<p>I am currently studying Biotechnology at an Australian institution but I am hopefully going to transfer to a US university for fall 2014 (By then I will have completed 3 semesters in my current university). Recently I have started to find Biostatistics quite interesting so I looked into graduate school requirements for getting a Masters degree in Biostatistics and most of the university websites say that I need a bachelor degree in math/stats or equivalent degree with certain required math courses (lots of calculus and stat) to be eligible for their program. </p>
<p>The problem is I only did calculus in GCE A-level mathematics- no calculus in College as it's not required for the Australian curriculum- and only 1 stat course so far in college. If I transfer to a US institution and major in biological sciences or biochem, is it possible to complete all the required calculus and stat courses as part of my degree? Would I be eligible for a Graduate degree in biostatistics after majoring in biological sciences/biochem?</p>
<p>I’m trying to get into a biostatistics program as well. I don’t think math degrees or stat degrees are always preferred, although I am getting a degree in Applied Math & Statistics. </p>
<p>I think the only prerequisites are Calculus I and II, Linear Algebra, and Ordinary Differential Equations. Basically, just our lower-divison requirements. I think they accept you from whatever major as long as you have the appropriate quantitative background (doing well on the GRE quant section as well). It’s just that your applicant pool (like me) will have a huge leg up on you. I’ll have upper-division stats under my belt. Then you have the classic classes that proves you could hack a math major - Real Analysis and Abstract Algebra. Getting good grades in those is nothing to sneeze at. I don’t think they care for those classes, but I think there’s probably a preference for math majors because not just anyone can do it. A lot of math programs also let you tailor your degree since here you can take computer science classes, statistics classes, applied math classes, physics classes, etc. for electives. I think you could essentially reduce your master’s degree to 1 year this way. Anyways, as long as you keep your GPA high, I think you’ll be pretty competitive if you take all the lower-divison classes. I know that UCLA gives preference to California residents, so I’m not sure how it plays out for internationals.</p>