p>
<p>Sorry it was a little unclear, I hope it gave some insight into the degrees.</p>
<p>Also both should be more than enough to cover your medical school pre-reqs. So I wouldn’t let that effect the decision you make, many pre-meds here are bio and biochem majors.</p>
<p>my college counselor told me to put down what the average geneseo applicant would see as a reach, a safety, and a likely. For instance I put down bates and st lawrence and possibly will put grinnell… Don’t put the most prestigious schools down cause then theyll think that you think youre too good for geneseo and if you get in to the other places you won’t go.
its all such a game!
good luck :)</p>