<p>Aside from curriculum, is there an advantage of taking one over the other if i want to go the pre-med route? Is one harder than the other? i dont undersatnd...all i have heard is that humbio has a smaller class size and is a little easier?</p>
<p>Strictly speaking, there is no real advantage in being one or the other for pre-med, but bio, I think, makes things a bit easier. Bio tends to get a harder rep because you have more people to compete with in the core classes, but HumBio is difficult in its own way in that it requires more core classes and difficult weekly problem sets. Plus, if you're pre-med, you're going to have to take your lab courses from the bio dept anyways. HumBio has a reputation of not being as..."intense", for lack of a better word. It has a large focus on the social aspect of science, and will spend several lectures discussing various social aspects of topics such as sickle-cell, whereas bio will slam through that topic in about 5 minutes and move on to other subjects.</p>
<p>So difficulty varies something like this: HumBio gives you more details about less topics, while Bio gives you a little less detail, but for a whole lot of topics.</p>
<p>In terms of interest, if you want the pure science, go for Bio. If you wanna learn stuff like demographics of diseases and social issues, then go HumBio. If you choose HumBio be careful with your scheduling, as ten units a quarter will be dedicated to your core classes sophomore year, and that's assuming you don't want to do bio lab at the same time (an additional 8 units for the year).</p>
<p>isnt humbio a BA?</p>
<p>hey mis, if you look in your stanford course guide it shows bio is bS and humbio is a BA</p>
<p>Let me preface my comments by saying that these are my opinions.</p>
<p>Being a premed is exactly like being a Biological Science major. It'd take so much more effort for me to be a HumBio major and a premed because those two are significantly different. Being a Biosci major gives me a focus and a breadth, which is nice. I don't like watered down science, but that's what I'm going to get if I take the Humbio core.</p>
<p>Woooooooooooooooord. Especially to the watered-down science part. Ex: I wanna know the straight science behind lactose intolerance (i.e. you don't make the enzyme, or it's nonfunctional), I don't care what percentage of people are lactose-intolerant and what demographics they fall under.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Being a premed is exactly like being a Biological Science major. It'd take so much more effort for me to be a HumBio major and a premed because those two are significantly different. Being a Biosci major gives me a focus and a breadth, which is nice. I don't like watered down science, but that's what I'm going to get if I take the Humbio core.
[/quote]
I totally agree. What's nice about being a Biological Sciences major is that many of the major requirements are also premed requirements. Therefore, you have more time in your 4 years here to take other classes - maybe for fun, maybe for a second major or minor. However, do consider the differences between Bio and HumBio (i.e. do you like the fuzzy side of HumBio).</p>