Advising

The Program in Biology is made up of two departments: the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (EEB) and the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Department. There are seven majors and three minors offered through the Program in Biology (some with other departments' participation).

The majors are:  Biology, Biology, Health, & Society, Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology (MCDB), Ecology & Evolutionary Biodiversity (EEB), Microbiology, Neuroscience, and Plant Biology.  You should meet with an advisor to discuss the differences amongst the majors and determine which one is right for you. 

If you are just beginning your career at Michigan, it is not necessary to decide on a specific major right away. Instead, you should decide whether or not you are interested in pursuing a degree in science. If you are interested in any of the natural sciences, we suggest you begin the prerequisite courses as soon as possible. Specifically, we recommend taking the chemistry and math prerequisites in your freshman year and taking BIOLOGY 171, 172, and 173 (the introductory biology sequence) no later than your sophomore year. Once you have taken a majority of the prerequisite courses, including Introductory Biology, you will be in a position to make an informed decision on what concentration to choose based on your interests.

Once you have decided on what major or minor you wish to declare, you must make an appointment with a major advisor. During this meeting the advisor will help you fill out the appropriate paperwork to officially submit your declaration in a major or minor program.

You should have a major GPA of at least a 2.0 to declare a major, and prerequisite courses for the major are included in the GPA calculation.  You should meet with a major advisor to discuss the program and your plans to declare early in your college career.

You may declare before you finish all of the prerequisites, but an advisor may recommend that you take additional course work if you have not demonstrated an aptitude for the biological sciences.

Students who receive a score of 4 or 5 on the Biology AP test will receive credit for Biology 195, and are eligible to register for any course listing introductory biology as a prerequisite.

Students who receive a score of 3 on the AP exam will receive credit for biology 100. Such students will need to take Biology 171, 172, and 173 to satisfy their introductory biology requirements.

You cannot elect two majors offered by the same department. For example, if you declare a Biology major, you would not be able to elect a CMB or EEB major because the Biology major is administered by both the EEB and MCBD departments.

One notable exception is the election of an EEB major/minor and either a CMB or Neuroscience major. This is because the EEB major is administered solely by the EEB department, the CMB major is administered solely by the MCDB department, and the Neuroscience major is administered by the MCDB and Psychology departments.

Aside from the exception noted above, an academic minor in Biology, EEB, or Plant Biology is not open to students electing a major in the Program in Biology or Biochemistry, nor to students who are electing an academic minor in Environmental Studies or Global Change.

A passing grade for a course taken in the Program in Biology is D-.

A major GPA of 2.0 is recommended in order to declare a major and required to graduate.  All prerequisites, major courses, courses from the department(s), and cognate courses are used in the calculation.

Note: If a course has been repeated, both grades will be used to calculate the major GPA. That is, if you earned a D+ in a class, repeated the course and earned a B, the credits and honor points for both the D+ and B will be included in the major GPA calculation.

Prerequisites other than introductory biology may be taken pass/fail; however, it is not recommended, especially for chemistry. Remember that you must earn at least a C- to pass a course you take pass/fail.

You may not take courses you use for the major pass/fail.

Major requirements and electives lists are described here.  

A few credit restrictions to be aware of:

• Human Physiology courses do not count toward any of the majors.
• UROP credit does not count toward any of the majors.
  
• Only one course may overlap between a major and a minor.
  

There is no restriction on the number of courses that may overlap between two approved majors.  (If the majors overlap to a significant degree, the value of the double-major is questionable.)

Major prerequisites or required courses cannot be waived! However, substitutions for prerequisites may be approved if the student demonstrates that he or she has mastered the topic of a prerequisite. For instance, a student who did not achieve a high enough score on the AP exam to receive credit for calculus, but nonetheless elected Math 215 and received a passing grade, should have 215 approved as satisfying the calculus requirement.  You must meet with an advisor to request an exception.

Yes!  If any Biology, Ecology or Evolutionary Biology (EEB) or Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) course becomes full, students are strongly encouraged to use the waitlist. The waitlist is used to determine whether additional sections can be opened (when possible).

Overrides will be issued at the discretion of the instructor for a given course, prioritized by a combination of the student’s major, class schedule, graduation plans, and order on the waitlist. Students on the waitlist must attend the first day of class or discussion and notify the instructor or GSI of their desire to enroll in the course. Students issued overrides will have a set amount of time to register (varies based on the period of registration). The Registrar’s Office will clear the waitlist of students’ names with expired overrides.

To graduate with any major, a student must achieve an overall grade point average of 2.0. A grade of D- is still a passing grade as long as the overall GPA in the concentration is acceptable. A passing grade generates honor points, which are used to calculate the GPA.

Credits for a repeated course that was passed the first time will not count towards graduation. Grades for repeated courses will be indicated on the transcript each time the course is repeated; however the repeat grade will only contribute toward the student’s GPA when the initial grade for the course was D+ or below.

“I” (incomplete) grades must be made up by the fourth week of the next fall or winter semester in which the student is enrolled. Otherwise, the grade will lapse to “E”.

Students dissatisfied with grades received in Biology courses may follow grade grievance procedures, which can be obtained from Undergraduate Student Services Office.