<p>Hey all,
I'm a HS senior interested in pursuing animal science/genetics and biodiversity. Long story short, I have a pretty good resume but my grades are so-so (learning disability, personal challenges). I'm very prepared to work my a*s off in college, as I plan to continue on to grad school, but I'm a bit stuck right now. I've been accepted to UCSB, which has majors tailored to my interests, but I am worried about the party school reputation - plus, I am an introvert and a nerd who would prefer to read Dutch novels than party in IV. I also applied to Wellesley, Reed, Smith, Vassar, Brown, UCB, UC Davis, UCSD, UCSC, College of the Atlantic, and UPuget Sound. I'm very conflicted, because the schools I really want to go to are not strong in my field. I want to go to Reed or Wellesley or Smith - none of which even have animal science majors. I just love the tight knit learning communities that are quirky and creative. I am concerned about whether or not I would thrive at a UC, but that seems to be the only place that has my type of major that I applied to. Cornell is really ideal I think, but I didn't apply because like I said, grades are so-so. Thoughts? Should I go to a LAC and major in env science and try to transfer to Cornell, or just go to grad school and do animal science there? </p>
<p>Animal science is a field generally found only in colleges of agriculture, which are found at public landgrant universities. If you are a California resident (since you applied to several UC campuses), animal science can be studied at UCD. If by animal science, you mean “zoology”, then some public universities still divide their bioscience depts. into the traditional categories of zoology, botany, etc. It is more common to divide the bioscience depts into departments of ecology & evolutionary biology and departments of molecular biology. At some schools (especially at LACs), you will just have a single biology or biological sciences dept. Such unified depts., may or may not offer specialty track majors in zoology or in ecology & evolution. At most schools, bioscience majors (whether or not subspecialty majors are offered) have some sort of distribution requirements across the various subfields or levels of biological organization. This common core often consists of courses in cell biology, genetics, ecology, evolution, and a course in organismic biology. In addition, most bioscience majors require courses in supporting math and science fields—typically, 2 semesters each of general and organic chemistry, general physics, and calculus. If you feel that an LAC is a better personal fit for you, a bioscience major there could adequately prepare you well for grad school. Though there are more options for research experience at a larger school, arguably, a smaller school often can provide more personal mentorship in research skills that can be invaluable in your early development as a scientist. </p>