Biology Major specialization's

College Majors Science Majors
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<p>I am pre med and I also really interested in Biology so I thought that I was just going to do a biology major. Now I am learning that there are many different types of biology and as of now the ones that I am most interested in are Genetic Biology, microbiology, Cell biology, and neurobiology. I was wondering, since I am pretty much equally interested in all of them if anyone knows which of those is the easiest? or should I stick with General Biology?</p>

<p>I know everyone might be different but in general is one easier than the other?</p>

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<p>Bump 10 char</p>

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<p>Are you a high school student? If so, I think you might be over-thinking the issue at this time. As a pre-med with a biology interest, you will very likely have your first 3-4 semesters of science already set in place. You might have some limited ability to step outside of the core requirements and take other sciences, but at most colleges you won’t have many higher level sciences until late sophomore/early junior year. You might be able to “explore” some of these sciences earlier if the school you attend lets you use AP credits in lieu of some of the core distribution requirements but you’ll still probably be somewhat limited.</p>

<p>By the time you that really start on your biology concentration, you might find that you have areas where you are most interested. Whether those areas are easier or harder may not matter - you might find them so interesting you want to explore them anyway. Or, you might find that your interest compensates for the challenge.</p>

<p>As to the specific programs you mention, I think that you’ll have more physics and chemistry in neurobiology and perhaps genetics than the other two, but the differences are slight. If physics and chemistry make things harder for you, that is an answer to your question.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>genetics: hardcore math and programming, or unemployment, depending on your electives.
microbio: low wages, but employed. probably at a pharmaceutical plant being managed by chemists and chemical engineers.
cell bio: unemployment.
neurobio: unemployment.</p>

<p>you have to think: why would a company give a s* about what i learned and do they give a s* at the undergraduate level? chemistry, physics, math and engineering (all except… bioengineering) majors can answer that question, can you?</p>

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<p>General Biology will probably be the easiest out of all of them, since you can simply take the easiest biology electives offered at your school. Do the one that you’re most interested in, since medical schools don’t care what your major is (I have many friends that got into great medical schools with majors like Economics, Finance, Math, Linguistics, English, etc), as long as you complete the pre-med requirements.</p>

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<p>And as someone said, if you haven’t started college yet, you don’t really need to decide this yet, as most schools allow you to change/declare your major up to the beginning of junior year. The first two years will be pretty much the same for all of those majors you’re interested in, since you need to complete General Biology I and II, General Chemistry I and II, and perhaps Organic Chemistry I (at least). As a pre-med, you’ll have to take Organic Chemistry I and II, as well as Physics I and II.</p>

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<p>LastThreeYears, your ignorance is profound and potentially damaging to others who come here seeking advice.</p>

<p>Just because you seem to live somewhere that does not have job openings for people with biology degrees does not mean this is true everywhere. If you lived in a different city (such as Seattle) that has tons of biotech companies, a huge research university, and lots of big non-profit research institutes (FHCRC, SCCA, Seattle Childrens, Benoraya, Allen Institute, SBRI, to name only a few), it would be impossible for you to think the way you do.</p>

<p>There are tons of jobs in my city that list their requirements as some lab experience + a BS in either microbio, bio, molecular bio, chem or biochem and do not care which. Often times they just say “in a relevant field”.</p>

<p>Another thing - why the heck would someone in microbio “probably find employment” but someone with a degree in molecular biology get “no employment” ??? Did you major in either one? There is tons of overlap with all of these biological science degrees.</p>

<p>Lastly - the first four words of the OP makes it sound to me like he doesn’t care about what long term jobs he can with the BS alone.</p>

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<p>AntiAger, I’ve said it before, and he/she has proved it repeatedly, LastThreeYears is a ■■■■■. I think most of the CC community can see past this nonsense. Given the opinions offered and beliefs articulated, is it any wonder LTY couldn’t find suitable employment? If those types of opinions were brought up during a job interview with me, my next words would be “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.</p>

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<p>Haha, have you worked in the pharmaceutical industry? What do you think a B.S. in Biology gets you there? Not very far. Not all pharmaceutical companies are Pfizer. In fact 99% of them aren’t Pfizer, and Pfizer doesn’t need B.S. in Biology when they can hire PhDs for cheap. These smaller companies don’t need biology because they don’t develop new drugs. They need QC associates that know their chemistry. Have you ever worked at a biology lab, then at a pharmaceutical lab, then noted how none of the things you learn in biology lab will ever be used?</p>

