Department of Biological Sciences Advising Guidelines

Student Advising Worksheet

Change of Advisor Form (pdf)

Articulation Agreements

All students must be advised before each registration period. Once advised, and the Department Secretary clears their advising hold in the University computer, students may then register via telephone (STAN number in Class Schedule) any time after their designated registration time. Freshmen have priority, then Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores in terms of registration times.

Students initiate the advising process by signing up in the advising binder in the main office. Office staff will pull their file and place it in the appropriate faculty box the afternoon prior to the advising appointment. Included in that file should be an evaluations form from Admissions and Records (A&R), transcripts, an advising check list for the major and general education, and a sheet on which to write in the list of courses suggested for the coming term or terms. The A&R form will indicate degree being pursued, and any Concentration or minor. That form also indicates what if any General Education courses, W.P. course and placement tests (ELM, EPT) they still need to take. The form will also list courses in their major from other colleges they may have completed. They usually do not list courses in other sciences or math (unless G.E.) that they have completed. Thus for each new student, it is necessary to examine their transcripts to see what chemistry, physics, math and biology courses they have completed. A&R will miss some biology courses that we can count as electives (for example, human physiology, anatomy, bacteriology) if they have a course prefix they don’t recognize.

New students must pass the ELM and EPT (Math and English placement tests) before they can register for college level Math or English courses (unless they come here with completed Math or English composition courses or have been exempted by other test scores). If they do not pass a placement test, they must sign up for the appropriate remedial course at the earliest opportunity (which one depends upon their score on the test…..see section in Class Schedule for information on test scores and appropriate remedial course).

General Education categories are outlined in the University Catalog and in the back of each Class Schedule. Courses approved for each area have been listed. One purpose of required advising is to try to avoid having students take extra G.E. courses in areas they have already met. By updating the department checklist or the evaluation sheet provided by A&R, each advisor can track the progress of G.E. and help students avoid duplication of G.E. courses.

The University is pushing to have students complete area A (Communication Skills) and the math portion of area B as soon as possible. Most biology majors will automatically complete area B (Natural Science and Mathematics) by completing prerequisites to the Major (exception might be B.A. students who do not have a specific math requirement but must complete a college level math class from list of approved courses).

Area C (Humanities Requirement) can be met by a course out of area 1 and a course out of area 2 and either a course out of area 3 (Foreign Language) or a second course out of either area 1 or 2. Area D is straightforward, except for area 1b for transfers from out of state. Each student must be certified in the U.S. Constitution and California State and Local Government. Psci 1201 meets both of these requirements. A student transferring from out of state may have met the U.S. Constitution requirement but not the State requirement. They can either complete Psci 1201 or pass a challenge exam offered by the Political Science Dept. Area E is straightforward.

Students are also required to complete 9 units of upper division G.E courses, one course from each of three areas (area F). They must have completed 60 units of coursework (or will exceed that number in the semester they enroll for an UDGE course) before enrolling in an upper division G.E. course. This area is straightforward except that students must complete a course outside of their major (i.e. for biology majors, Biol 3000, Biol 3020 or Nsci 3000 will not meet this requirement for area F 1). (note 1 to advisors)

Area G (Multicultural Requirement) can be met either by a lower division course or an upper division course. A few of the approved courses can double count for this requirement and for another area of G.E. Students should be encouraged to try to find one that double counts.

Finally, all students are required to complete an upper division Writing Proficiency (WP) course. If they take an approved course from their major, that they can use as electives in the major, then this is not an additional 3 units. The approved course for biology majors is Biol 4010 (Research and Technical Writing in Biology).

