Biology Majors wanted!

bassman03 · #1 11-22-2009, 01:23 PM

So while I'm still only a junior in highschool, i'm almost positive right now that i'm going to become a Biology major in college. My question for you majors in this area (already majored and those in the process of getting there) is what classes in highschool do you suggest and what stuff should i take into consideration that i might be over looking. This might be a broad question, but that's what i'm wanting it to be, i'm trying to look at all the variables.

My second question is for those of you who have already majored in that field - what jobs are you looking at getting or already have gotten? Right now i'm thinking i'll probably be minoring in secondary ed so i could teach highschool classes in that area, or just with the biology major become an athletic trainer/personal trainer/physical therapist type of thing. Thanks in advance for the responses!

**jmattbassplaya** · #2 11-22-2009, 01:59 PM

Take whatever higher level bio class your school offers. If they have bio 2, then take it. Have AP bio? Take that instead. I also would recommend taking a chemistry class and perhaps even a basic anatomy class if possible.

Granted, I`m not a biology major but it`s a subject that I know quite a bit about and study in my own free time. I`m actually still considering changing majors to biology.

Ziltoid · #3 11-22-2009, 02:42 PM

Just do all you sciences and math class, so in case you change your mind everything is still available.

elgecko · #4 11-22-2009, 03:05 PM

The biologists I've met have either worked in 1) education 2) government agencies (i.e. Vector Control, park services, Fish and Game relocating problem bears) or 3) private consulting (wildlife/plant surveys for environmental impact reporting)

TortillaChip520 · #5 11-22-2009, 03:10 PM

you'll need lots of biology (obviously) and chemistry.

and interpretive dance. don't ask, just do it...

coreyfyfe · #6 11-22-2009, 04:30 PM

Biology, chemistry, physics and calculus. If you can take any of them as AP courses and not have to take them in college, big plus. I'm in grad school now and I'm a research associate at a pharmaceutical company. You can do a lot with a biology degree, it really depends on what you want to go into. My wife and I are both in research, me industry her academic, both of which are very very different. I have two cousins who are/were biology majors, one is working as a physical/sports therapist, the other is planning on going to med school. I also have a friend who is doing environmental work, a friend who is teaching (she plans on going to law school to do environmental law), a friend doing physical therapy, friends working in industry, and a good number of friends either going to or planning on going to grad school.

What you do in college is really dependent on where you see yourself in the future. If you want to work in industry, a graduate degree is not necessary, but wouldn't hurt and will certainly increase your pay-grade/level of responsibility. If you want to work in academics, a graduate degree will be necessary and your pay will suck no matter what.

Geographical area will also play into it. Environmental work is hard to find in some areas, more abundant in others. Clinical lab work and academic research is usually available in most areas (hospitals), but industry research is really focused in the northeast, northwest, and southeast.

Ericman197 · #7 11-22-2009, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassman03

So while I'm still only a junior in highschool, i'm almost positive right now that i'm going to become a Biology major in college. My question for you majors in this area (already majored and those in the process of getting there) is what classes in highschool do you suggest and what stuff should i take into consideration that i might be over looking. This might be a broad question, but that's what i'm wanting it to be, i'm trying to look at all the variables.

My second question is for those of you who have already majored in that field - what jobs are you looking at getting or already have gotten? Right now i'm thinking i'll probably be minoring in secondary ed so i could teach highschool classes in that area, or just with the biology major become an athletic trainer/personal trainer/physical therapist type of thing. Thanks in advance for the responses!

High school: Only matters for getting into college, so get good grades and take whatever classes you want. If you want to apply to a competitive college (not totally necessary), I suppose a couple of AP science classes wouldn't hurt. Just don't overextend yourself, because you don't need to drive yourself to anxiety/depression as some high-achievers do. Talk to your guidance counselor and see what's available. I didn't take a single AP class in high school.

Jobs: You can be a doctor, physician's assistant, physical therapist, researcher, or just about anything else involved in healthcare/science depending on what you want to do after college. A bio major in and of itself is not particularly useful, but when you combine it with some research/intern experience and several electives, you make yourself a solid candidate for graduate school, or a job in pharmaceuticals, teaching, etc.

TortillaChip520 · #8 11-22-2009, 08:15 PM

but by taking ap classes in the field you wanna major in, you have an advantage later on when you have to take those classes in college. freshmen bio and chem will be a breeze if you've basically already taken it. plus, it never hurts to try to learn as much about something you're passionate about as early as possible.

i plan to major engineering, and i've already taken calc AB twice and am taking BC next semester.