<p>You ask if I majored in biology. To my disappointment, YES I DID. And I finished it too, half a year early. But I’m not leaving, because I saw the real world in my internship and it doesn’t need biology at all. Note how all the biology jobs say, Biology or CHEMISTRY. Note how very few pure chemistry jobs accept BIOLOGISTS. Note the number of jobs that say “major in physical sciences, engineering or computer”. BIOLOGY is NOT considered a PHYSICAL SCIENCE - it’s not in the School of Physical Sciences at my school. Now, why would Microbiology find employment while Molecular Biology does not? Because microbiology gives some important skills like culturing and identification of bacteria, while molecular biology majors take alot of useless classes like Cancer Genetics or Signal Transduction that don’t help in the real world. These useless classes limit the amount of useful electives.</p>

<p>Look, you can keep your head in the sand though. When you graduate and go on to a deadend job, think to yourself: biology is fun! biology is useful! There are so many great biotech companies out there!</p>

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<p>all of this is irrelevant, since the OP said that he’s pre-med. Even if he drops pre-med, no one here said that they’d want to do something with just a B.S.</p>

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<p>Dang you are an idiot, as I can see it’s more than ignorance now. I don’t even think you read half of what I said. I’ll try and help you out some more:</p>

<p>I’ve seen tons and TONS of job openings at each of the companies I listed. You seem to think there are only pharmaceutical companies out there. I’ll give you the list again…
FHCRC - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
SCCA - Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Seattle Childrens Hospital
Benoraya Research Institute
Allen Institute for Brain Science
SBRI - Seattle biomedical research Institute
Amgen
(Recently bought) Zymogenetics
Dendreon Therapeutics</p>

<p>I have seen many job postings for all of these places which (as I already tried to tell you) require a B.S. in molecular biology, biochemistry, or relevant degree.</p>

<p>There is also the University of Washington Medical Center which hires research scientists (I, II, III, and IV) for a huge number of departments. Here are some relevant job postings just for 11/30/10:
69622 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 4 PHYSIOLOGY & BIOPHYSIC<br>
69703 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 3 PHYSIOLOGY & BIOPHYSIC<br>
68125 RESEARCH COORDINATOR PATHOLOGY 11/30/2010
69615 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 2 BIOENGINEERING<br>
69632 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 2 PHYSIOLOGY & BIOPHYSIC
69656 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 1 PATHOLOGY 11/30/2010
69660 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 2 PATHOLOGY 11/30/2010
69715 RESEARCH SCIENTIST 2 ANESTHESIOLOGY 11/30/2010
69719 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 1 HEMATOLOGY 11/30/2010
69641 RESEARCH NURSE COORDINATOR CARDIOLOGY 11/30/2010
69650 RESEARCH SCIENTIST 1 ONCOLOGY 11/30/2010
69387 RESEARCH SCIENTIST 1 RESPIRATORY DISEASES 11/30/2010
69388 RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 2 RESPIRATORY DISEASES </p>

<p>Requirements for the I and II positions:
Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular or Cell Biology or related field, or significant research experience in these fields.
Bachelor’s degree in Biology or similar field.
Bachelor’s degree and at least one year of basic laboratory experience.
Bachelor’s degree, at least one year of animal surgery and handling techniques and more than one year of basic laboratory experience.
Bachelor’s degree and 3 years lab experience in lab management and bench techniques; immunohistochemical, molecular techniques, microscopy and survival surgery in laboratory animals required.
Bachelor of Science degree in biology, immunology, molecular biology or related field, plus a minimum of 1 years of relevant laboratory experience, including work with animal models, human in vitro assays, and immune assays
Bachelor’s degree in biology or similar field with at least one year of experience. </p>

<p>Now that you have learned otherwise, please **** and stop spreading your negativities and misinformation.</p>

<p>NucleicAcid - I know, I tried to say this earlier.</p>

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<p>how many entry level positions? none? where are you going to get that experience? from thin air? if you think those are good, careerbuilder search for chemistry, chemical or materials, it’ll blow your mind. Biology or similar field? Chemistry or chemical engineering majors can take every single 1 of those jobs after taking introduction to biology. Immunohistochemistry? Don’t talk to me about IHC, I did IHC for a whole damn year. You don’t need any theoretical training in biology to do IHC. I could’ve taught the procedure to a high school student in 3 hours. Try teaching how to design a distillation column or interpret NMR results to a high school student in 3 hours? They don’t even let you touch the NMR machines until year 3.</p>

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<p>I’m having a hard time feeling like I can get anything through to you. It’s like each sentence you type is spouting off a new argument, usually off topic, and always crappy.</p>

<p>It sounds to me like you can’t find a job you enjoy and are blaming the major rather than yourself.</p>

