USG UMCP Biological Science Program - Fall 2013

Please review the changes below to the UMCP USG Biological Sciences Program.  The changes include:

1. Changing the “area of emphasis” within the major of Biological Sciences from General Biology to Physiology and Neurobiology. This does not affect the requirements to enter the program.
2.  Determined that it is in the students’ best interest to only admit students to the program in the fall semesters. There will be no more spring admission to the BioSci program at USG.

Changes to the UMCP Biological Sciences Program:

   We are changing the “area of emphasis” within the major from General Biology to Physiology and Neurobiology to better meet current students’ future goals and hopefully attract more students to the program at USG.

Within the Biological Sciences Program (the “major”) on main campus there are different “areas of emphasis” (Cell Biology, Microbiology, Ecology and Evolution, etc.).  Main campus students can choose which area of emphasis they would like to pursue, and it affects which upper level science courses they are required to take and which upper level science courses they can choose to take and have count towards the “area” requirements. Here at USG we are too small to offer the many courses it would take to allow students to choose different areas of emphasis; we only have one. When the program was first conceived, it was decided that offering the General Biology specialization (GENB) was the best idea to be able to provide a variety of courses and to attract the most students.  It is now clear that most of the students who enroll in the program at USG have the same goals as most of the students in the Biological Sciences Program on main campus: to attend medical, dental, pharmacy, physical therapy or physician assistant school after graduating with their four year degree. Therefore, offering the Physiology and Neurobiology specialization (PHNB) in place of the General Biology specialization is a much better fit for the students’ goals. This in no way changes the requirements to enter the program.

  The USG UMCP Biological Science Program will no longer be admitting students in spring semesters.

There is a course taken in the fall of junior year, BSCI 330 Cell Biology, that is a pre-requisite for most other science courses. If students enter the program in the spring, and therefore do not have this pre-req, they have too few science classes they can take that spring semester and therefore too many to take the following spring semester. Only allowing fall admits is best for the students. This only applies to the BioSci program at USG; main campus BioSci will still admit in spring.

Dr. Beth Parent

Program Director

Biological Sciences Program

University of Maryland College Park

The Universities at Shady Grove

301-738-6009

parent@umd.edu