<p>I'm currently a bio major, but I absolutely hate intro bio. There is one main reason I hate it, and that's for the fact that it has seemingly no focus. We go over so many random things, but it's just brushing over them, and not in depth. I have a lot of trouble learning like this. I should have taken autotutorial because it's more mastery based, which I like. I cannot stand these prelims that go from Thermoregulation to hormones to nervous system to animal behavior to muscle fibers to circulation and stuff. It's just annoying. It doesn't go in depth into anything for me to really learn anything useful. </p>
<p>Even with Chemistry, which skips around a bit, seems to have a much more coherent pattern and teaches less units but goes more in depth, and I'm doing perfectly fine in that class.</p>
<p>Do later bio courses get better? I can sit for three hours and learn Krebs Cycle in depth and enjoy it, but when it's flipping back and forth between totally unrelated topics, I just get annoyed and frustrated.</p>
<p>intro bio is unlike the rest of bio! hang in there. you’re likely aware that this is the last year intro bio lecture/lab is actually offered, so you’re not the only one who finds the format objectionable! (though that’s not much comfort at this point.) I have taken a few upper-level bio courses, and I’ve found much more continuity, closer to gen chem. you can tell what theme each exam is covering, and later lectures harken back to info covered earlier on. I’m only a sophomore, but based on the titles of the courses I’m planning to take, I’ll be spending semesters on topics that might have garnered 20 minutes of an intro bio lecture. I hope you’ll enjoy the major more in the future, because I think it’s a great one.</p>
<p>P.S. I think a few gripes are perfect for an ED decision day post! that and someone should look up the windchill right now…</p>
<p>The general biology sequence that you take is designed only to be a survey course. Like faustarp mentioned, you are probably among the last of Cornellians to take the Bio 101/102 sequence. I’ve been away from Cornell for a couple of years, but I gather that the new intro biology sequence will allow students to select more in depth courses in their fields of interest.</p>
<p>I promise that it will get better as you take more upper div bio courses. You won’t have time to learn everything, but the upper div courses offer much more than a brief overview (obviously).</p>