<p>I want to major in molecular and cell biology with an emphasis on neurology. My question is that can you have multiple emphasis like immunology as well. Also does that count as another major? For instance majoring in molecular and cell biology with an emphasis on neurology and immunology, would that be a double major? Please explain. Thanks for your help! =D</p>
<p>help anyone…?</p>
<p>thats an intersting question…it wont count as a double major but you should talk with an mcb advisor or a registrar asking if both emphases will show up on your transcript</p>
<p>you cannot double major within MCB. There would be too much overlap. You could do an immuno track 2 MCB major and take MCB neurobiology courses for your electives</p>
<p>Time for my public service announcement; please ignore this if you are not premed.</p>
<p>MCB is the hardest bio major not including Chemical Biology. Doing MCB does not help at getting into medical school than any other major. Medical schools don’t give a flying **** what your major is.</p>
<p>If you genuinely like MCB, major in it.
If you think you need to be MCB to be premed, you are horribly wrong. MCB has a good chance of crushing your GPA. Not good for medical school
If you are doing MCB because you ‘just want to be a biology major’, reconsider your actions. There are plenty of biology majors and if you just like biology in general, there is no real reason for you to specifically be MCB</p>
<p>Average departmental GPAs from CampusBuddy</p>
<p>IB is 3.34
BioE is 3.51
EPS is 3.50
ESPM is 3.45
ES is 3.39
PMB is 3.28
Public Health is 3.62
NST is 3.37</p>
<p>MCB is 2.96</p>
<p>You just completely scared me… I want to be premed, but it is not the reason why I want to take neurology and immunology, I want to take those classes because I think it interests me greatly.</p>
<p>What do you recommend me doing, I want to go into medical school and not destroy my gpa so that I am still able to be granted admission to medical school. Which programs in the field of biology are actually worthwhile, please and thank you.</p>
<p>i suggest you go mcb if ur really interested in it.</p>
<p>But im also interested in pursuing medicine in grad school, and I dont want to risk it if it is as hard as you guys say.</p>
<p>Here’s some real sensible advice devoid of nonsense.</p>
<p>Take your lower divs, then actually take a MCB upper division class. See how you like it first hand instead of listening to posters who have never even taken a single MCB class. Taking anon2528462’s PSA without a grain of salt is basically akin to a blind mouse leading other blind mice. Except, in this case, the leading blind mouse isn’t even looking for the same thing as the blind mice following. Yeah, he’s not a premed. It makes more sense to seek advice from IB or MCB peer advisers who are actually going through the med school process right now.</p>
<p>Sure, MCB has a lower average GPA, but if you’re serious about being a GPA whore, then attend an easier college. Where you get your Bachelor’s degree from matters little to med schools, especially within the UC system. In fact, a 3.6 from UCI will always trump a 3.3 from Berkeley in the eyes of med school admission committee, ceteris paribus.</p>
<p>However, if you want to attend Berkeley and find MCB interesting, take a course in it first, then judge the department. Don’t take the words of people who have never taken a single MCB class.</p>
<p>I am a 4th year, MCB Immunology track 2 major. I’ve taken MCB102, 142, 150, 103 and 114, the last three being Immunology, Bacterial Pathogenesis and Virology, respectively. Currently taking 150L. Plus, I did undergraduate research for 9 months in a Bio lab on-campus, so I think I’m qualified to answer.</p>
<p>First things first. I am not pre-med, though many of my friends are. And the answer to competitiveness is: YES. MCB is the most difficult Bio major on campus. It has too many students overtaxing too few resources and people. Immunology in particular is hit hard, having one faculty adviser and 2 peer advisers to the 3-4 of each for the other emphases. </p>
