What is your major?

[SunnyS81]

Dr. Octopus, I make frequent allusions to "Heart of Darkness" in everyday conversations. I don't know if that book is indicative of the rest of his works, but I didn't find it too bad. I'm taking a feminist literature class right now..........you want verbose, check out the Bronte sisters........

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[CD]

Undergrad: Civil Engr.
M.S.: Chemistry (in the process!)

By the way, I find Chemistry to be MUCH easier than the Engr. I did!

 

[woolie]

Classics; altho at my school at the time, you could only chose Latin or Greek and I chose Latin, so there you are. Plus a Masters; lots of Latin.

 

[Street Philosopher]

Originally posted by SunnyS81
Dr. Octopus, I make frequent allusions to "Heart of Darkness" in everyday conversations. I don't know if that book is indicative of the rest of his works, but I didn't find it too bad. I'm taking a feminist literature class right now..........you want verbose, check out the Bronte sisters........

I really like Heart of Darkness too.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

I'm glad you guys like Conrad, but I think it sucks so far. I guess I'm spoiled by the postmodern stuff I've been into.

 

[WonderBoy]

Guess I am the freak here

Economics Major.

 

[Optime Scit]

Classics major like mma, woolie, leorl, and hercules.

 

[Dr. Dodger Dog]

Psychobiology major
Art History minor, emphasis on western art

 

[pbehzad]

man there are alot of bio majors, i mean i understand why, but what happens if med schools dont accept you (God forbid), are you going to become a biologist? im not tryin to hate, i just have resentment from the bio dept. at my school sometimes, do you think a bio major is that helpful? i know with all the extra bios such as anatomy, physio, cell bio, etc. that med schools like its kinda hard not to lean towards bio major.

 

[DoubleDoctor]

My major is in Biochem(BS) and Micro (BA) with a minor in Molecular Biology. If I had not gotten into med school there is plenty of research jobs so I wasn't too worried about the job market. And I agree that Biochem is a B*tch. At Miami, the Chem and Biochem depts are combined although the requirements for each degree vary alot. We started out with about 300 students freshmen year, but it dropped to about 150 by second year. Bottom line is that Miami only graduates about 6-8 BS Chem/Biochem students each year. Makes for very nice class size during those 400 level classes. Of course, most of the profs at Miami University have no problem giving an exam where the average score is 40%, so could be why there is alot of dropping out or changing majors

 

[kidsmd]

Originally posted by pbehzad
man there are alot of bio majors, i mean i understand why, but what happens if med schools dont accept you (God forbid), are you going to become a biologist? im not tryin to hate, i just have resentment from the bio dept. at my school sometimes, do you think a bio major is that helpful? i know with all the extra bios such as anatomy, physio, cell bio, etc. that med schools like its kinda hard not to lean towards bio major.

Well, if by some twist of fate, I don't become a doctor, I would love to become a high school science teacher. There's lots of those in demand right now, and I know I would love the challenge involved in doing it.

 

[mws99]

Do you other Biochem majors have to take P-Chem? I swear I sit through lecture everday solving hamiltonians and psi squared equations and thinking "umm, will we be doing anything biology or chemistry related in here?"

 

[DoubleDoctor]

Yea, I had a whole year of P Chem for chem Majors (meaning its twice as hard as regular P Chem) and that class totally sucked. I kept all my equations in those little spiral bound books of 3X5 index cards and for the finals I had 3 books of those suckers (front and back and I write very small) to memorize. It was a massive amount of knowledge and that only gave you the formulas to maybe be able to figure out the questions. I did very well but I slept about 2 hours a night for that whole year as there was massive amounts of homework too. It did manage to weed out most of our class (the ones left that had not dropped out after O Chem for Chem Majors).

 

[CD]

Yep! p-chem is a REALLY nasty class. In fact it is by FAR the MOST DIFFICULT class I have EVER taken in my ENTIRE life. (I was an Engr. undergrad and now chem graduate student) Of course I might have found it more difficult because I hadn't seen calculus for over 15 years and most of my calc. was totally gone. (I did manage to get an A but my prof was sick and tired of seeing me by the end of the year!)

I don't remember who asked but....no, I never saw much more than hamiltonians etc. It took other chem classes before I saw the connection to chem or bio.

