Honestly... How hard is a Biology major?

[BioBeaver]

So I know that Biology is the stereotypical Pre-med major, but why is that? Is it because its easier than a lot of majors, and Pre-meds are focused on grades and GPA? How hard is it to get a BS in Biology from an average state school?

On the other hand, I've heard that Bio is a terrible major because of the competitiveness of the classes. My anatomy teacher was telling us horror stories of kids purposely messing up experiments and models so others would get a bad grade. Is it really that cutthroat?

I'm a laid back guy; I'm interested in Biology and all, but I don't think I could stand being around people like that all the time.

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[Juxxtaposition]

Most people do bio because it fulfills all medschool prereques.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

It's mainly because for a Bio major you have to take all (or at least most) of the med school pre-reqs to get your degree, so it's a two birds with one stone thing.

Plus, since bio is probably the closest field to medicine, people that are interested in medicine are usually interested in biology.

And yeah, Bio is easier than Chem or Biochem majors.

Edit: Also, I've never seen any cutthroat-ness.

 

[Conflagration]

A lot of the time, pre-professional tracks fall under a biology major.

I picked Math as a safe fallback because I'm pretty skilled at it and if a medical/dental/pharmacy/etc school doesn't take me then I can have a job.

 

[BioBeaver]

A BS in Biology normally fulfills all med school prereqs, right?

 

[cerno]

It's easier than many of the other options (chem, biochem, other physical/biological sciences) at most schools. In the specific case of my school, there are also many pre-med psychology majors, which is considered the "path of least resistance" in terms of attaining a high GPA due to the relative easiness of the coursework.

 

[Strudel19]

A bio major is easier than the hard sciences. I think it mostly depends on your school. I can only imagine that it's harder at a large state school than a smaller private school.

I'm a bio major at a private school with state prestige but definitely not national prestige. There is no peer-to-peer competition, but that means zero curving. A 95% is an A, so I can miss about 3/55 questions to just make the A grade. Regardless of the exam difficultly, only being able to miss a couple questions is tough. Typically if you study hard and do your work you can get a 3.3+ no problem. 80% of our premeds go to med school which is probably due to the GPA inflation, but we pay for that advantage - literally. Yearly attendance is 48K, I'm paying 20K with the best scholarship they offer.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

It's mainly because for a Bio major you have to take all (or at least most) of the med school pre-reqs to get your degree, so it's a two birds with one stone thing.

Plus, since bio is probably the closest field to medicine, people that are interested in medicine are usually interested in biology.

And yeah, Bio is easier than Chem or Biochem majors.

Edit: Also, I've never seen any cutthroat-ness.

Agreed with all of this. 🙂

p.s. I've never seen the cutthroat-ness either. Either I got lucky, or this is just a rumor. Most bio majors I knew were friendly and willing to help each other out.

 

[Strudel19]

Agreed with all of this. 🙂

p.s. I've never seen the cutthroat-ness either. Either I got lucky, or this is just a rumor. Most bio majors I knew were friendly and willing to help each other out.

This. Totally depends on the school. So glad people are chill where I go.

 

[jr93]

It probably depends on the person most of the time, but...Harder than high school? Yes. Harder than most other sciences? No. Most people with difficult majors find it comical when people complain in many of the Bio courses. It was unreal how many people had 96%+ in my bio courses.

 

[Myrridith]

It was fun! Everyone was nice! The best thing ever was that it was super customizable and I was able to take classes of whatever aspect of biology I wanted to. I think other majors don't offer as much flexibility.

 

[kilpty]

I wouldn't say Biology is easier than chemistry or biochemistry. I know a lot of smart chem majors that were struggling in the cell bio and genetics classes. As a bio major I decided to take a full year of upper level biochem and I found most of those kids were just as quick to complain as any other major about equal amounts of studying. I never knew any physics or math majors to compare to...but I think what makes each major difficult for people is the way people think: detail oriented vs. big picture etc. Each one of those majors is different in that aspect.
Overall I know a lot of people who failed out of biology so it can't be that easy.

 

[scarlett14]

alternatively you could be genuinely interested in biology and not just out to complete the easiest major and get the highest gpa....but i guess that seems to be pretty rare......

schools do pay attention to the difficulty of your classes...ive had many premedical advising deans at my school tell me that medical schools prefer ppl who take challenging classes because theyre genuinely interested in learning as opposed to ppl who purposely take easier classes to fluff up their gpas...

 

[Doctor Strange]

Imma let you finish, but my major was WAAAAYYYY harder than bio. 🙄

Honestly, though, the answer is that the difficult is HIGHLY dependent on where you're majoring in biology. Everything from the professors, to the class size, to your own learning style factors in to how "difficult" biology is. In general, I would say it's probably one of the more straightforward majors that doesn't require a genius intellect to do well in, but it's definitely not a walk on the beach for a lot of people, either.

Most pre-meds go into biology because it covers the pre-reqs and there's a vague semblance of relation to medicine that they tend to cling to.

 

[chongli04us]

In my school (top 3 research school, top 35 ranking private university), BA in bio takes 3 years and is the easiest natural science major.

