how is biology major?

gla3bk
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:50:36 +0000

I’m a biology major, and it is certainly a rigorous major. I believe at all universities, biology majors have much more work than the majority of other majors. At UCSB, first years start out with general chemistry, and you may start physics your first year too. You don’t start any biology classes until second year (assuming you’re in the college of letters and science).
The class sizes for pretty much all lower division classes (whether science related or not) are big (lecture halls at around 300-500). But that doesn’t mean it’s difficult to get help, as there are a plethora of ways to get assistance (TAs, CLAS, the professor, the SRB, etc.)
It’d difficult to say how the grading is, but basically, in my experience, the professors give difficult midterms and finals, where the average is somewhere between 50 and 70% and then they curve the class to where so many people get As, more get Bs and Cs, etc.
The undergraduate teaching is probably the same as anywhere: there are good professors, and there are not so good ones. Overall, I think UCSB has pretty good professors (see ratemyprofessor.com [UCSB has a fairly high rating for professors]). As with anywhere, it is difficult to get research, but if you really want it, start looking for professors who you may want to work with in your second year (first years really have a tough time getting research opportunities).
Good luck!