<p>There really aren’t any drawbacks to being a non-bio major on the pre-med route that I know of. The only other courses you would take as a bio major besides the pre-med classes are Eukaryotic Cell, Ecology, and 5 bio options (research, evolution, microscopic techniques, etc.). All the other courses are the typical liberal learning you’d take as a non-bio major. As long as you take the required courses, get good grades, and volunteer/do research you’d be fine.</p>
<p>Good luck feareman!!!</p>
<p>Trying entering the school as open options in the school of science. You can take all of the biology classes that you need plus you could try out some of the other science majors. If you do well in your biology classes, you can apply to be a biology major at the end of your freshman year.</p>
<p>So as long as I take all of the Medical school prerequisites I can apply to a medical school after four years right? It just so happens that the biology major has all of the prerequisites needed to enter medical school. So if you do get accepted into the bio major, all of the classes are already picked for you right? do you get to pick any classes? If you don’t get into the bio major, you can still take all of the prerequisite classes needed to enter a medical school right? instead of having the classes already picked for you, as a biology major student would, you would have to pick them yourself? what major what i have to enter to do this?
-Thanks</p>
<p>Whether you intend to go to med school or not, as a bio major you will still take all courses needed for premed except physics II (otherwise you only need physics I). In addition to the courses needed for med school, bio majors have to take 5 “optional” courses…in other words you will get to pick whatever 5 other bio classes you want.</p>
<p>If you get in as a non-bio major, yes, you will have to “pick” the premed courses yourself…the only difficult part about this is a lot of the bio courses (particularly the ones that all bio majors take…i.e. the optional courses) are reserved only for bio majors. You could do this with any major, although it would probably be easier with something like chem.</p>
<p>Thanks again HazelEyes.</p>
<p>I feel like I’ll have a much better chance in getting in if I apply early decision. Problem is I have not visited TCNJ at all, and I do not know anything about what it looks like. Early decision applications are due in November, but I have to have them in by mid-October-I think the deadline is on November 1st. Would it be a smart idea to apply as an early decision student without even going seeing TCNJ? The next open house is on October 10. If I wait until then to submit all of my paperwork, will I be too late?</p>
<p>I would never apply Early Decision without visiting. You don’t have to wait for an open house to visit. Pretty sure regular tours are conducted on weekdays.</p>
<p>I, too, would not apply early decision without visiting first but that is just me. And yes, you can come visit campus any time you wish. If you can’t come at a time that there is a tour, you can still walk around, ask students questions, etc.</p>
<p>oh and my previous post should be “i.e. NOT the optional courses” sorry about that lol</p>
<p>You mean I can literally just show up one day, enter the campus and walk around on my own? don’t I need a pass or something? Would I be allowed to walk wherever I want to, or only outside on the campus and not in the buildings?</p>
<p>I’m starting to annoy myself with all these questions lol! Sorry to have annoyed you AGAIN.</p>
<p>lol yeah anyone can just come on campus and walk around…it’s not uncommon on some weekends to see people walking their dogs around the loop. You technically need an ID to swipe to get into residence halls, but you could look around the library, student center, and you could go to Loser hall (and no, it’s not prounounced how it looks lol) and stop in at the office of admissions (if you come during the week).</p>
<p>Wow, thanks. that changes everything. I am going to visit as soon as possible. Would you recommend me visiting during an open house, or going by myself? Does it matter as long as I see the campus?</p>
<p>Question for a bio major…</p>
<p>How much work do you put in to maintain a solid GPA? How difficult are the classes?</p>
<p>It’s a lot of work. Expect to work hard… Unless of course you are one of those people who just magically know everything the second after hearing it come out of the professor’s mouth lol. The bio classes are tough (although the exact level of difficulty always does depend on the professor). Chem is more of a challenge for me simply because I am just not as good at it as I am at bio. I am taking orgo right now so I’ll let you know how that goes lol. </p>
<p>Regardless of who you get as a professor, expect to be doing more work than some people in other majors. If not because of the homework/studying because of the labs (if you take 2 lab courses that’s an additional <em>potential</em> 6 hours more of class time per week).</p>
<p>I’m applying as a first option Bio major. What should I fill in as my alternate if I don’t get into the bio major, but wanna take similar or exact classes?</p>
<p>Open Option - Science will allow you to take some Bio courses as well as let you dabble with other majors.</p>
<p>Just from AP Chem… I have an inkling of how horrible orgo is. Haha. I do have a very good –long term– memory… so perhaps that should help. When I went to the “scholar reception” I got to meet Dr. Nayak and Dr. Lovett (spelling?), they seemed pretty cool.</p>
<p>What exactly are labs like? I’m sure they’re not like your typical HS lab.</p>
<p>I heard applying as an Open options major decreases your chances of getting in to TCNJ, is this true?</p>
<p>From everything I’ve heard, TCNJ does NOT admit based off your major. Basically, they admit you to the school first and then admit you to your major. </p>
<p>They always say that since bio is so competitive that they turn away kids from the major, but invite them to choose another major/department. I don’t think Open Option is that competitive… certainly less competitive than any specific major.</p>
<p>I’ve met quite a few open options science majors and my current roommate is open options culture and society. Don’t be afraid of applying open options. A guy from my high school was not admitted as a bio major - he got in as an english major. However, I believe he recently transferred to bio (or is double majoring or something like that, i don’t know lol) and is intent on going to med school.</p>
<p>Feareman, yeah my professor flat out told us that orgo will probably be one of the hardest classes we take. I did not have AP chem in high school so gen chem wasn’t that much fun for me. Apparently some people who hated gen chem really love orgo…ask me after my first exam how much I love/hate orgo lol. I’ve also heard the same about the college accepting you to the school but not to a major…a girl from my high school apparently got accepted to TCNJ but could not get into the music program. Unfortunately, if you want to go into music there isn’t anything else to major in besides music. Luckily this isn’t the case for pre-med.</p>
<p>oh yeah labs lol</p>
<p>so far I’ve only had bio (themes and ecology…eukaryotic cell has a recitation) and chem (gen and orgo) labs. They are scheduled at 2 hours and 50 minutes…somtimes they take the whole time and other times you will get out early. The majority of my themes and gen chem labs did not take up the entire time. My orgo professor told us the majority of our labs WILL take up the full time. Overall, it depends on the class. For themes we had to do formal lab write ups. Chem has been the typical complete pre-lab before your lab then do post lab and hand it in at the next lab period. In chem you work with partners…for orgo one person will hand in the lab each week (in other words you will only be responsible for handing in half of the labs that you do). So far bio lab has been done in groups.</p>
<p>Well, I visited TCNJ with my dad yesterday and it was REALLY nice. They had some kind of festival going on in the front, near the music halls, I think. Looked like a good time. I’m going to apply early decision as a Bio major and an open options science major for my alternative. What exactly will I be able to do with an open options science major? Will I be able to choose my own classes and follow the route of the Pre-med student?</p>