<p>Hey everyone, I'm a new poster here and have some concerns. I'm contemplating what I want to do when I get to college (I'm starting my senior year of high school this coming school year), and I'm wondering what college life is like for a biology major. I plan on majoring in biology and doing a pre-vet track because I hope to eventually make it into vet school. I hear that being any type of science major is a ton of work. I plan on working hard and hopefully maintaining at least a 3.5 gpa (I really want to make it into vet school), but I'm wondering if I'll still have time to enjoy a normal college social life. I'd like to join at least one club, maybe do some sort of intramural sport, hang out with friends, etc. Will I be stuck in the library the majority of my time though? Thanks.</p>
<p>Ironically, biology majors have no life. Most, if not all, are pre-meds, and we all know how competitive pre-meds are.</p>
<p>A lot of bio majors are premeds, but I wouldn't go so far as to say all or even most.</p>
<p>Anyway, as a bio major you'll definitely have a lot more work than many others. Still, it varies a ton and it's hard to say what your experience will be like. It depends a lot on your courseload, your intelligence/aptitude for biology, etc.</p>
<p>I'm a molecular and cell biology major, I'll be a sophomore in the fall. I'm also a premed if that's relevant. Anyway, I definitely had a ton of work, not nearly as much free time as my friends. Probably because I took 17 and 19 credits a semester, respectively. Despite that, I still played intramural soccer and football, hung out with my friends on weekends (and had dinner with them on weeknights), was part of 2 clubs (though I didn't always attend every meeting). It entirely depends on how well you can keep up with the work.</p>
<p>I want to be a biology major too..but I didn't expect it to be difficult.</p>
<p>What are your friends majoring in to have a lot of free time? I'm interested in pre-med as well. I know I have to study, but is it really a lot harder than it seems?</p>
<p>I'm not the genius kid who thinks everything is easy. I thought a biology major would be studying biology all the time, but not a lot. you know? It's hard to explain, but I hope I don't present myself the wrong way.</p>
<p>your kidding ^? You want to major in Biology and have no knowledge on the courses required for a B.S? I'm majoring in Biology to teach high school (I will start college June 6th, 2008) Here is what most of the classes are at VSU:</p>
<p>English 1101
English 1102
Precalculus
Analytical Geometry
Women's Voices (perspectives, i chose it for example)
Nutrition (again perspectives example)
English: The ancient world
Latin 1 (choose a foreign language. latin helps with sciences)
Latin 2
Latin 3
Principles of Chemistry 1
Principles of Chemistry 2
Principles of Physics 1
Principles of Physics 2
United States History to 1865 (or since 1865, pick one lol)
American Government (political science)
Fundamentals of Psychology
Fundamentals of Sociology
Introductory Biology
Unified Principles of Biology
General Botany
General Zoology
Microbiology
Genetics
Ecology
Vertebrate Physiology
Biology seminar
Organic Chemistry 1
Organic Chemistry 2
Biochemistry 1</p>
<p>that is MOST of my courses</p>
<p>you wont necessarily have NO life. my brother was a bio major, chem minor in college and was able to have a very active social life. he went to a competitive state school and said most of the kids in the bio dept were the biggest nerds from every hs in the state. it really depends on the school i think.. his made sure all the bio kids worked their asses off and really earned their degree</p>
<p>BUT.. he made a group of close friends. he rushed and pledged 2nd semester his freshman year and that was the only time his GPA dipped quite a bit. he graduated with 3.4 and got in ED to med school. he studied extremely hard though, he knew when to start studying and would often study 10+ hours for some tests. </p>
<p>basically, you can do it, dont expect to party two nights before a test though.. everythings about balance</p>
<p>pre-med or Biology really is not all to hard, especially compared to engineering.</p>
<p>you say yo study 10 hours for a test, try studying a solid 12+ hours a day just to keep B or even c's. That again is engineering.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input everyone.</p>
<p>Also, I've heard bio is mainly memorization based whereas chemistry/physics/etc. is more problem-solving based. Is that true? I'm good at memorizing, but I definitely struggled a bit with AP Physics this year because I'm not a superb problem solver. Some people say that bio is the easiest of the hard sciences, but I'm not sure how accurate that is (and I know it's still difficult even if it is true).</p>
<p>I plan on being a Bio major as well (potentially pre-vet as well but I don't really know). The subject comes extremely naturally to me because I enjoy it so much. Even if I had a lot of work in bio, I never cared because I actually find it interesting. I'm good at memorizing, but I also did quite well in chem this year even though I'm not the greatest problem solver. I don't know, I guess the sciences are just my thing. This is why I can't wait for college...tons of science classes :D! Ha ha ha I'm such a science nerd it's not even funny. But anyways, if bio is the subject you really enjoy, go for the major! If it's what you really want to do, the work shouldn't bother you too much. Best of luck!</p>
<p>bio for me is memorization (i'm chem not bio), but with any science subject matter, you'll need to learn all the terminology. Once you know what all the terms mean, everything is easier to understand & you won't need to memorize because you'll be able to figure it out.</p>
<p>I've been a TA for gen chem and have had to deal with all the pre-med biology people. I've told them straight out that if they can't even understand general chemistry, how do they expect to grasp o-chem & biochem!? Some of them are only pre-med because their parents want them to have an impressive career, not because they are smart- 1/1000 pts is not going to change a grade from a B+ to an A-.</p>
<p>I think I can handle chem, but it'll just take a lot of work. Plus, I know I'll have to take at least 16 hours of chem in order to meet the requirements of the vet school I'm looking at. I'm taking AP bio this coming year, so I'm hoping that comes fairly easy to me and that I enjoy it because it's definitely been my life long dream to become a vet. And thanks again for all the advice everyone.</p>
<p>Bio has a lot of memorization, but it's not all memorization like some people think it is. A lot of it involves problem solving and connecting different concepts together. The reason so many people have trouble with bio (in both semesters of general bio last year, the class averages were consistently around 65) is because they can't link together different concepts to figure things out. These are the people who, when they do poorly on a test, say: "We never learned that."
You need to be able to link things together so that, even if you see a question that you never actually covered in class, you can deduce the answer by thinking about the principles and concepts of what you did learn and making connections (and a little bit of common sense).
Still, there's no denying that you need to memorize a lot of terms and details, but that's not all biology is.</p>
<p>Wow I'm going to be a Bio major too with a double major in Business Administration as a Pre-Vet student! I definitely would not be worried about it being too difficult because it is going to be hard to get into vet school anyways so you need to be prepared to work. However, if you want to be pre-vet you definitely should not stray too far from a biology/biochemistry/zoology major because unlike med schools who like to see people with different majors, vet schools would rather see a more focused biological approach as an undergrad with lots of animal experience as well as clinical experience! </p>
<p>You should be fine! Good luck! Where are you thinking of for vet school?</p>
<p>Thanks! I'm hoping to make it into U of I for vet school. I live in Illinois, so I'm definitely grateful that my state has a vet school to begin with since I know it's really hard to get into out of state schools. What about you- where do you hope to go for vet school? I've also heard animal experience is almost just as crucial as actual grades in being admitted.</p>