Cassandra
Is it hard to be a biology major in college?
I want to major in biology and I heard it was a difficult course #science #biology #marine-biology
2 answers
Craig Allinson
Craig’s Answer
Hi Craig! Thanks for your answer. Could you edit it and provide some more detail for this Student? For example, which parts of a biology major might be the difficult ones? Do you have any insights from your own experience on making it through a Biology degree program? How might the Student know if it’s TOO difficult before committing? Thanks so much for your response!
Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
Teng Keng Vang
Teng Keng’s Answer
If you're looking for an easy A, biology is not the major for you. Statistics may vary across colleges, but typically 50% of people will fail out of the first college level chemistry course that they take. A biology major is usually required to take at least one, if not two years of college level chemistry (typically called gen chem and o-chem). If that doesn't slow you down, the year of calculus and/or physics might. I managed to get through that, so the next major stumbling block, in my opinion, is genetics (course, not subject material you might find in other biology courses).
It's a lot of long nights and hard work, and you typically have to start on it right away if you intend to finish in four years. If you're looking to party all night at college, do yourself a favor and skip biology, and any STEM majors for that matter. It'll be hard to do well if you party every night. For me, I reserved Friday nights and Saturdays for my social days (not including midterm week and finals week). Otherwise, I was in the books all the other time. I would estimate 3-4 hours a day was what I needed to do well.