<p>Do recruiters from companies that come to berkeley care about what bio major you graduated from? </p>
<p>I went to Cal Day yesterday, and was really impressed with the college of natural resources. I met up with one of my friends currently at Cal who used to be in MCB and transferred to CNR and is now a MEB major. The major difference she told me between CNR and MCB in letters & science is that the UD class sizes are smaller. You learn a lot of the same stuff, and some of the classes are more interesting and less stressful (less premeds or something...). Also, the research they were doing seemed pretty interesting and not less challenging than MCB, which everyone says is a harder major.</p>
<p>Will a MCB major be better in the eyes of recruiters? Like biotech companies? A lot of the majors in CNR are specialized, like toxicology or plant biology... I want a very broad education for undergrad, and then narrow down in the future. Is this still possible for majors in CNR? I asked some students yesterday at cal day, but i want to get some more opinions. :) </p>
<p>Also, does anyone know anything about cognitive science? math? computer science? econ?
I visited a bunch of booths and colleges yesterday at Cal Day... and now I am considering a bunch of majors. XP Not good for choosing classes... </p>
<p>If you have time and are willing to, you can even PM me! :D</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>They don’t care what biology major you are, if you look at CareerCenter data, people from all the different biology majors land similar jobs</p>
<p>MCB is the hardest biology major (not including ChemBio in College of Chemistry), avoid it unless you are deeply interested.</p>
<p>If you want a broad biology major, you should not consider MCB at all. IB allows you to be much more broad than the other biology major. MEB is also a fairly broad major</p>
<p>MEB is the broadest bio major at UCB. Unlike IB which requires all major classes to be in the IB department, MEB allows students to take classes in MCB, IB, ESPM and NST to count towars the major so you can specialize (concentrations) or be all over the place if you want and aren’t restricted like other bio majors =)</p>
<p>^That is actually wrong what you said about IB. IB does allow two courses from other departments.</p>
<p>True, however MEB is in the ESPM department, but the major allows for, if you like, ALL 10-12 classes (varies depending on concentration) for the major to be from other departments. So it’s still the broadest bio major :D</p>
<p>You still have unit restrictions that require most of the UD units to be from CNR. It is incredibly broad within CNR, not as much with L&S.</p>
<p>Also, you guys have to do ****loads more work. IB and MCB are only 6 UDs</p>
<p>Correction: We have to take 15 unit with CNR, however CNR has 3 very diverse bio departments (ESPM, NST, GPB). Also our major requires at least 35 UD units, which is not most so we have at least 20 units to play in L&S making the major extremely broad in comparison to other bio majors on Cal. The name of our major even implies our broad study of biology as it ranges from the small MOLECULAR level to the enormous ENVIRONMENT and everything in between.</p>
<p>So, if I go into CNR, i can still take classes from MCB?
IB seems like a good choice, but CNR seems like it would have smaller upper division classes. (i looked on berkeley’s career website, and there were hundreds of IB and MCB graduates, while MEB had less than a hundred).</p>
<p>the majors in MCB seem more interesting to me (neurology, cell biology) but i will most likely change my mind after taking some classes at berkeley. XP</p>
<p>So MEB is very broad? Is MEB the only more broad major in CNR? What about Molecular Toxicology? Is a major in toxicology vastly different from MCB or IB? Because toxicology seems like it would be interesting, if the UD classes are very broad and cover a wide range of things, not just toxicology… if that makes any sense… basically, will it allow me to take classes that are also offered to MCB, etc? </p>
<p>@anon2528462
Yeah, I was aware that IB and MCB need less upper division units because they are B.A.s. Does it require significantly more work to be in CNR then, as opposed to IB or MCB? (graduating later maybe?)</p>
<p>@calbear2012</p>
<p>Sorry, but what is ESPM/NST? I keep seeing that, but i can’t find a major on the CNR website that matches those letters… XP</p>
<p>So GPB is also very broad? I originally thought it was mostly just about plants. XP</p>
<p>35 UD units seem like a lot compared to the 6 units anon2528462 said…
but I’m glad to hear CNR is very broad. 
I will definitely do more research about the college, but I think i will most likely want to transfer here. Thanks for all the help!</p>
<p>I said 6 UDs, not 6 units. IB requires 24 units minimum, MEB requires 35.</p>
<p>ESPM = Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
NST = Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology</p>
<p>There is not GPB department (GPB is a major), but there is a Plant and Microbial Biology department, which offers two majors (Genetics and Plant Biology (GPB) and Microbial Biology (MB))</p>
<p>Cal is big on acronyms, I will probably make a thread soon listing out all the ones that frosh should get used to.</p>
<p>The PMB and NST majors are pretty broad, but in no sense on the same level as MEB. MEB is basically an interdisciplinary bio major so you kind of make your own bio major. I made 2 schedules depending on what I want to do in the future. My MCBish MEB curriculum if I want to do research and my IB-ESPMish MEB schedule if I want to do premed. </p>
<p>My MCBsih schedule includes these classes for the major: MCB 102 (biochem), IB 164 (human genetics-I’m too scared to take MCB 104, but if you want to you can for the genetics requirement), MCB 141 (Development Biology), MCB 136 (Physiology), ESPM 132 (Spider Biology- No matter what I will take this class), ESPM 119 (Chemical ecology), MCB 135A (Mol. Endocrinology), MCB 150 (Mol. Immunology), MCB 165 (Mol. Neurobiology). All of these classes count for MEB =) ! </p>
<p>If I want to go pre-health I will probably do this schedule: MCB 102 (biochem), IB 164 (human genetics), PH 162 (public health microbiology), IB 132 (Human physiology), ESPM 132 (Spider Bio), ESPM 110 (Primate Ecology- I love monkeys =)), IB 131 (human anatomy), IB 137 (General Endocrinology), NST 110 (Toxicology).</p>
<p>If you could tell MEB can be shaped to be pretty much anything you want it to be.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what makes Chemical Biology harder than MCB?</p>
<p>The curriculum consists of more intense coursework, that is what.</p>
<p>MCB and Chem have similar average departmental GPAs</p>
<p>You have to take the harder physics and more math courses for chembio than for mcb biochem (multivariable calc, linear algebra). Otherwise they’re pretty similar.</p>
<p>You don’t necessarily have to take the harder physics courses for Chem Bio. You do have to take the harder general chem and organic chem courses as well as a ton of upper-div chem courses, none of which are needed for MCB.</p>
<p>
If you are admitted ChemBio, then you do. If you transfer into CoC, then you can get away with Chem 3 and Physics 8</p>
<p>no even if you’re in coc you can take the 8 series for chembio, you do have to take 4a/4b and 112a/b though</p>
<p>Right. The 8 series is accepted no matter what, but the 7 series is recommended. Chem 1A and 3A/B are allowed only if you switch into CoC.</p>
<p>Wow, CoNR sounds really nice! It sounds much more flexible than MCB… which I’m scared of taking now because it sounds like a lot of premeds take that major. XP </p>
<p>Can anyone tell me the major difference between CoNR and IB, though? Both seem like they would be able to take similar upper division classes… </p>
<p>Also, how hard is it to double major in berkeley if one major is bio (say, MEB or IB?)? Or minor (don’t really know the difference)…</p>