<p>To any biology majors not on the premed track:</p>
<p>What field of biology are you majoring in?
Where will this take you? (i.e. what do you think you'll end up doing after college?
What college do you attend? What schools have strong biological science programs?</p>
<p>If you knew in high school already that you were going to be focusing mainly on biological sciences in college, did you take AP Bio (and did you get a 5)? This year (junior year) I'm taking AP physics (I made my course decisions last year--way before I began thinking about what I might study in college). Next year, I was planning on taking AP Environmental because I'm interested in it and the teacher is probably the best in the school (he's also a friend of mine), so I know I'd have a good time in the class. </p>
<p>My question is: if I'm planning on focusing on bio in college, how important is it that I take AP bio and get college credit (just fyi, i took the bio satII as a freshman and got 770)? I feel like I might be better off taking a necessary intro to bio course in college because the bio teachers in my school are terrible (all of my friends who currently take ap bio say they haven't learned anything). </p>
<p>I'm a parent, not a student, but I have looked at the undergraduate Biology cirriculum at several schools. I would say that many schools won't base their decision to admit/deny you based on AP Biology. Indeed, many colleges will require you to take what is essentially a biology "career orientation course" that is a preresiquite for Biology 101. Also, many school have different levels of Introductory Biology classes, based on your grades in high school chemistry. Chemistry I & II are often preresiquites for Biology I.</p>
<p>Scrutinize the requirements for the Biology major at each school's website.</p>
<p>Another parent as well and agree with what LakeWashington said. Practices vary widely on whether a college will even accept AP Biology for a potential biology major. You do need to check the schools you are interested in before you make a decision. One of the schools that my son was considering would not give credit for any science AP exams, even with a 5, but he might have been exempted from Introductory courses. Other schools did give credit. As far as your other questions, he is unsure what field of biology he is interested in or what he wants to do post-college. He applied to a variety of schools (a couple of small liberal arts colleges, one large university, and Rensselaer). The variety gave him many options as he was making his final decisions - they were all very different schools. He chose Rensselaer because he felt they would provide far more opportunities in the sciences than any of the other schools he looked at. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>at my university, if you get a 5 on AP bio, you get to skip the whole year of lower division biology -- this is certainly a bonus if you want to graduate in 4 or less years</p>
<p>however, sometimes people skip that general lower division biology, but they have more trouble their 2nd year with harder biology courses -- this is because high school AP bio has already worn off and was well-forgotten in that 1st year they took no biology courses -- so they have to get more of a refreshment when they start with harder courses -- but i myself found this to be a minor inconveniece compared to not having to take full year of bio</p>
<p>With a 770 in SATII bio, you have a good solid background in "general biology". However, biology programs vary depending on the strengths of the faculty and their own interests. Look for programs that offer a variety of classes in life sciences, such as cell biology/ physiology, molecular biology, microbiology, bioinformatics, proteomics. Most "bio" majors will require that you take general chemistry, physics and organic chem. Once you decide on a school...go and talk to them. You may want to take their intro bio course to get to know the faculty. If you like environmental science, look for toxicology courses/programs. Remember that most high school courses, even AP science classes will be covered in the first few lectures. It's the depth and the amount of details that make a difference!</p>