What bio lab did you take?

[student113]

At my school, all labs are separate courses and are not mandatory for taking the class. In fact, many of the labs that SOUND like they should be part of a class/series have completely different pre-reqs, especially in the bio department.

So for bio classes, I'm planning to take genetics, biochem (if that counts) and mammalian physiology. Since I'm not sure whether or not biochem will fulfill the bio requirement, I'm not taking the one biochem lab offered.

As for the other bio labs, they are sort of random. There's microbiology, animal physiology (not connected to mammalian, but close enough?), recombinant DNA and some other stuff.

My questions are:
1. when they say "bio with lab," it doesn't have to be in the same area as the biology classes right? My school doesn't even have a year-long upper div bio topics and therefore the labs are pretty scattered.
2. I'm thinking of taking animal physiology as the bio lab. Even though it's 5 hours 3 times a week, I guess it's the closest thing to a bio class I'll be taking. Is this a good idea?
3. Any general advice on which bio lab to pick? Since relevance to lecture classes is not an issue.

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[jzyu]

I took Biochemical Techniques, Microbiology, and Recombinant DNA tech. Avoided the physiology labs as they were notorious for hefty lab reports and heavy workloads. Most other bio labs were not hard (especially if you had some outside research experience).

 

[zayka]

I don't think it would matter where your lab comes from as long as it's biological and enough hours. They just want you to have experience in the lab (probably with stuff like running gels, etc.?).

I have bio lab in evolutionary biology, molecular biology, and neuroscience/physiology.

Not sure if biochem would count, I'd do something more like molecular bio or physiology. Something with extracting DNA and microarrays... Sounds like you're on the right track.

 

[student113]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm not a science major so I only have time to take ONE bio lab class to fulfill the requirement. After all the confusion, I'm getting a little paranoid.

I have decided to take Recombinant DNA techniques lab. It's in the biology department's sub-department of molecular bio/microbiology, the pre-req is upper div genetics.
Sounds like a pretty sure bio class to me, but I just really want to make sure because I don't have time to take the wrong class. This is DEFINITELY a bio lab right?

 

[camaras2480]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm not a science major so I only have time to take ONE bio lab class to fulfill the requirement. After all the confusion, I'm getting a little paranoid.

I have decided to take Recombinant DNA techniques lab. It's in the biology department's sub-department of molecular bio/microbiology, the pre-req is upper div genetics.
Sounds like a pretty sure bio class to me, but I just really want to make sure because I don't have time to take the wrong class. This is DEFINITELY a bio lab right?

Forget the "confusion." Select the course on two points: whether it counts for credit, and whether it is easy. It does not matter where your bio lab credit comes from as long as it meets the minimum requirement and is, well, biology.

 

[student113]

haha yes, I was confused about one of those two points - whether biochemistry counted as a bio lab. And since it's ambiguous, I decided to take the DNA lab and just wanted to confirm it will be considered "bio" for AMCAS and all the schools.

 

[camaras2480]

haha yes, I was confused about one of those two points - whether biochemistry counted as a bio lab. And since it's ambiguous, I decided to take the DNA lab and just wanted to confirm it will be considered "bio" for AMCAS and all the schools.

They will both count as bio credit, as far as I am aware. What are the course numbers? BI? CH? BC? Either way, you can pick either biochem or DNA lab to be a biology course as far as AMCAS (BCPM GPA) is concerned. Of course, DNA lab is the safer route as far as the schools themselves go.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I'm soooo glad my school had straightforward "Bio 1 with Lab" type courses....and a semester system...and a straightforward numbering system. Bio 100, 200, and so on makes so much more sense than Bio 47a.

 

[camaras2480]

Bio 47a.

 

[student113]

yeah seriously, I wish my school had more straight forward classes like that. We do have lower div general bio (even though there's no lab), but because of my AP credit, I am not allowed to take the first two quarters of it and wouldn't get credit if I did. Since I wouldn't get credit and it wouldn't be in my GPA, I guess I'll have to fulfill the pre-req with upper div bio classes.

 

[camaras2480]

yeah seriously, I wish my school had more straight forward classes like that. We do have lower div general bio (even though there's no lab), but because of my AP credit, I am not allowed to take the first two quarters of it and wouldn't get credit if I did. Since I wouldn't get credit and it wouldn't be in my GPA, I guess I'll have to fulfill the pre-req with upper div bio classes.

Not allowed? That is ridiculous. Back in the day when I did undergrad, even if you had AP credit, you had the option to forego it and take the classes instead. Maybe that was just my school. Who knows.