PROGRAM PLANNING: PICKING COURSES FOR NEXT YEAR

Coming January 2025

High School Preparation

(especially if you want to be a Biology major)

Students often ask about what they should do in high school to be prepared to enter college as a biology major. It is important to realize that the biology major is a challenging curriculum with required chemistry and math and physics required or recommended in some areas.

Success in these university courses is actually less dependent on having had specific high school courses, and more dependent on their content and rigor. Successful students bring some facts and general knowledge with them, but more than anything else they bring a studious attitude, good study skills, and the determination to work hard. Surprisingly, high school biology, taken by itself, is a poor predictor of success in college biology. An easy time in high school can leave a student under-prepared for the college biology major. If you were not made to work hard in high school, you will have to make a transition to the college biology major.

For High School Students. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2017, from         http://www.pittstate.edu/department/biology/highschool.dot 

High School Classes Colleges Look For: Science

Science teaches you how to think analytically and how to apply theories to reality. Colleges want to see that you’ve taken at least three years of laboratory science classes. A good combination includes a year of each of the following:

• Biology

• Chemistry or physics

• Earth/space science

Schools that are more competitive expect four years of lab science courses, which you may be able to get by taking advanced classes in these same areas.

(n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2017, from https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/your-high-school-record/high-school-classes-colleges-look-for