<p>What is the biology program like at UMBC? How well ranked is UMBC, is it a top 500 school?</p>
<p>My friend (freshman at UMBC) is majoring in biology. I am also majoring in bio so I recently talked to him about the program. He said its rigorous and extremely difficult; however, the educational quality is outstanding. </p>
<p>Another one of my friends, who is also a freshman at UMBC majors in engineering but knows a great deal about the biology program. This is what he said “Biology at UMBC is very good. Its hard because its GOOD” He also said that their pre-med program is very competitive.</p>
<p>After speaking to both of them, I am nervous about majoring in biology at UMBC. I always considered them really smart since they did amazing on SATs and had a high GPA throughout high school. If they think the bio program is hard, I feel like Im going to be stressed throughout college and have little social life.</p>
<p>I’m not a Bio major but I can offer some insight. The biology classes are tough but not unmanageable(at least the beginning courses). The real truly difficult classes are found under math/engineering majors. Chemistry classes and the bio100 lab are the worst part for incoming bio majors(Bio100 lab is a guaranteed ‘C’ for most people who try, a ‘B’ if you try hard)</p>
<p>Upper level classes from what I hear aren’t that bad. Just be aware that most of these are curved to a C/C+ range and that class averages in Bio100 lectures of 58-60% is common so getting an ‘A’ in large part is fighting to be ranked highest in the class point wise.</p>
<p>So I guess I should say being a Biology major is fairly manageable, I’ve taken my share of biology courses, but holding a 4.0GPA won’t be easy and will take work. If you’re pre-med and can’t handle it rethink your priorities, everyone else holding a 3.0+GPA shouldn’t even be a problem if you go to lecture and study for a few days before the exams at least for the first couple years.</p>
<p>If you miss lecture often you will be penalized. MASSIVE amounts of information gets covered fast and is impossible to write down without printing out power point slides before hand(which at best account for a third of the information you’re expected to know)</p>
<p>Just a quick reply. While most students average a C in Bio100 Lab, I wouldnt say that you have to be smart or try really hard to get an A. A friend of mine took the class, barely did any work, BS’ed pretty much every lab report, plus he’s not exactly a rocket scientist, and pulled off an A in the class. Just show up to the lectures and take notes, study a bit and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Whoever you know in that Bio100l must be a genius; looking at the professor’s reviews on ratemyprofessor it seems like she is the worst teacher at UMBC and people I know who took the class struggled to keep their C. Though I’ve seen a lot of lazy college students I find it hard to believe an A is anything but difficult to get in lab.</p>
<p>I’ve yet to take it but will have to sometime this year as its being phased out.</p>