My daughter was admitted into Biochemistry last Friday. I looked at an old thread regarding math at UIUC, It seems like the kids were struggling. I am kind of worried.
Do Biochemistry students go into the same math classes with Engineering students?
Biochemistry requires Calc I, II, and III. May I know if these math classes are still that hard in general at UIUC? Is that because the kids are not ready for college math or the exams don’t generally follow the books and instructions provided to students?
I seem read a note from the department website. Students with 3.25 GPA and above will receive Distinction Honor Award. Is Biochemistry that hard at UIUC? What is UIUC Biochemistry students’ life look like in general? Is it very stressful?
Do we have stats on where UIUC Biochemistry graduates can go for graduate study? I know the top ranked MBA programs requires college GPA around 3.6-3.7 and above.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
UIUC Biochemistry students have to take Calc I, II, and III (Math 220/221, 231, and 241). Engineering students take 221, 231, and 241, so at least Calc II and III will be taken with those students.
The same calculus courses are required and attended by engineering students, many science and math students and others. The beginning calculus course is either math 220 (for those with no prior calculus) or math 221 (for those who had calculus in high school but do not have AP credits). Engineering students who do not have AP credit (which a large number of engineering students usually do) are usually students who did have some prior claculus and thus most often are found in 221.
What you see reporterd by some students does not necessarily give you any real idea of the difficulty of a course. Are the courses difficult? Sure, what math course is not? However, the degree of difficulty depends to a great extent on the student. A number make A's, many B's, many C's and a number get D's or F's. You are not going to get any large curving going on just to pass or give A's or B's to as many as possible. However the course is structured to give those who do the work the opportunity to grade well. The classes have a large lecture session with a lead professor two or three times a week and then small group discussion sessions usually twice weekly where the professor is often a graduate student. There are usually three main exams but those will count for only 50% or possibly 60% of you grade. Through the discussion sessions you get homework assignements and quizzes which are also graded (and you are usually told what the quizzes will be on before being given) and make up the rest of your grade. Thus, doing all the home work correctly can easily give you an A for 20% or 25% of your grade. The person who grades well is most often someone who does all the homework, attends all the classes, and studies regularly. The persons who get D's and F's and many with C's are very often those who skip classes, cram study for exams at the last minute, and don't do the homework and thus relinguish a portion of their grade,
You should note that I could easily remove the word math and calculus from what I said above and insert the words chemistry, biology or physics and the result would be the same, except that most of those courses also have a lab that contributes to grade. In other words, the degree of difficulty and the structure of the class, with a lecture, small group discussion sessions, quizzes and homework, and the fact that some grade high, some middle and some low, is close to the same for freshman and sophomore calculus and science courses.
For a good outline of the biochemistry program go here https://mcb.illinois.edu/departments/biochemistry/a_ug_handbook_fall_2015_sam.pdf Highest Disnction is 3.75 or above, high distinction 3.5, and distinction 3.25. That is not unusual for science majors in general at UIUC. If you are hoping for huge amounts of grade inflation, you are not likely to find it in the science programs at UIUC. The biochmeistry student's life at UIUC is a lot like everyone else. Typically science and engineering students spend more time out of class studying and doing homework than others but there is still a lot of down time.
I do not have biochemistry stats but many go on to grad programs including some to high ranked universities, Some go on to medical school, some go to work; a lot like other science majors. What is needed for an MBA program varies among universities and i cannot speak to your average, including becuase MBA programs often want to admit peiple who have actually been out school and worked for a while and that work experience is an important factor ina dmission and many recognize that engineering and science majors usually on average have lower GPA's than many humanities and social study candidates.