is there a science major that doesn't have too many labs?

[s1lver]

I'm looking at the required classes I need to get my Bio degree and it looks like I will have at least 2 labs every semester until I graduate. This is making me seriously reconsider my major (Biology) because I am not a big fan of labs and think that they're a huge waste of time.

Perhaps I should look at a non-science major? I'm only a Sophomore so switching majors wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

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[circulus vitios]

Two labs a semester is easy. I'm doing 3 right now.

 

[Amadelphous]

I'm getting a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Psychology. This isn't available at all schools...but there are definitely "science" degrees that require less lab time. In comparison to the students who received a BA in psychology I took many more science oriented classes, but my lab requirements didn't go far beyond premed pre-reqs.

 

[s1lver]

Two labs a semester is easy. I'm doing 3 right now.

Well, I didn't say labs were hard. I said they were a HUGE waste of time. I could think of 457 other and better things to do than waste 6 hours every week in lab... and I'm only taking Bio II and Chem II labs this semester (I've heard Physics labs are much more of a time-waster than those two)!

 

[CarlATHF]

Well, I didn't say labs were hard. I said they were a HUGE waste of time. I could think of 457 other and better things to do than waste 6 hours every week in lab... and I'm only taking Bio II and Chem II labs this semester! I've heard Physics labs were much more of a time-waster than those two.

Anywhere you go (if you want to get a science degree), you'll have to do labs. It sucks, but it's the way it is. If you don't wanna do labs (other than those required), switch out of a science major. It's as simple as that.

 

[missbones]

Science=labs. Are you trying to stay in science for image reasons? Its been said time and time again that major doesn't matter for med school. Do something you really enjoy/are interested in. Clearly if labs make you miserable it'll just be that much more difficult to achieve that high GPA you need and stay sane.

I think anthropology is a great option, but I'm obviously biased since I'm obsessed with it. But it involves minimal labs (maybe 1-2 for the entire degree, up to you in electives if you want to take more, like osteology or skeletal analysis) and you get exposure to evolution, genetics, biology, etc for the science inclined but you also get the exposure to social/behavioral science side of things which med schools also look for. It's a win win!

 

[s1lver]

Science=labs. Are you trying to stay in science for image reasons?

Yep, kind of.

Me: Hey mom, I'm switching to Mechanical Engineering next sem.
Mom: Oh, I thought you want to be a doctor? You ahve disgraced our family! We will disown you!!!
Me: Eh, I stil want to be a doctor like you guys.
Mom: Then how come you're switching to Engineering? What did we do wrong?!?! (cry)

Etc. etc. etc. That'll be a nice dinner conversation at the family table.

 

[xBODOMx]

Yep, kind of.

Me: Hey mom, I'm switching to Mechanical Engineering next sem.
Mom: Oh, I thought you want to be a doctor? You ahve disgraced our family! We will disown you!!!
Me: Eh, I stil want to be a doctor like you guys.
Mom: Then how come you're switching to Engineering? What did we do wrong?!?! (cry)

Etc. etc. etc. That'll be a nice dinner conversation at the family table.

Then you simply say it doesn't matter what my undergrad degree is.

 

[getright]

Just tell them you're a pre-med major

 

[ronaldo23]

I'm looking at the required classes I need to get my Bio degree and it looks like I will have at least 2 labs every semester until I graduate. This is making me seriously reconsider my major (Biology) because I am not a big fan of labs and think that they're a huge waste of time.

Perhaps I should look at a non-science major? I'm only a Sophomore so switching majors wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

sounds like you may benefit from being a non-science major. I feel the same way about most labs being a waste of time (or at least, too time consuming) and so I went for a non-science. Science= tons of labs, and if you don't like labs, you will probably hate your major.

BUT....while I think on the whole non-science majors are less demanding, most require quite a bit of writing papers. It is not unusual to have to write 30+ pages of papers in a class, so that's something to consider if you hate that type of thing.

 

[Cleavername]

I'm looking at the required classes I need to get my Bio degree and it looks like I will have at least 2 labs every semester until I graduate. This is making me seriously reconsider my major (Biology) because I am not a big fan of labs and think that they're a huge waste of time.

Perhaps I should look at a non-science major? I'm only a Sophomore so switching majors wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

try economics major. this friend of mine landed a pretty good job right out of college.

 

[missbones]

Yep, kind of.

Me: Hey mom, I'm switching to Mechanical Engineering next sem.
Mom: Oh, I thought you want to be a doctor? You ahve disgraced our family! We will disown you!!!
Me: Eh, I stil want to be a doctor like you guys.
Mom: Then how come you're switching to Engineering? What did we do wrong?!?! (cry)

Etc. etc. etc. That'll be a nice dinner conversation at the family table.

Srsly? ....

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Math and geology.

 

[theWUbear]

Math, I think.

YES, this is the winning answer, I'm only upset that you beat me to it.

 

[wickl087]

Well, I didn't say labs were hard. I said they were a HUGE waste of time. I could think of 457 other and better things to do than waste 6 hours every week in lab... and I'm only taking Bio II and Chem II labs this semester (I've heard Physics labs are much more of a time-waster than those two)!

Maybe you just need to get into the upper division labs. I felt the same way about gen bio and gen chem. I'm not a biology major, but I would love to be because I could take biochemistry, immunology, or cell biology labs. In my opinion they would be much easier to relate to medicine.

 

[HolySmokes]

Math and geology.

