<p>How is it?
How heavy are the courses?
Since it's a little more concentrated in subject, how does that affect getting classes for this major?</p>
<p>Idk, but IF I go here, that’s gonna be my major :)</p>
<p>going to be my major too!</p>
<p>The lower divs are all the same for gen bio and MCD so your first two years aren’t going to make a difference. </p>
<p>The biggest difference is that general bio requires only 1 molec/cell bio class as well as 1 ecology/evolution and 1 physiology class, whereas MCD doesn’t require ecology/evol or phys and does require both Cell Bio and Eukaryotic. </p>
<p>In majors there are usually a few ‘barrier’ type classes, the ones that sort the kids who really want the major from the ones who just didn’t know what else to do. Organic chem is the first barrier and I knew a bunch of gen bio/MCD kids who changed to marine bio/EEB because they couldn’t pass it. The next barrier class is Eukaryotic. It’s required for MCD and not for gen bio (it’s a possible elective). Knew quite a few people who dropped Euk and changed to gen bio as well. A lot of gen bio kids take human physiology which is the hardest gen bio class, but it’s not absolutely required for gen bio, it’s an elective.</p>
<p>You can see all the required classes [url=<a href=“http://biosci.ucsc.edu/program/index.html]here[/url”>http://biosci.ucsc.edu/program/index.html]here[/url</a>] to compare/contrast. Ochem, Euk and Physiology were known as the hard ones.</p>
<p>All of these are really big lecture classes, it’s the labs that you’re going to have a hard time getting into.</p>
<p>thanks, that really helped a lot. my AP bio teacher also said that organic chem was pretty difficult. so hard that he dropped out of school to join the marines!</p>
<p>I also have a question about majors. I’m a proposed Biology major… is that general biology? :X
What major do pre-dental students usually go for? How does Bio compare with Health Sciences or is Health Sciences only meant for pre-med students?</p>
<p>@Star Yes, the Biology BA/BS is known as general biology to differentiate it from all the concentrated majors.</p>
<p>Health sciences is mainly built for people who want to stay in the health field, as a nurse, doctor, dental, pharm, etc, primarily in California and the Southwest, hence the inclusion of Spanish and Medical Spanish. The degree is very similar to general bio, but it requires Spanish and bio130/L which is physiology.</p>
<p>It does not fulfill the requirements for med schools. None of the biology programs at UCSC do. Med schools require a year of English in classes taken outside the Biology department. The writing requirement fulfilled by the Health Sciences major will not count towards that year because it is a biology class.</p>
<p>Technically you can be any major you want and as long as you have fulfilled the med school requirements you can call yourself pre-med. I knew a girl who was a creative writing major and she was taking bio and chem classes for med school.</p>
<p>All of the biology majors have the same lower division requirements (except for Spanish) which means that for the first two years you’re going to be taking the same classes no matter what your proposed major. Once you get to school, schedule an appointment with the bio advisors and the health science advisors and get info from them to make your final decision. I graduated 2 years ago and some of my info may be out of date.</p>
<p>What I did when declaring a major was buy a General Catalogue (you should do this just to plan out your classes) and highlighted all the bio classes that sounded the most interesting to me. Then I found the concentration that included the majority of those classes and had the fewest required that I wasn’t interested in (like physiology and neurology). Then I wrote out all the classes and their prerequirements and made a 4 year plan, making sure I got all the classes required in the proper order. Next to the class listings in the GC are F,W,S which stand for Fall, Winter, Spring and indicate the quarter the class is offered. Some classes (usually upper divs) are only offered once or twice a year and you have to be sure to get the prereqs done so that do you waste a year waiting for the class to be offered again.</p>
<p>Because I planned ahead (I had this thing done my first year as I had to declare Spring of my first year) I managed to squeeze a quarter of study abroad in without worrying about transferring my classes over and got to travel all over the British Isles for 4 months.</p>
<p>Wow, sorry that post got long…</p>