Bachelor of Arts: Biology Option
The BA: Biology degree is designed to provide students interested in biology with a comprehensive education in the biological sciences and related disciplines such as chemistry, math, and physics. Students graduating with this degree will be extremely well prepared to compete with peers for careers in all areas of biological sciences. This degree is perfect for students interested in attaining careers after graduation in cutting edge fields such as the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, wildlife biology, ecology, government and private research labs, forensics, and many more. In addition, the curriculum of this degree has been tailored to provide students with all of the coursework necessary to attend top graduate and professional schools including Ph.D. and M.S. programs, veterinary programs, medical school, dental school, pharmacy school, physician assistant, physical therapy, nursing, sports medicine, athletic training, and many more.
The Related Areas listed for the Biology Option allow the student to choose to attain additional coursework in a number of very popular and exciting areas within the biological sciences, while still preserving the student’s flexibility to choose a career anywhere within biology. The Wildlife Biology Related Area is for students who want to continue on into graduate studies in the exciting field of wildlife biology or ecology and for students who wish to pursue careers in private organizations or in state fish and wildlife departments or federal agencies such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Cell/Molecular and Mathematical Biology Related Areas are perfect for students interested in many aspects of cellular biology including those interested in careers such as the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, forensics, research lab positions, or in advanced degrees in the biomedical sciences, including Ph.D., M.D., and D.V.M. The Pre-Professional Health Sciences and the Health and Human Performance Related Areas have been designed for students interested in many of the professional health science fields such as physician assistant school, physical therapy school, occupational therapy school, sports medicine, athletic training, nursing, and more. The Veterinary Science Related Area has been developed especially for the student interested in becoming a veterinarian. The courses in this degree should allow the student to meet and excel in all of the prerequisites for admittance into veterinary school.
All degree programs within the Biology Option include the requirement that students complete an internship or senior thesis as part of their educational experience. This internship/thesis component is an especially important aspect of this degree, because it gives students hands-on experiences as they become actively involved in their own education. In many cases, students perform an internship by working or volunteering for an employer in their chosen area of interest. In addition, UM-Western’s active faculty provide students enrolled in the Biology Option area with various opportunities to perform cutting-edge research projects in novel areas of cell/molecular biology, wildlife biology, ecology and mathematical biology, as well as other areas within the discipline. These research opportunities allow students to closely interact with professors to design and implement experiments to address novel questions in biology, which can form the basis of a senior thesis project.
The B.A: Biology degree is a very strong science degree that provides students with a diverse and complete biology education and will allow a student to succeed in any area of biology that he/she wishes.
For more information on this degree please contact Dr. Michael Morrow (406-683-7254) m_morrow@umwestern.edu
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