Prerequisites to the Major

All majors are required to complete an introductory year of biology that includes coverage of both botany and zoology. Here that is Boty 1050 and Zool 1050 (taken in either order). The prerequisite for these two courses is an A or B in high school biology, otherwise they are expected to take Biol 1010 or equivalent. (note 2 to advisors) 

All students must complete a year of Inorganic Chemistry and a semester of Organic Chemistry with lab (the latter is upper division here but we accept a lower division course from elsewhere if it is 4 units and includes a lab). Students opting to complete the second semester of Organic Chemistry, with lab, are eligible for a minor in chemistry if they have passed all of these courses with at least a C grade.  (note 3 to advisors)

Majors pursuing a B.S. degree have a specific math requirement (either Statistics or Calculus, but not pre-calculus….minimum of 3 units and a variety of courses are acceptable). These students also are required to complete a year sequence of introductory physics (either calculus-based or not). Since the latter is not really a prerequisite for any other course, we usually recommend they postpone taking physics until they have completed their introductory biology and the three chemistry courses.

Core of the Major

All students are required to complete an upper division course in Entomology/Zoology and a similar course in Botany/ Microbiology, each 4 units with a lab. One of these courses must be what we call a diversity course (appropriate courses are noted in the University Catalog). We will accept a lower division bacteriology course for the Boty/Mbio course but students then must take an additional 4 units of electives in biology at the upper division level.

Both Biol 3310 and Biol 3350 have a year of biology and a year of inorganic chemistry as prerequisites. The second genetics requirement is one unit, but many of the options for this requirement are two unit courses (any extra units here or in bacteriology will count as electives in the major).

All students are required to complete an upper division course in Ecology with a lab and an upper division course in physiology with a lab (each of these areas has three courses to select from).

All B.A. students must complete 10 units of biology electives (8 of which could be lower division courses such as human anatomy, human physiology, or certain applied courses in biology such as Plant Science, Animal Science from a community college). B.S. students must complete 14 units of electives in biology (again, 8 units could be lower division).

Concentrations

Within either the B.A. or B.S. in Biological Sciences, students can elect to do one or more concentrations. Students can choose not to have a concentration, or to complete one concentration, or to complete multiple concentrations. Courses in concentrations also count as part of the core requirements or electives within the Biological Sciences major, and can be double-counted for the major and for the concentration. Therefore, usually, a student does not need to take extra units in order to complete a concentration. Courses required in more than one concentration that are also core or elective courses in the major, cannot be triple-counted; i.e., if you choose more than one concentration, you probably will need to complete units beyond the minimum required for the major.

In order to graduate with a B.A. degree in Biology, students must complete a minimum of 25 upper division units in the major while B.S. graduates must have a minimum of 29 units in the major. (note 4 to advisors) 

Most faculty members in the Department of Biological Sciences are particularly interested in one or more concentrations or career goals, and students interested in particular areas usually seek faculty advisors with similar interests. Every student seeking a degree in Biological Sciences must have an advisor and must be advised during the advising period every fall semester for the following winter and spring terms, and every spring semester for the following summer and fall terms. Students can select any faculty member in Biological Sciences as the advisor, and can change advisors when interests change or for other reasons.

Below is a list of concentrations and career goals, and faculty members who typically advise in these areas.

*Flora Watson is the Chair of the Prehealth Professions Committee. The function of this committee is to help students with assembling application files for medical, dental, optometry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, and other health professions. The committee sends the completed file to all schools to which the student applies. It is in the student's best interest to go through this committee.

Notes to Faculty Advisors

1. Biology majors can take one of these courses for elective units in the major.

2. If students transfer in with an introductory biology sequence, that is part of an introductory biology three-course sequence, we give them elective credit in the major for the first of these (if it is required, to enroll in the other two courses).

3. We do not have a department policy on this, but it is highly recommended that students not begin their chemistry until they have passed their ELM test or have completed their remedial math classes.

4. When A&R completes a graduation evaluation for students they look only for the total number of upper division units completed, not at specific areas of the core and not at the 8 units of electives that can be lower division. So the number of units they specify remaining in the major at the upper division level usually is lower than the actual number remaining.

Note: We do not have a minimal grade required in our prerequisite courses or in the major itself, except they must receive a passing grade. The University does require that they have an overall GPA of 2.0 (all courses) and a 2.0 in the major (defined as all upper division courses in biology).