Biology

[Local]

Okay, so i'm kind of confused. Hopefully one of you helpful folks can clear this up for me.
Ive only taken Honors Biology in highschool, and i'm not going to lie; it was straight up boring. Is all biology about plants? I think the human body is simply amazing, but we didnt learn about the human body. We learned about plant cells. Frankly plant cells dont interest me at all. I didnt really care about it. Is all biology focused on this plant nonsense? If so

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[niblet]

Biology is the study of all living organisms, of which plants are only a single kingdom. The fact that you only learned about plants is either an error on behalf of your school and teacher or an exaggeration by you. I find it hard to believe all you learned about was plant cells. You should've covered such things as genetics, evolution, and biochemistry in addition to cell theory.

Not all biology is the study of the human body. Anatomy and physiology are the subsets of biology that most directly relate to it.

 

[RySerr21]

Okay, so i'm kind of confused. Hopefully one of you helpful folks can clear this up for me.
Ive only taken Honors Biology in highschool, and i'm not going to lie; it was straight up boring. Is all biology about plants? I think the human body is simply amazing, but we didnt learn about the human body. We learned about plant cells. Frankly plant cells dont interest me at all. I didnt really care about it. Is all biology focused on this plant nonsense? If so

sounds like you took a botany class dude! Thats only one sublcass of biology, there is so much more!!!! So, no not all of biology is focused on plants. Nor is all of biology focused on the human body. If thats what you are most interested, I recommend majoring in Kinesiology!!!

 

[Caesar]

I had to take one semester of Plant Bio and that was all in college. In cell we talked about it a bit, same as genetics. In reality eukaryotes are pretty similar, plant or otherwise. High school bio if I remember correctly did talk alot about plants for me too. It get's less boring the further you go.

 

[tennisball80]

I can understand that. Plant biology is very boring for me too.

 

[Crazyday]

I took this freshman year and yea it was a lot about plants, specifically photosynthesis and also dabbled some in the Kreb's cycle and energy transfer. So some of it could still apply to humans, even though it was observed mostly from plants.

I'm taking AP biology next semester so I'll tell you how that goes.

 

[bailey42]

In my freshman honors biology class we didn't talk about plants at all. The first half of the year focused on genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and the second half focused on human biology. So I guess the course changes between schools/teachers.

 

[theslave]

Sounds like that class you took was a botany class. Those classes are boring. There are more biology courses out there that fit your interests. When you go to college, take courses like immunology, pathology, A&P, human development (embryology), biochemistry and other similar courses. These are biology courses that are human related. Please do note that a lot of research is done via plants and animals. So a lot of your course work will be based on findings in plants and animals.

 

[shishka32]

Botany classes are wicked boring. Avoid at all costs.

 

[Local]

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys and gals.
I was just worried about having to deal with plants through out college.

 

[theslave]

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys and gals.
I was just worried about having to deal with plants through out college.

You will be fine. Just take the right courses with good professors and you should be fine.

 

[GZA]

You will be fine. Just take the right courses with good professors and you should be fine.

Profound advice. I would speculate the OP was going to seek all of the "wrong" courses with all of the "bad" professors.

 

[theslave]

Profound advice. I would speculate the OP was going to seek all of the "wrong" courses with all of the "bad" professors.

You would be surprised how many times I have heard a student say, "I didn't know I had to take that course," and "it turns out that I took the wrong course sequence," or "the wrong course."

To the OP. Just take immunology, pathology, A&P, general biology, biochemistry, physics, general and organic chem, and you will do fine.

As long as you can get passed the undergraduate stuff with a great GPA, MCAT and the other stuff, the stuff you learn in medical school is MUCH more human related.

 

[katarina90]

Okay, so i'm kind of confused. Hopefully one of you helpful folks can clear this up for me.
Ive only taken Honors Biology in highschool, and i'm not going to lie; it was straight up boring. Is all biology about plants? I think the human body is simply amazing, but we didnt learn about the human body. We learned about plant cells. Frankly plant cells dont interest me at all. I didnt really care about it. Is all biology focused on this plant nonsense? If so

Oh heavens no. I took Honors Bio in high school and it was nothing like any biology I've taken so far in college (the teacher was very new-age, and 20 percent of our grade was to respond in writing to an 'inspirational quote' he wrote on the board every Monday lol)...It was also focused mainly on plants.

Intro Bio (the first class for bio majors) pretty much began with discussing prokaryotic cells, and then quickly moved on to eukaryotic cells. Most of Intro Bio had to do with getting a knowledge of cellular components and their functions and also a general overview of metabolic processes and replication.