<p>“how many entry level positions? none?”</p>

<p>On 11/30/10 There was one position that had no required prior lab experience. The others did, but it’s not hard to get, at least at my school, because anyone doing biology or similar majors can quite easily get undergraduate experience. I worked for both the UW and the Fred Hutchinson Research Center. Your argument is off-topic anyway, as just because they are not entry level doesn’t mean someone with the degree they ask for can’t get the job, but someone with a degree they don’t ask for (chem, chemE) could. “Oh, so you don’t have animal surgery or protein expression experience, but you can make a distillation column? You’re hired!”</p>

<p>“Try teaching how to design a distillation column or interpret NMR results to a high school student in 3 hours? They don’t even let you touch the NMR machines until year 3.”</p>

<p>-That has absolutely nothing to do with my argument. Chem E jobs are harder, yes. This does not disprove my point that one can get a job with a BS in Bio or similar field.</p>

<p>“Immunohistochemistry? Don’t talk to me about IHC, I did IHC for a whole damn year. You don’t need any theoretical training in biology to do IHC. I could’ve taught the procedure to a high school student in 3 hours.”</p>

<p>-Hey stupid, I didn’t talk to you about it. I copy pasted it from a job requirement list from one of the positions. And this beats my argument how? Since the jobs are easy, they don’t exist? They do exist, I just showed you several posted from one institution from one day.</p>

<p>"Biology or similar field? "</p>

<p>-Yes, that’s what it says in the job requirements section. You really did just read that.</p>

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<p>Sigh. ok, here is what I’m trying to say. Biology or a related field - chemistry or physics can say they’re related. but get a biology person and have him try to do circuits, drug synthesis or instrumental analysis? they’ll be totally lost. You don’t need to get a degree in biology to get a job dealing with biology. Often times, a 2 quarter introduction to biology is plenty, everything else can be learned on the job. Having a biology degree can actually hold you back, as then employers will view you as lacking quantitative skills.</p>

<p>you can google “biology degree worthless” and see for yourself. there’s no page called “chemistry degree worthless” or even “physics degree worthless”.</p>

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<p>I’d rather go by personal experience. Maybe it’s because people respect the UW and that’s why my friends and I turned out alright.</p>

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<p>If it’s on Google, it must be right. Please… While I guess that you take the good with the bad on internet forums, one unsuccessful college student in one location cannot hope to understand the entire universe of career opportunities for an entire major. Sorry things haven’t worked out for you, but please let others try to follow their interests.</p>

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<p>Yes, a bad experiences by one will not hamper the growth of an entire field. I would also agree to a point made here: In comparison to job opportunities in chemistry, biology job is a bit less aboundant over all.</p>

<p>Going back to the OP’s perspective: You do not need a biology degree to get into medical school. You can be in any major, including biology.</p>

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<p>experience is all we can go by sometimes, and mine has been, every single bit of biology i learned was useless and i worked in a pharmaceutical company. unless you work in a hospital or in medical services (not devices or drugs), biology is worthless, and the competition for jobs in medical services is ridiculously high. your own finding of the jobs say that as well; try finding some biology jobs not affiliated with a hospital?</p>

<p>that’s why i’m warning against biology as well; even if you can find a job, it is not flexible. chemistry degrees can go from pharmaceuticals to petrochemicals to materials. Your own search says that the vast majority of biology jobs are in hospitals, and if you find out that you don’t actually like medicine, tough luck! Whereas if I find out I don’t like pharmaceuticals I can move to petrochemicals or materials.</p>

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<p>@LastThreeYears:</p>

<p>Or maybe the program you received your degree from just sucks.</p>

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<p>I also find that biology is useless unless you manage to get 5 years experience in some very obscure and/or high demand area (regulatory affairs, clinical research etc) you are unemployable short of 1 being a QC-tech making ~$12/hour or teaching. </p>

<p>Chemistry is not much better. There a decent opportunities in certain industries like formulations, paint, ink, glue etc. if you can somehow get 5 years specialized experience. Otherwise you are doing QC for ~$15 to $20 an hour or unemployed.</p>

<p>I’d say both suck and anyone smart enough should instead go Pharm, Med, Dental, Accounting and stay the heck out of the field. Most of the jobs in both are dead end and pay less than a garbage man without benefits (most companies hire though staffing agencies so you are technically not their employee).</p>

<p>Unfortunately employers now a days think qualified employees come from trees and getting any experience is nearly impossible out of college because no one will hire you. If you don’t believe me look at the job ads they look like a three year old’s Christmas list (I want a rocket ship, and a pony, and a submarine) with their demands of qualifications.</p>

<p>I have an MSc in Chemistry and and biochem BSc. with about an equal amount of chem and bio classes.</p>