TOOL460002 · #9 11-22-2009, 09:42 PM

take ap calc. thatll get rid of one semester of calc, and you only need a year of it for a bio degree. i wish i had done that, and then taken the second semester at a community college over the summer before going to college, so i would be 100% done with math. you still need some math skills, but aside from minor calc in your year of physics, you wont need to remember much math.

im a bio major now, and will graduate in a year or so, and i dont know where im going next, or when, but i know i want to be involved with genetic engineering, specifically synthetic organ and tissue growth, so im going to get a job out of college, take the gre test a time or two, and then go from there.

dont worry about ap bio or chem. take it all in a linear fashion at college.

Jared Lash · #10 11-23-2009, 05:31 AM

Some good advice so far.

To answer your first question, obviously Bio and AP Bio are classes you should take. Chemistry and Physics too. AP chem would help down the road a a bit (more for P-chem than O-chem) and AP Physics wouldn't hurt, though for Bio a class for the AP Physics B would be more useful than the AP Physics C. But IME most schools that have AP Physics are doing the C. Calculus is a big one as the AP test will let you test out of one or both semesters of it depending on your university. If your school has statistics, that's always a useful class to have. I know I had to take a stats class in college for my business degree, I'm not sure if it was a pre-req for bio too, but we used statistics enough in labs and my genetics course that I recommend taking one even if it isn't.

In general, learning good study habits in high school is as important as taking the right classes. Kids that got by cramming in high school generally struggled in a class like organic chemistry. O-chem isn't nearly as bad as people had made it out to be before I took it, but the key is to stay on top of the material because it all builds on the previous work.

Good notetaking in lectures is critical, for me especially in upper division work like biochemistry and immunology. In those classes, the text was more like a reference and my notes were my primary study material.

Bio is obviously a pre-med major. Technically, you can major in whatever you want for med school, but you have to have chem, physics, bio, o-chem etc which are all bio pre-reqs so most pre-med students major in bio out of convenience. At Berkeley this meant quite a few overly competitive students in my classes. It also seemed to mean all my core classes met at 8 am. One way to weed out students from an impacted major I suppose.

As for your second question, I've had quite a few jobs in the 10 years since college. Some related to bio and some not (bartender, web designer, editor at a publishing company). Of the ones that did relate to my degree, I was a researcher at a biotech company (Genentech), a tech in a crime lab, a high school teacher, and currently in marketing for an science education company.

There are people with an exact plan of what they want to do and then there are those of us that bump around looking for what fits. A degree opens doors but you really just have to figure out what appeals to you.

Good luck.

bassman03 · #11 11-23-2009, 07:01 PM

Thanks a bunch for the responses guys. So far i've taken the standard AP, Bio that they've required everyone to take and after that they don't really require much. I currently am Chem right now with intentions of taking Advanced Chem next year as a senior. Next year i'll be getting Physics and Advance AP (which is actually a college course but since i don't have a certified teacher for it we can't get college credit... ugh...). Those are the ones that i've always had my best grades in and the high school i go to has always had a reputation for being one of the tougher schools academically for a pretty big area.

Some people are saying to take calculus? What would that be gaining me? I've got the Algerbra 1, Geometry, Algebra II route going on right now (currently in A-II). Calculus was on my mind for a little while but i'm really not a fan of the teacher who teaches it next year at all (teaching methods mostly. I just find him rather ineffective for me).

Thanks a bunch for all the responses guys. Keep 'em coming!

**jmattbassplaya** · #12 11-23-2009, 08:18 PM

You`ll have to take Calculus no matter what. In fact, physics has far less to do with Bio than Cal, so I`d say take regular physics(if you even want to bother with it) and take AP Cal.

**jmattbassplaya** · #13 11-23-2009, 08:24 PM

OK, I just went through UTK`s 08 majors course book and from the looks of it I`d definitely take AP Stat, AP Cal, and an upper level Chemistry class. Granted, this will be different from college to college but this should cover you for your core math classes and will allow you to jump ahead to Cal 2.

iamlowsound · #14 11-23-2009, 08:57 PM

My girlfriends dad has a degree in biology, he is a pastor. Although he was originally going to go to med school.

lowsound

fdeck · #15 11-23-2009, 09:53 PM

I live in the shadow of the university that may be the world's largest biology research facility. My broad generalization is that the 20th century was the century of physics (radio, tube, transistor, laser, etc.), and this will be the century of biology.

So I'm a dinosaur.

Things to think about: Of course biology will continue to be central to biology, but advances in biology could come from people in any field. I expect fields such as chemistry, mathematics (dealing with genetics, molecular structure, and possibly consciousness), and good old physics, will be important in the century of biology. So, if you study biology, don't forget to broaden yourself with courses from those other disciplines.