 

[latinfridley]

Computer Science. Definitely not an easy major.

 

[Sweet Tea]

Latinfridley, I love your signature. Great movie (see my avatar).

 

[neofight]

Nice to see these percentages for sdners.

 

[group_theory]

Yep - took an entire year of pchem too (biochem major)

The pchem 1 class is the same class shared by the chem, biochem, and chemE students. The pchem 2 class is for the chem and biochem majors (chemE students don't have to take it, lucky them)

My professor has one goal in mind - to one day prove such a definative link between biology and physical chemistry that med schools will make PCHEM 1 and 2 (and pchem lab) a premed requirement.



If you thought orgo was hard - try pchem - the class where you will learn what TRUE HELL IS - and that it is exothermic

 

[HitokiriX]

haha yea. I'm a chem/biochem major also.

There were 50 of us who took Pchem 1 (thermo) that was required of all chem majors. Then we could choose either Pchem2 (quantum) or Pchem3 (kinetics).
42 chose pchem2 and 8 (myself included) chose pchem3. Why? Everyone thought kinetics would be easier than quantum but the pchem3 teacher was a graduate teacher who was banned from teaching undergrad 10 years ago since he taught at a level that was incomprehensible! Well, during my year the department couldn't find a kinetics prof so they asked him to teach it but also BEGGED him to be more lenient since we're undergrads.

Well, the means on our tests were a consistent low 20s. After our 2nd midterm, we caught him talking to our old Orgo2 prof telling her we were all ******s!

Yea, those were the days.....and then I hear this girl in my Japanese language class who still says business school is much harder and more work-loaded compared to premed and engineering. Pissed me off, yes she did

 

[Iridium]

Originally posted by pbehzad
man there are alot of bio majors, i mean i understand why, but what happens if med schools dont accept you (God forbid), are you going to become a biologist? im not tryin to hate, i just have resentment from the bio dept. at my school sometimes, do you think a bio major is that helpful? i know with all the extra bios such as anatomy, physio, cell bio, etc. that med schools like its kinda hard not to lean towards bio major.

Well, in case med school does not work out, I'll still have a major in a field I greatly enjoy. Also, med school is not the only place that one can use a bio degree with: graduate school, perhaps becoming a biology teacher, or working in a pharm company (quality control or sales). Also, I think one of the biggest reasons for the correlation between med school and bio degress is because that people who like bio degrees naturally gravitate towards one of its biggest (but not only!) application.

As you can probably note from my message, I am a Bio major, however I still have yet to declare a minor. Still torn between a few, sadly.

 

[dumbest premed]

My major is biochem with a minor in psychology. I switched over from neuroscience to biochem this year. You people are scaring me....I'll be taking P-chem next year as a senior .

 

[Naphtali]

BS Biology, BA Biochemistry

Heh. At my school, we take 1 semester of "Physical Biochemistry". We learned some of the same stuff as the p-chem kids, but it was directly related to biochemical applications. (The course is directly designed for biochem's.) The prof was awesome, the course was awesome. Definetly my favorite undergrad course. P-chem is OK, but I find most chem major p-chem classes are not very relevant to biochem. We talked about protein folding and energetics, thermodynamics and solution behavior, and theoretical background for biochemical experimental procedures (NMR, x-ray crystallography, IR, mass spec, sedimentation, electrophoresis, ect.) I'm sure the p-chem kids can work equations better than I can, but I'm glad I have practical knowledge.

-Naphtali

 

[Skaterbabe74]

I'm a biology and chemistry double major with possibly a minor in psychology. And before everyone thinks I'm a masochist, to do the chemistry double major I only need to take 1 class that I hadn't already planned on taking, the other 4 (biochem&lab and molecule genetics&lab) are all dually listed between the 2 departments so I end up going over the max bio credits by way less than I had planned I'm emphasizing human biology and kinesiology in my bio major.

As far as benefits/nonbenefits I think the kinesiology emphasis will help diversify my degree quite a bit because it will give me access to much of the research that goes on at the Olympic Training Center in town. Also the psychology will help me understand people and how to motivate the athletes I want to work with to be the best they can be.