I am a B.S. biochem major and I take classes twice as hard, twice as in depth and twice the amount of grad level classes.

 

[Myrridith]

I wouldn't say Biology is easier than chemistry or biochemistry. I know a lot of smart chem majors that were struggling in the cell bio and genetics classes. As a bio major I decided to take a full year of upper level biochem and I found most of those kids were just as quick to complain as any other major about equal amounts of studying. I never knew any physics or math majors to compare to...but I think what makes each major difficult for people is the way people think: detail oriented vs. big picture etc. Each one of those majors is different in that aspect.
Overall I know a lot of people who failed out of biology so it can't be that easy.

TOTALLY agree with this. I have always struggled more with history, women's studies, sociology, etc. so I avoided even the 100 level ones like the plague. Oh and math and physics people in my experience has been some of the most chill people in the entire school. I don't really know why. Maybe the major just attracts that type of personality but as a major, it was also hard for some people, easy for others (( Was a math minor and it was a LOT of fun. The community at my school was great!))

 

[Jennyfishy]

If I could go back, I would've picked a more in-depth major (graduated with BS in Biology). But at the same time, it's kind of fun to approach classes with the "big picture approach." Depending on how well-rounded you are, it could be a fairly hard major since you have to take so many classes in different fields, but it's a different kind of challenge than a chem major who takes 5+ in-depth courses in chemistry.

For me, the people themselves weren't cutthroat, but because all of my classes were curved (400+ people), people (especially other pre-meds) were very stingy about helping other classmates out if they weren't already friends. They didn't want people to ruin the curve and make it harder for them to be competitive in the long run -_-.

My experiences with the degree has been that a lot of employers see me as a dime a dozen, and tend to favor folks who have more knowledge in the areas I'm applying to (ex: applying to be a jr. specialist in a genetics lab, a genetics major would probably be easier to train/teach).

 

[BioBeaver]

If I could go back, I would've picked a more in-depth major (graduated with BS in Biology).

I'd be interested in Molecular biology or Microbiology. I don't know if that would be considered "in-depth" enough because it's still a BS in Bio.

Is a Biochem major more marketable, perhaps?

 

[Irish Football]

So I know that Biology is the stereotypical Pre-med major, but why is that? Is it because its easier than a lot of majors, and Pre-meds are focused on grades and GPA? How hard is it to get a BS in Biology from an average state school?

On the other hand, I've heard that Bio is a terrible major because of the competitiveness of the classes. My anatomy teacher was telling us horror stories of kids purposely messing up experiments and models so others would get a bad grade. Is it really that cutthroat?

I'm a laid back guy; I'm interested in Biology and all, but I don't think I could stand being around people like that all the time.

It's easier than majoring in Chemistry.

 

[Jennyfishy]

I'd be interested in Molecular biology or Microbiology. I don't know if that would be considered "in-depth" enough because it's still a BS in Bio.

Is a Biochem major more marketable, perhaps?

I am more referring to the general "Biological Sciences" major, where you take 1 class in each of those fields, as opposed to specific majors like Microbiology or Biochem folks, who would take far more classes to study different areas of that field. If that's confusing, as a BioSci major, I took one course in MIcrobio (intro to Microbio//general Microbio), while a real Microbio major took 5-6 classes (or more) in that field, and would obviously know a lot more about infectious diseases, immunology, pathogens, etc. than I would. There's definitely less people graduating in different biology sub-fields than general biology!

I honestly picked bio just because I didn't know much about any other specialty and had the best experience in all of my science courses with my AP Bio teacher. By the time I realized that everyone around me was a Bio Major too, I was already 3 years into my undergrad. That's probably my one college regret

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'd be interested in Molecular biology or Microbiology. I don't know if that would be considered "in-depth" enough because it's still a BS in Bio.

Is a Biochem major more marketable, perhaps?

This is me throwing my (biased) vote in for pharmacology if you school has it. Drugs are fun.

 

[BioBeaver]

This is me throwing my (biased) vote in for pharmacology if you school has it. Drugs are fun.

Pharmacology? As an UG major? I'll look into it 👍

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

I'd be interested in Molecular biology or Microbiology. I don't know if that would be considered "in-depth" enough because it's still a BS in Bio.

Is a Biochem major more marketable, perhaps?

My degree was in Microbio. It was funny because you could take the exact same classes and get either degree, so I went with the one that sounded cooler (though obviously Bio majors could take a more botany or zoology directed path).

 

[ToldYouSo]

A bio major at my school was easy. Since job prospects for a bio degree suck and I'm staying a 5th year, I supplemented my major with a ton of research, upper level chemistry, physics and math up to differential equations. I'll have no problem segueing into a chemical engineering phd program if med school doesn't work out.

 

[nabilesmail]

Isn't it

Math/Physics/Engineerring/Chem > Biology >>>>Everything else in terms of ease?

 

[phunky]

Bio is typically the easiest hard science major.

 

[luzhaqn]

Choose a good point schools in their own interest to

 

[Benedictus123]

Man, people sure like to j*rk off to how hard their majors are.

 

[Tear It Up]

Man, people sure like to j*rk off to how hard their majors are.

I know right...