Does it look bad if I have bad biology grades as a biology student?

[HNH992]

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I'm a biology student, and ironically, I have As in all my science classes (Chemistry, physics, math) except biology. No Fs or Ds.
You may ask, "why did you choose this major then?". Actually, I like biology more than the other fields, and I'm planning on getting into biology graduate school in case I don't make it into medical school, but the biology department in my current school sucks, and it's too late to change major or school.
However, I'm not here to complain about my school. My question is, how bad does it look having biology grades lower than the other science grades? Will that be mentioned in the interviews?

 

[MadRadLad]

Low grades on prereqs are certainly fair game to come up in your interviews. If you take upper levels and do well on those, that would help to alleviate those issues. You still might get a question but at least you'll be able to point to improved performance.

 

[Lamel]

It looks bad to have bad grades in bio no matter what major you are. But you can redeem yourself by excelling in upper levels.

 

[BeornBear]

How bad are we talking about?

 

[Make Or Break]

I had an A in bio 1 and a B in bio 2, and a C in microbiology. Still got accepted.

 

[Goro]

Bs and Cs in Bio? Or all Bs?

If the former, it will raise eyebrows. Hopefully a good MCAT Bio section will erase doubts.

I'm a biology student, and ironically, I have As in all my science classes (Chemistry, physics, math) except biology. No Fs or Ds.
You may ask, "why did you choose this major then?". Actually, I like biology more than the other fields, and I'm planning on getting into biology graduate school in case I don't make it into medical school, but the biology department in my current school sucks, and it's too late to change major or school.
However, I'm not here to complain about my school. My question is, how bad does it look having biology grades lower than the other science grades? Will that be mentioned in the interviews?

 

[efle]

MCAR

Is this a mash up of the MCAT and MSAR? Sounds terrifying

 

[Lamel]

Is this a mash up of the MCAT and MSAR? Sounds terrifying

Along with the BS, PS, and VR section, there is a section that tests you on every school's mission, curriculum, and average indebtedness.

 

[ProudMD]

Your overall sGPA is far more important than individual grades.

 

[HNH992]

I have one C, one A, and the rest are Bs. They're not really bad especially for non-biology students, but as a biology student, would they question me why I chose biology as a major even though I'm doing a lot better in the other science classes? Because they'd think that I made the wrong decision by choosing biology as a major, so maybe I'm making another bad decision by choosing the medical field as a career.

The reason I'm asking this because couple of my colleagues during their interviews were asked why they chose their majors.

My sGPA is 3.74 which I think it's still decent, and even if it got lower, I can take some electives in chemistry or physics to raise it up.

 

[I'm not a cat]

Personally, my worst subject coming into college was biology. However, it was also my major—at the time—so I fought hard to learn the material. In the beginning, my grades were not the greatest and did not reflect my effort. In high school, we had a very bad biology teacher and I also never took AP biology. Then, my university expected the students to know more about biology then some of us actually did. I remember proclaiming to all of my friends that biology was my worst subject. As a freshman it was certainly true, but with my effort I was able to change that and as a senior I can honestly say biology is my best subject.

With time and effort, you can transform into someone who is much better at biology. It will take time and many countless hours studying—but, without a doubt, you can do this!

 

[gapyearguppy]

Biology was always the easiest of subjects for me. To me it was a lot of facts and knowing relationships, information you could pick up by going over it again and again. Inorganic chemistry...now that was another beast. I liked organic, though.

But like someone above said, it's your overall science GPA that you should be more worried about.

 

[FutureOncologist]

I got a B.A. in Biochemistry and I hated all my chem courses except for Medical Biochemistry and Biomolecular Chem. Made all B's and 1 C in my chemistry courses.

 

[HNH992]

Personally, my worst subject coming into college was biology. However, it was also my major—at the time—so I fought hard to learn the material. In the beginning, my grades were not the greatest and did not reflect my effort. In high school, we had a very bad biology teacher and I also never took AP biology. Then, my university expected the students to know more about biology then some of us actually did. I remember proclaiming to all of my friends that biology was my worst subject. As a freshman it was certainly true, but with my effort I was able to change that and as a senior I can honestly say biology is my best subject.

With time and effort, you can transform into someone who is much better at biology. It will take time and many countless hours studying—but, without a doubt, you can do this!

Biology was always the easiest of subjects for me. To me it was a lot of facts and knowing relationships, information you could pick up by going over it again and again. Inorganic chemistry...now that was another beast. I liked organic, though.

But like someone above said, it's your overall science GPA that you should be more worried about.

It's not like I hate biology or can't study it. As I mentioned in my thread, I chose biology because it's my favorite field, but our school's biology exams are completely unfair because they don't test your knowledge. For example, I had a biology final few days ago, and a lot of questions had multiple accepted answers, but our teacher wanted our answers to be based on what she said in the lectures. Well, I'm taking this class to understand the material and expect the exam to be about this material, not to remember what she said in the lectures and write it down.

I got a B.A. in Biochemistry and I hated all my chem courses except for Medical Biochemistry and Biomolecular Chem. Made all B's and 1 C in my chemistry courses.

Was that mentioned in the interview?

 

[FutureOncologist]

Was that mentioned in the interview?

Only Stanford picked up on it. When they asked me "why didn't you change your major" I told them the truth, which was it took 4 semesters to get to two classes that I'd enjoy and that it was worth it in the end because there was no way around it. Should I have studied and tried harder? Of course, but I honestly put more time into what I really enjoyed, which were biology and french classes.

 

[HNH992]

Only Stanford picked up on it. When they asked me "why didn't you change your major" I told them the truth, which was it took 4 semesters to get to two classes that I'd enjoy and that it was worth it in the end because there was no way around it. Should I have studied and tried harder? Of course, but I honestly put more time into what I really enjoyed, which were biology and french classes.

Great!
So I guess I just need to maintain a decent sGPA and get a good score on the MCAT.
Thanks for sharing your story.