I've also taken tons of non-science classes in my prior "life" -- meaning that I've taken classes off and on since 1992 (as a result I'm technically a senior already lol) before coming back to school to pursue my dream of being an orthopedic surgeon/sports med doctor.

--Jessica, UCCS

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Oh and my main motivation for going ahead and doing the double major in biology and chemistry is so "just in case" I don't get into med school I will have many more options than I would with just a biology degree.

--Jessica, UCCS

 

[drkingdingaling]

I must be extremely weird

Special Education (Plan B)

 

[Biodude]

Wow, so this thread got updated! I just wanted to update my situation as well.

I'm still a biology major, and I think that there will be plenty of opportunities for me with this major. After all, there is a packet at my school called "Jobs for Biologists" and it contains plenty of jobs, from such obscure ones as "Earthworm farmer" to botanist to immunologist to toxicologist to laboratory technician to sales and marketing for pharmaceuticals, etc.

If any bio majors are interested in seeing this list, please e-mail me. Don't use the e-mail I left here in my account though...I've been meaning to change it, but I'm lazy I guess

E-mail me at: [email protected]

So I don't really think that a bio major is a dead-end. On the contrary, there are plenty of things I could do if I didn't get accepted to medical school

I finally decided that I will minor in Philosophy! I'd like to get into the ethics of research...I feel bad for all the lab monkeys that have to be put through all of it just so that we humans could get the cures.

I wanted to double major bio/philo but it wouldn't work out too well, because bio requires way too many units out of me! Around 150 - 160 while it takes 120 to graduate with a "normal" degree (not including engineering, for example ) Plus, my school only allows 16 units a semester, 2 semesters a year (not including summer and winter intersession)...you people do the math

btw, there are plenty of people who major in bio and want to be a physician/dentist/pharmacist/optometrist/etc. in their freshmen year. My pre-med advisor took surveys before about what biology majors wanted to do with their degrees...

freshmen year: 90% wanted to go into the health professions (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, etc.)

senior year: 25% still wanted to do this, while everyone else realized how much they would have to sacrifice to get into these schools and decided on other careers in biology, like teaching

Out of 1500 people who go to my pre-med advisor, only about 60 have the drive, endurance, and motivation to tough it out and APPLY to health professions schools...this is just applying, not getting accepted.

 

[annagreene]

double major: biology and studio art.

 

[Allygator89]

Originally posted by Biodude


I finally decided that I will minor in Philosophy! I'd like to get into the ethics of research...I feel bad for all the lab monkeys that have to be put through all of it just so that we humans could get the cures.

I went the Finance route and couldn't be happier.

Biodude... check out T. Freedman's article on clinical and theoretical equipoise. I wrote a term paper on the ethics behind the theory for my epistomology class. It was pretty interesting to look at relative to some of the clinical trials that occur today.

 

[2badr]

Originally posted by 2badr
Biology for now....math minor.

OOps..I'm now an applied Microbiology/Clinical Science major.Just seems to be soooo time consuming to do the math and the Bio.(I also like the variety of classes offered thru the Microbiology major as well.) I also had to do some independent research and became fascinated by Microbiology.
I compared the classes offered for Bio and Micro and the Micro classes seemed to be more in line with my future interests.If med school does not work out- -I would prefer to have my Microbiology degree.I like Anatomy & Physiology type classes tho.(But they are not offered at my school0 So maybe a minor (or chemistry(?) ) in bio. would be ok...

 

[2ndave]

How's this for variety?

Started out as a Russian major. Then considered, in the following order: drama, poli sci, art history...

Ok, then finally switched to an ever-useful double religion/English lit major. It was very writing intensive but I loved it. The religion majors were the coolest group of people I met in college. I did my thesis on existentialist philosophy.

Now I'm halfway through my pre-med classes as a post-bacc, and in order to qualify for student loans I'll probably have to enroll as a BS student in the chem or chem engineering departments. Wish me luck, since it looks like I'll be taking P-chem this summer!

I think of all the majors, art history has had the best payoff. All that stuff they made us memorize--it works wonders at museums and cocktail parties! For some reason I doubt I'll be able to get quite the same effect with all this math and science stuff...

 

[vixenell]

biochemistry & molecular biology w/ a minor in history

 

[JM.]

Boring old biology