Agreed. I couldn't imagine taking all the labs required of bio/chem majors. At least for me, labs are useless in terms of what I actually learn.

 

[Astarael]

With all due respect, I don't think that disliking labs is a good reason to switch your major. I know that the labs you might be taking right now aren't all that useful, but there are a lot of things that you'd miss out on without them that you might not ever think about. Keep in mind too that although science classes require labs, pretty much all majors have classes that aren't just lecture. A couple good examples are math classes that require work with Matlab or Mathematica, or English classes that require you to attend a discussion section.

I feel like asking, what are you planning on doing once you get into medical school? I've heard that a lot of MS3 and MS4 is mostly time spent trying to not get into other people's way. If you don't want to do six hours of lab now, what are you going to do then?

On the other hand, if you truly do find a major that you enjoy more, I would say definitely go for it.

 

[chman]

I would probably consider a chem major if it were not for the labs. Some are cool, but most of the time I hate them. If you enjoy another subject enough to major in it the go for it. Your parents, as doctors, should know that one does not need a science degree. Personally, I like the balance of the pre-reqs and my psychology classes.

 

[Frazier]

astronomy.

[READ: not to be confused with astrophysics.]

 

[metallica81788]

You still have to take a lot of labs for the prereqs. My Bio major only required 2 extra labs on top of the med school prereqs.

You won't find a science major that doesn't have that many labs. Deal with it.

 

[Cleavername]

i can only assume that in med school, there is even more labs than your undergrduate courses ask you to do. so.....

 

[NoMoreAMCAS]

You're correct, they are a huge waste of time. They're also usually way more work than the 3 credit hour class they're attached to. ****in terrible.

It differs by college, but i would look at the degree plans for the science majors offered at your college. Minimizing the number of labs you have to take really will make life a lot easier.

 

[NerdyAndrea]

Probably Mathematics, but even then you have to get your pre-eqs, one example:

http://www.northwestu.edu/programs/majors/mathematics.php

No labs in that degre program.

A

 

[anavistas]

Physics I'd say. Just two upper division labs, Optics and Modern Physics.

 

[The Enchanter]

Study something you like. If you're not into biology, switch. But don't switch because you think that labs are wasting your time. Every major has its time sinks (mechanical engineering may be even worse than biology). Also, if you want to go to med school, you have to take the prereqs like everyone else which means...labs! There's no way around it. Engineering has it's own labs by the way, so if you switch, there's a strong possibility that the number of labs you have to take will increase (engineering labs + bio, chem and physics labs). Again, switch majors if there's something else you really want to study - don't switch because you have certain requirements that you think are wasting your time.

 

[EMS5]

Just tell them you're a pre-med major

 

[siliso]

If you'd rather write papers than do labs, take a liberal arts major. I don't see any reason to do a science major if you don't actually want to.

 

[s1lver]

I feel like asking, what are you planning on doing once you get into medical school? I've heard that a lot of MS3 and MS4 is mostly time spent trying to not get into other people's way. If you don't want to do six hours of lab now, what are you going to do then?

6 hours of lab as an MS3 or 4 would be a LOT different (and more useful) than your typical Gen Bio or Gen Chem labs, I would imagine. The only time I had fun in any lab class was when we used gel electrophoresis last sem. All other times, they sucked and I just wasted time (especially true for Chem lab because you waste 3 hours when I could probably just copy somebody else's values/results outside of class and just do the calculations myself in 30 mins.).

 

[s1lver]

You're correct, they are a huge waste of time. They're also usually way more work than the 3 credit hour class they're attached to. ****in terrible.

Heh, true.

I started this thread because yesterday, I just spent 3 hours in lab. Then I went home and spent close to an hour and 20 minutes writing the effing lab report! 4 and a half hours wasted on just 15% of my overall grade. Every week. Times two for two labs. I don't even spend that much time on the actual lecture part of the course!

Our lab was about a virus on a population of striped bass. Ooh, viruses... on fish! So exciting!

 

[ArkansasRanger]

I'm looking at the required classes I need to get my Bio degree and it looks like I will have at least 2 labs every semester until I graduate. This is making me seriously reconsider my major (Biology) because I am not a big fan of labs and think that they're a huge waste of time.

Perhaps I should look at a non-science major? I'm only a Sophomore so switching majors wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

I've seen some environmental science programs with tracks in policy/law/econ, etc that didn't require too many sciences. I don't like labs either. I'm not really a handsy type.

 

[chman]

Heh, true.

I started this thread because yesterday, I just spent 3 hours in lab. Then I went home and spent close to an hour and 20 minutes writing the effing lab report! 4 and a half hours wasted on just 15% of my overall grade. Every week. Times two for two labs. I don't even spend that much time on the actual lecture part of the course!

Our lab was about a virus on a population of striped bass. Ooh, viruses... on fish! So exciting!

That right there is why most people dislike them. They are a ton of time and work for little reward. Bogus. Most professors are lab report Nazis too.

 

[familyaerospace]

BS in "Anthropology and Human Biology"

The major required 2 biology courses (introductory bio), 2 chemistry (introductory chem), 2 math (Calc and Stats) and a lot of anthropology courses most of which were crosslisted as biology, but only 1 had anything even remotely close to a lab in it and that was only a few weeks and it replaced lecture.

Best of all, the major was considered alternative premed. All one had to do was take the Orgos (and Physics if needed) and there was a pretty high med school acceptance rate.