<p>My D is considering applying to Wellesley and her interest is in Human Bio - not plants, marine, environmental........W has some good courses but not enough to satisfy her but she loves much of everything special that W has to offer. My question is - is taking courses in your major at a different college discouraged? We've heard that it is. I don't want to see her waste her time on the application work let alone 4 years of study and not get what she wants. Thanks.</p>
<p>Hmm, I'm not the expert, but students certainly do take and are allowed and sometimes even encouraged to take courses within their major at other schools (usually MIT). It <em>is</em> true that some departments are picky about exactly what they want you to take at Wellesley as opposed to elsewhere (I'm a prospective econ and math major, and the econ department can be slightly annoying in this way), but that doesn't mean per se that they discourage students from taking courses in towards their major at other schools. </p>
<p>However, reading the directions for major election for biological sciences suggests some possible problems for your daughter:</p>
<p>"For students who enter the College in the fall of 2008 or later, a major in biological sciences includes: nine biological sciences courses, at least seven of which must be taken at Wellesley, plus two units of college chemistry (CHEM 105 or higher). BISC 110 and 111 or their equivalent are required for the major. Four 200-level courses are required, with at least one course from each of the following three groups: cell biology-206, 219, 220; systems biology-203, 207, 213, 216; and community biology-201, 202, 208, 209,
210. A minimum of two 300-level courses are also required for the major. One of these courses, exclusive of 350, 360, or 370, must include laboratory and must be taken at Wellesley. Additional chemistry beyond the two required units is strongly recommended or required for certain 300-level courses. CHEM 221 and 328, and BISC 350, 360, and 370 do not count toward the minimum major. BISC 104, 105, 107, 108, and 109, which do count toward the minimum major in biological sciences, fulfill the College distribution requirements for nonmajors; 108 and 109 as laboratory sciences; 104, 105 and 107 as nonlaboratory science courses. BISC 109, 111, and 201 fulfill the Quantitative Reasoning overlay course requirement."</p>
<p>So as you can see from the second or third sentence, of the 9 REQUIRED biological science courses, 7 must be taken at Wellesley. This doesn't mean that your daughter could only take 2 courses outside of Wellesley, but it does mean that she HAS to take 7 at Wellesley. So, I would look at the online course catalogue--you can get their by going to Wellesley home page, mousing over "Students" in the right hand column, clicking Registar, clicking 2008-2009 Proposed Curriculum, and clicking Biological Sciences--and see if your daughter can map out seven Bio courses at Wellesley that fit with her interests and fulfill major requirements to her satisfaction. Since your daughter is so interested in Wellesley, even if it doesn't look like it will work, I would encourage you to get in touch with a Bio professor at Wellesley and ask about the options for a student interested Human Bio. They will really know what's what and can obviously answer any question better than me.</p>
<p>Thank you! Thats a great help. You were really nice to do that much research.</p>