As a high school student I enjoy learning about Biology, Computer Science and Information Technology. I did some research on a career that involves these three areas and came across the field of Bioinformatics. Most colleges that I intend to apply to don’t have this as an undergrad major and I’m sensing that an course in this particular field is mostly taken on at the graduate level rather than the undergraduate level. Is this true? What courses will I need to take in college to prepare myself for a possible career in this field? I’ve seen that some schools offer courses such as biomathematics, biotechnology and computational biology, and even though they sound related to bioinformatics I don’t want to do them only to find out later down the road that I chose the wrong courses.
Something you could do is take a look at some schools that do offer majors in bioinformatics and look at what courses the major requires. Most schools have these courses listed on the department website. That way you can get an idea for what courses are being taken by bioinformatics majors and how better to pick classes that give you similar experience. You could also look at graduate programs in bioinformatics to see what types of classes they like their applicants to have and/or what courses their graduate students take. Even if you aren’t planning to go to graduate school, this will give you a better idea of what types of courses people in the field think are important.
Something you could also do is look at bioinformatics jobs and take a look at what they list for requirements. Some positions will list specific technical skills that they want their applicants to have and that will put you in a better position to take classes that will be useful to you. This also has the bonus of giving you a better idea of what the job market looks like and what jobs are looking for in their applicants, which may influence decisions like where you go to school, what you major in, whether or not you think graduate school is in your future, or what types of jobs you would like.
I was a biochemistry major in college and worked in a protein biochemistry lab that collaborated with another more bioinformatics lab, and I would encourage you to prioritize getting a good background in computer science and math (supplementing with some biology courses) if you want to go into bioinformatics (provided you like computer science and/or math). Good programming skills and a sophisticated knowledge of math were in high demand in my lab, and relatively few individuals who come from biology backgrounds have this expertise. But that was just my experience.