<p>What courses do biology majors typically have to take? It seems that most places have different requirements, but are there any common courses? And if I'm not really interested in a certain area of biology (say, ecology) is there any other major that would be a good substitute or any way that I can focus on the stuff I'm interested in?</p>
<p>Most biology majors take a group of basic courses in supporting sciences, e.g., general and organic chemistry, general physics, and calculus. Then, most general biology majors and many biology subspecialty majors require cell or developmental biology, genetics, ecology and/or evolution. If you major in certain biology subspecialties, you might not take a course in general ecology, for example, but instead take a course related to your subspecialty (e.g., microbial ecology for a microbiology major, or plant ecology for a botany/plant science major). </p>
<p>The idea is to expose majors to different levels of biological organization from cells to organisms to communities as well as to key mechanisms that operate in living organisms, e.g., genetics. I don’t see how you would think another major would be a god substitute or how you can avoid entirely some of the areas that interest you less.</p>