<p>Is there anyone here who is majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology, or even just plain Biology? Do you have any suggestions as to what kinds of classes I should take and what I should bring to college? Thanks</p>
<p>People here are going to tell you that job and career prospects for biology majors are poor. Think of all of the pre-meds who did not get into medical school that you will be competing against for jobs.</p>
<p>My background is that I majored in bacteriology, worked in biotech for several years and currently pursuing a Phd in microbiology. My memories from college coursework were that the truly necessary courses were all required (think biochem, genetics, organic chem, calc and so on). Beyond that, there were required courses for the major that ran the gamut from being very useful throughout my career like the microbial physiology course that I took to practically worthless for my career such as bacterial ecology, but there is no way I could have known back then what to pay attention to and what to blow off. The elective courses that have made a real difference for me were statistics and microbial genetics. I use statistics more frequently than anything else and have throughout my career. I learned a specific mindset and way to approach biological problems in my microbial genetics course that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere. Above all, the most important thing I did in college, which garnered me a number of good job offers within weeks of graduation and was pivotal in getting into graduate school, was work in a lab. Successful projects during undergrad are the hallmark of somebody destined for greatness, but you can’t just depend on a professor to give you a good project, you have to help inform it and bring something unique to the table. Best of luck</p>
<p>I am majoring in molecular and cell biology. I would recommend trying to start in a lab early. However, don’t be disappointed if you don’t find one your freshman year. I would realistically think the end of sophomore year is a good time to have found a lab.</p>
<p>Another thing I would recommend is that if you have the choice between taking a science course for life science majors vs one for majors/engineers, take the more difficult one for majors. It’s what I did. 1) you will learn more 2) if you decide to change majors into another science field it will make things easier on you 3) it will differentiate you when applying to summer programs and grad schools.</p>