<p>In terms of cooperation, there is not too much incentive for it. Things are civil in labs or discussion sections, where cooperation and respect are needed. But what motivation is there to study together outside of class, really? Unlike EECS and most of Engineering, there are no long-term projects that you have to get a group of 5-6 to do, so basically outside the classroom, all bets are off. On the plus side, if you do find a study buddy, odds are you two will become close friends, since you’ll be studying many, many hours. I would say I study 4-6 hours a day, if you average it out.</p>
<p>Honestly speaking, if you want to do Bio and Immunology or diseases, go for CNR’s Microbial Biology or Molecular Environmental Biology (MEB). You take essentially the same courses, but since you’re in CNR, there are a lot more resources to draw upon if you need them. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you will not see any neurology beyond the neuron stuff you learned in HS until MCB160, and no Immunology until the last lecture of Bio1A. You will wait 2-2.5 years before touching a lick of either of the two. Cell bio, biochem and genetics, you’ll get a lot of in the first two years.</p>
<p>Furthermore, you may find that once you get into the upper-divs specific to Immuno, that you actually don’t like it as much. That’s what happened to me when I took 150, 103 and 114. There was little change from the lower division courses; in fact, it was more of the same cell bio I had been hearing since second year. Also, they actually had more memorization than the lower divs. All those stories about how the upper divs are conceptual? Not really true. </p>
<p>As for crowding, upper div MCB courses never fall much below 130-150 people in class size, so if you plan out your schedule and are aggressive in signing up early, you should be fine. The problem arises with some of the courses that are only offered 1 semester/year, eg 103 and 114.</p>
<p>Finally, thanks to the Internet, you can actually watch some Cal Courses online at webcast.berkeley.edu. I particularly recommend watching Bio1AL, who has one of the most unpopular professors on campus. How bad? When I took it in Spring07, he was covering 60-70 slides in a 50 minute lecture period. The kicker? Each week there were 100-130 slides in the entire presentation.</p>
<p>i’ve been meaning to ask…what other bio majors are b.s. degrees though? My friend told me IB was on b.a.</p>
<p>BTW, MCB that was very insightful. Thanks.</p>
<p>All of L&S are on BAs. L&S majors are all around 50 units each and do not deserve BSs</p>
<p>All CoE and CNR majors are BSs. BSs include a lot more units than a BA; I believe generally around 80-90 units each.</p>
<p>oy well that sucks. i was always under the notion that bss are slightly better than bas.</p>
<p>BSs tend to have a lot more technical courses and less breadth, BAs are the opposite.</p>
<p>i meant in terms of the world/looking for jobs haha</p>
<p>UCLA Neuroscience vs. Cal MCB Neurobiology? I think neurosci and neurobio isnt much different but which one would probably look better on the resume (only based on those two BA/BS)? Also, will it be harder to graduate with MCB Neurobio degree at Cal than in UCLA with neurosci degree?</p>
<p>I am assuming Neurology = Neuroscience</p>
<p>Neurology ≠ Neurobiology</p>
<p>Neurology involves both sociology and biology; that is why psychology is a social science and neurobiology is a biological science. Cognitive science is more integrative between the biology and the sociology.</p>
<p>so neurosci is both sociology and biology and neurobio is only biology?</p>
<p>That is correct, assuming my assumption of how UCLA defines neuroscience is correct
</p>
<p>[UCLA</a> Neuroscience](<a href=“http://www.neurosci.ucla.edu/]UCLA”>http://www.neurosci.ucla.edu/)</p>
<p>Yup UCLA neuroscience is different from Cal MCB-Neurobiology.</p>
<p>The latter focuses on biochemistry and cellular-level neurobiology
The UCLA program is actually rather general.</p>
<p>Could someone explain, when you say MCB as in Molecular of Cellular Biology, do you mean the department? Because there are like 5 divisions in the department right?
Also, out of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Cell & Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics & Development, Immunology, and Neurobiology which ones are the more easier ones?</p>
<p>This is the website
[url=<a href=“http://mcb.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-research/divisions/]Divisions[/url”>Divisions | Molecular and Cell Biology]Divisions[/url</a>]</p>