<p>I applied as a biology major with pre-med intent and I was wondering if any current or former students could tell me a little about the program there. Is it extremely difficult? Are there a wide variety of internship opportunities? How are the professors? What med school did you apply to/ get into (if you applied to one)? Any help would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>As a current freshman, I’ve taken 2 biology classes thus far. BIO 190 “Intro to Evolution” (the first class you take if you’re a bio major) was my absolute favorite last year. Take professor Gonzalez if you can. All professors teach it kind of differently, some easier than others, I’m sure. BIO 221- “Intro to Organismal Diversity” is what I’m in now and it’s very taxonomy dense-- a lot of memorization. But it’s definitely doable and you do learn a lot. The downside to a USD Biology major is that USD doesn’t offer very many upper division, HUMAN related biology classes, compared to say, UCSD. But for pre-med, you don’t necessarily have to have all these human related bio classes, just the prerequisites. I know a lot of pre-meds that aren’t even Biology majors for that very reason (they don’t feel the need to take invertebrate physiology, insect biology, etc). A minor in Biology would prepare you for med school just the same. The professors are great-- extremely competent and passionate about what they teach. The small class sizes allow you to get a lot of individual attention which makes it much easier to do well, also. I’m not sure about internship opportunities but there are a lot of undergraduate research opportunities and, as I’m sure you know, contributing to a scientific research publication is almost a requirement to get into any prestigious medical school. Look into the SURE program on the USD website if you’re interested about undergraduate research. It’s a great program! Also, there’s great pre-health advising and an AMSA club (which I’m on the exec board for) on campus filled with pre-med students that can help you reach your goals. </p>