Biology Requirement for Pre-dents?

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28premed

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I am starting to take some of the required courses to get into dental schools.

Here are my options for BIO:


1. Biological Concepts
Hours: 4
Description:
(General Education/Natural Sciences) A laboratory course recommended for nonscience majors, relating reproduction, heredity, evolution, ecology, and behavior to human life and the problems of society. This general education curriculum course does not count toward a major or minor in biology. IAI: L1 900L.

2. Cell and Molecular Biology (What all the pre-meds are taking - note the pre-requisites though)
Hours: 4
Description:
Morphological and functional aspects of the cell. Lecture and lab will emphasize cell structure and how this relates to physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes.
Pre-Requisite:
BOT 200, MICR 200, and ZOOL 200


I could start by taking the pre-requisites for Cell & Molecular this semester, but it seems like a lot of pre-requisites to get out of the way just for one class.

Anyway, here are the descriptions for them:


(BOT 200 formerly BIOL 102) Introduction to Plant Biology
Hours: 4
Description:
(General Education/Natural Sciences) Lecture and lab emphasize basic principles in plant biology including scientific inquiry, cell biology, genetics, ecology, evolution, and diversity in plant anatomy and physiology.

ZOO 200 (formerly BIOL 103) Introduction to Animal Biology
Hours: 4
Description:
(General Education/Natural Sciences) Lecture and lab emphasize basic principles in animal biology including scientific inquiry, cell biology, genetics, ecology, evolution, and diversity in animal anatomy and physiology.

Last but not least the course I am currently signed up for:

MICR 200 Introductory Microbiology
Hours: 4
Description:
An introduction to microorganisms with emphasis on the biology, methodology, and applied aspect of viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, and slime molds. 2 hrs. lect.; 3 hrs. lab.


NOTE: all of the above classes have labs.

Any advice or help would be great. Thanks in advance.
 
I would like to add that my school has no BIO course titled: General or Introductory Biology - I am trying to see if I can use any BIO class with a lab or if I need to take something else. 😕
 
Major is Journalism - minor probably in Chem.
 
If you're not looking to take a lot of biology classes, just go with the one with the fewest prerequisites or the most relevant one (like biochem).
 
However, most schools require at least a year of general biology or zoology. Since your school doesn't offer general or introductory biology, you might want to consider taking an intro zoology class.
 
Thanks for the advice!
Was looking to see if I could do Microbiology and Intro zoo to meet the 1 year "general" bio requirement.
 
Alternatively, you can find out what intro classes that all biology majors at your school take.
 
That would be this class:


"2. Cell and Molecular Biology (What all the pre-meds are taking - note the pre-requisites though)
Hours: 4
Description:
Morphological and functional aspects of the cell. Lecture and lab will emphasize cell structure and how this relates to physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes.
Pre-Requisite:
BOT 200, MICR 200, and ZOOL 200


I could start by taking the pre-requisites for Cell & Molecular this semester, but it seems like a lot of pre-requisites to get out of the way just for one class. "


However, as you can see it seems like a lot of classes to take just to start down the track that the pre-meds are taking and I'm not sure it is necessary to take Cell BIO to meet the 1 year "general/intro" requirement. Was wondering if MICR 200 & ZOOL 200 would satisfy it or if I should take what the non-bio majors are taking (i.e. the first class in my original posting).
 
At my school, that Cellular/Molecular bio class is an uppder division course (hence all the pre recs)

And no, you can not take just any old biology class as long as it has a lab.

You need to take Bio 1 with lab and Bio 2 with lab.

"1. Biological Concepts
Hours: 4
Description:
(General Education/Natural Sciences) A laboratory course recommended for nonscience majors, relating reproduction, heredity, evolution, ecology, and behavior to human life and the problems of society. This general education curriculum course does not count toward a major or minor in biology. IAI: L1 900L."

I am pretty sure this course "Biological Concepts" would NOT count either as it says it is for non science majors.

You need to sit down with an advisor and look through your course catalog and find the general bio 1 and 2 courses that all bio majors take their first year.

Or what you could do is post us the website for your school and I will take a look at the website for you.
 
hmm I glanced at it and it is confusing as hell. wierd...

Just from the looks of it, it looks like bio 330 and 340 are the equivalent at your school to bio 1 and 2..idk though

this class system is ******ed...

Ill have to take another look later..
 
From the looks of what I saw on WIU's website I believe ZOO 200 and BOT 200 are equivalent to BIO 1 and 2, respectively or vice versa. They were originally named BIO 102 and 103...

Your advisor should have a book that has all the school's classes and which classes would actually count for a bio 1 and 2 and many other classes because class systems are not universal between universities. Also, you could contact the dental schools you are interested in and ask them what they require. Since you are from IL, probably SIU-Alton and UIC.
 
28premed said:
Thanks!

Has anyone taken Intro to BOT as a part of their BIO requirement?

Also, does taking MICRO help prepare for the DAT? Looks like UIC considers it highly as one of the 3 recommended upper division classes to take:


http://dentistry.uic.edu/depts/admissions/dds/requirements.cfm?m=2&o=2
Click to expand...


I am taking it next semester.

I have called MANY MANY d-schools to confirm, but it really depends on school. Some school accept Botany as part of general bio, some don't (and they are really strict about the sequence being specifically "GENERAL BIOLOGY"). As far as DAT goes, Botany would only help you with 2-3 questions.

Hope this helped.
 
Micro is def helpful for the DAT. More so than Botany. I did not take botany ever and I did fine in the bio section.
 
I figured as much, however, it appears (see info above), that BOT is the first part of general BIO at my school and a pre-requisite for other BIO courses that I need. I am trying to take only the bio classes I need, but my school seems to think it is necessary for pre-med/pre-dent, etc.
 
Last edited:
Well I am sure you probably don't want to hear this...BUT

Another idea is that you could check out other local colleges and take Bio 1 and 2 there.

It will be a pain to transfer it to your school, but you said you arent a bio major anyway. So what you could do is just have the transcript from the school where you took the bio 1 and 2 classes sent to AADSAS.
 
I was under the impression that most dental schools don't like pre-reqs taken at Community colleges. I know this is not always true, but I might as well take my sciences at a 4-year just to be sure. I agree it does seem odd that BOT is required, but if they have all the pre-meds/pre-dents taking it as a pre-req, there must be some point (one would hope anyway).

http://www.wiu.edu/catalog/08/programs/pre-prof.php#dental
 
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