Revamped Biology Major At Smith

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
1

<p>BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES: THE MAJOR
As of March 1st 2007, we have adopted new requirements for the biology major. New courses and catalog will appear in 2007-2008. Our aim in restructuring the major was to ensure that all students have a broad background in biology while also enabling students to specialize at upper levels. If you are interested in being a biology major, we encourage you to talk to a potential advisor as soon as possible. A list of participating faculty can be found at: <a href="http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>DESCRIPTION NOTES
BASIS OF THE MAJOR
Bio 150: Cells, Physiology & Development
Bio 152: Genetics, Genomics & Evolution
Bio 154: Biodiversity, Ecology & Conservation</p>

<ul>
<li>These three core courses in biology may be taken in any order. Labs must be taken with two of these cores.</li>
</ul>

<p>CHM 111 or 118
- Either course may be taken</p>

<p>A Course in Statistics Math 245
- is strongly recommended</p>

<p>DISTRIBUTION COURSES: All majors must take at least one upper level course in each of three areas. Relevant course numbers (as will appear in
2007-2008 catalog):
1. Cells, Physiology & Development (Bio 200-229, 300-329)
2. Genetics, Genomics & Evolution (Bio 230-259, 330-359)
3. Biodiversity, Ecology & Conservation (Bio 260-299, 360-399)</p>

<p>ADVANCED COURSE REQUIREMENT: At least three 300-level courses, one of which must be a laboratory course. Courses from other departments/programs
may be counted, with permission of the adviser.</p>

<p>LAB COURSE REQUIREMENT: At least six laboratory courses, two of which must be core course labs (151, 153 or 155) and one of which must be at the 300 level. The remaining three labs must be chosen from among 200 and 300 level offerings. With the adviser?s permission, a semester of Special Studies (400) may count as a 200-level laboratory course, and a semester of Honors research (430, 431, or 432) may fulfill the 300-level laboratory requirement.</p>

<p>ELECTIVES: Any course in the biology department at the 200 level or above may be used for elective credit. Students may also count one introductory level course (Bio 100-149) as an elective. Up to two courses from other departments or programs may be counted as electives, provided that these relate to a student?s particular interests in biology and are chosen in consultation with her adviser.</p>

<p>INDEPENDENT RESEARCH is strongly encouraged but not required for the major in biological sciences. Up to two semesters of Special Studies (400) or Honors research (430, 431, or 432) may be counted toward completion of the major.</p>

<p>TOTAL: 56 credits</p>

2

<p>WOW. 56 credits is a lot, even counting the chem class...my gov major was only 40 credits. But that still leaves room for more than half your classes to be electives, so I guess it's not too terrible. It will just make it a little harder to decide towards the end of sophomore year that you want to be a bio major without having taken many bio classes, or to study abroad (note: neither of these will be impossible, just slightly more difficult).</p>

3

<p>At most schools, including Smith, bio and other science majors (particularly engineering) find it difficult to go abroad for junior year, not only because of dept. requirements but because of the sequence of courses that requires careful semester by semester planning. </p>

<p>Also, if you're premed (as many bio majors are), then you have to finish all pre-med requirements by junior spring. Pre-meds must also add to the above two semesters of organic chemistry, one or two semesters of calculus, and two semesters of physics.</p>

4

<p>This seems a tad irritating --- I was actually thinking about majoring in bio with a minor in something else (a more humanities related thing, like history), but it now seems like that may be more difficult. Oh well. We'll see. I still am open minded about what path to pursue.</p>

5

<p>arianneg, your plan isn't impossible by any means--if you end up at Smith (or anywhere) just talk with your advisers and make sure you take a bio and a history class that counts towards your major asap (that way if you like them, you've started the work on your major, and if you don't like them, you have plenty of time to switch directions as needed). One of my best Smith friends was a bio/english double major and she loved it! She's now teaching and hopes to work in a science museum or zoo's education department one day. </p>

<p>with careful planning, you'd be amazed how much you can do: for example, my sister attends a college on a similar academic level to smith, except it has distribution requirements. she managed to fulfill them, do a social science major, complete premed requirements, study abroad for a semester, and still graduate a semester early. She was lucky to have a good adviser--and if you go to Smith, you'll also have lots of people to get advice from: your official adviser, friends in your house, other professors, class deans, etc. </p>

<p>good luck!</p>

6

<p>I'll echo Stacy's comments. Smith's advising is one of its strengths, imo, and what your proposing to do will require planning and deft footwork but by no means looks impossible...just will require a lot of discipline. Just as a double-major, D has had to defer some preferred electives to her senior year just to make everything else work out in terms of pre-reqs, etc. The plus side is that senior year looks to be more manageable than many...her sophomore schedule was, I admit, a bit nuts. Though her toughest in terms of grades was first year, second semester.</p>

7

<p>not impossible, but it would limit the number of electives you could take. assuming by "neurobiology" you mean a bio major where your electives focused mainly on neuroscience (it looks like you can count some courses in neuroscience or other departments--like a linguistics class in psych-- towards the major), that's 14 classes. the spanish major is 10 classes. Assuming that you take the normal courseload of 16 credits a semester (i encourage you to add some 1-credit dance or exercise classes on top, because they're really fun), that will leave you 8 classes outside of either major. So if you took a bio and a Spanish class each semester of first year along with 2 classes in other topics each semester (because you might find out you love something else! i thought I'd be a Spanish minor but I ended up designing my own minor instead--in something I never would have dreamed I liked), you'd still have 4 classes outside of your major for your remaining time at Smith.</p>

<p>If you go abroad to a Spanish-speaking country, the distribution of these courses will probably shift around a little, since it's hard to get lab courses there, but everything you take will count towards the Spanish major. But it could still be doable-your senior year will probably just include a lot of bio classes, but you'd be done with your Spanish major!</p>

8

<p>Just a question for those in the know: the neuroscience major required Bio 111. Has Bio 150 taken its place?</p>