The Department of Biology is committed to excellence in instruction, scholarly accomplishment, research, professional service, and student success. The Department provides a broad-based undergraduate education in Biology so as to give students the opportunity to pursue a career best-suited to their interests and abilities. Graduates are prepared to enter the workforce or continue their education in graduate or professional school. The Department provides rigorous pre-professional preparation for students seeking careers in biological sciences and health professions.
Core Curriculum - 42 hours
The Core Curriculum serves as a broad foundation for the undergraduate degree. All candidates for a bachelor’s degree must achieve core student learning outcomes, including communication, critical thinking, empirical and quantitative skills, teamwork, personal responsibility and social responsibility, by completing courses within each category or component area of the Core Curriculum as outlined below.
The University has approved specific courses that satisfy Core Curriculum Requirements. Approved courses can be found on the Core Curriculum Page. Students seeking the most efficient way to complete the core curriculum and major or minor requirements are advised to take approved courses that can fulfill both requirements. Although core curriculum courses can also be used to fulfill major or minor requirements, earned credits hours are only applied once.
The courses listed below fulfill core curriculum and major requirements. Students who have completed a core curriculum category with courses other than those listed below will still be required to take the listed course(s) to meet major requirements.
020 Mathematics – 3 hours
Choose one:
030 Life and Physical Sciences – 6 hours
040 Language, Philosophy and Culture – 3 hours
Choose one:
080 Social and Behavioral Science - 3 hours
090 Integrative and Experiential Learning – 6 hours
Major Requirements – 63 hours
Required Courses - 44 hours
Biology Foundation
Science Foundation
Biological Sciences Concentration - 16 hours
Students must take at least one course from each list below. Of the 16 hours, at least 10 hours must be advanced.
Cell/Molecular Biology
Choose at least one from:
Organismal/Environmental
Choose at least one from:
Physiology
Choose at least one from:
Support Courses - 3 hours
Free Electives – 15 hours
Students who elect to take BIOL 4199, BIOL 4299, and/or BIOL 4399 may use up to 8 credit hours towards their free electives. Students should seek approval from the department prior to enrolling these courses to ensure use as free elective credit hours. The courses may not appear in the student’s degree audit unless departmental approval is obtained.
Free elective credit hours at the advanced level may be needed to achieve the institutional minimum of 42 advanced hours.
Total Credit Hours: 42