Principles of Bio I focused on a continuation and expansion upon what I learned in Intro Bio, it was mainly about cell physiology. Principles of Bio II (at my school) is probably the closest thing I've had to high school bio; it focused mainly on plant physiology with some ecology and evolution discussion. Anything past that is pretty specific, and if you don't want to take a plant class, there's probably (depending on your major) a way around it by taking a bio class that suits your interests. I really enjoyed Human Anatomy and am excited to tackle Genetics soon...

 

[ylrebmik]

I took this freshman year and yea it was a lot about plants, specifically photosynthesis and also dabbled some in the Kreb's cycle and energy transfer. So some of it could still apply to humans, even though it was observed mostly from plants.

I'm taking AP biology next semester so I'll tell you how that goes.

You have AP bio in one semester? How would that work at all... there's not enough time to cover everything?!


OP: of course not! Biology is all living things. At my undergrad biology is divided into Human Biology and Biology for majors and then within each major has a subclass. (not sure what they are for human, but for bio its plant and animal)

 

[GZA]

You would be surprised how many times I have heard a student say, "I didn't know I had to take that course," and "it turns out that I took the wrong course sequence," or "the wrong course."

To the OP. Just take immunology, pathology, A&P, general biology, biochemistry, physics, general and organic chem, and you will do fine.

As long as you can get passed the undergraduate stuff with a great GPA, MCAT and the other stuff, the stuff you learn in medical school is MUCH more human related.

I would not listen to this advice. My school (major med school feeder undergrad) did not even have pathology. Looks like a poorly feigned attempt at mimicking first year medical school while in undergraduate. Obviously the other four listed are premed reqs.

 

[Local]

Well this is all good stuff to hear. Thanks folks. GZA, i think he was just trying to help. You dont have to criticize it to the point of making the poster feel bad.
But lol, thanks for saying your opinion

 

[theslave]

I would not listen to this advice. My school (major med school feeder undergrad) did not even have pathology. Looks like a poorly feigned attempt at mimicking first year medical school while in undergraduate. Obviously the other four listed are premed reqs.

The advice you just gave is HORRIBLE advice. ~75 medical schools require biochemistry.

According to you, the OP should just take botony, motonical medicine, animal physiology, zoology, and nothing related to humans at all. That is just down right stupid.

I don't see why some people have a problem with building a solid foundation on the topics that one would learn about in medical school.

We all learn the alphabet when we are young. We then learn what verb is, what a noun is, etc. Eventually we learn how to write an essay.

Some college students have the chance to build a foundation for pathology, biochemistry, immunology, medical microbiology, A&P, and the like by taking them in college. Heck, I took all of these courses and I went to a pathetic small liberal arts college.

 

[drechie]

I would not listen to this advice. My school (major med school feeder undergrad) did not even have pathology. Looks like a poorly feigned attempt at mimicking first year medical school while in undergraduate. Obviously the other four listed are premed reqs.

Just curious what UG do you go to?

 

[theslave]

Just curious what UG do you go to?

Must be a school with no nursing program. The pathology courses in my state, at all colleges, are for nursing students.

 

[GZA]

I could be sarcastic, but I’ll restrain myself (with much difficulty). I care not to debate in certain contexts on the internet. I firmly stand by my previous decrees; but the others have their opinions as well; judge accordingly.

 

[pingouin]

Let's stay on topic, please- the original question is about what comprises a typical biology class, not what classes the OP should take when s/he gets into college.

To the OP: As others have said, biology is a VERY diverse field, and plant biology is just one area that people can focus on. Some people really love it, and the rest of us tolerate it because we know it's a hoop to jump through. At a college level, gen bio will have some plant focus, but should touch on lots of other areas as well, including genetics, macrobio, micro, biochem, and cell.

 

[Crazyday]

You have AP bio in one semester? How would that work at all... there's not enough time to cover everything?!


OP: of course not! Biology is all living things. At my undergrad biology is divided into Human Biology and Biology for majors and then within each major has a subclass. (not sure what they are for human, but for bio its plant and animal)

My school runs a 4 block schedule. As far as I know, the only AP course that goes longer than one semester is AP Calculus, running 3 quarters (a semester is 2 quarters); the last quarter is just review for the AP exam from what I've heard though.

 

[Transcend]

I find plants boring also. But no, biology isn't just limited to plants. Most of the bio courses at my college involve the human body, and then there are a few that don't (Botany, Ecology, etc.).