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Academic Advising
Department of Biological Sciences


First-year students or transfer students with less than 30 credit hours are advised in the Student Advising Center. Students who are advised by the Student Advising Center are requested to meet with an advisor early each semester for an interview and then again later in the semester to pre-enroll for the next semester. Students who have an interest in biology or have declared biology as a major will generally meet with Brenda Koerner or David Edds. After a student has accumulated 30 hours of credit with a 2.0 grade point average, has completed all required developmental classes, and has declared biology as a major, he/she will be transferred to a permanent advisor in the Department of Biological Sciences. Transfer students with more than 30 hours of credit are immediately assigned an advisor in the department.

Students are assigned a faculty advisor whose interests matches those of the student. In general, a student will keep the same advisor until graduation unless the interests of the student change. All faculty in the department do some advising. Besides providing information about course requirements and scheduling, the faculty advisors can provide help with applications to professional or graduate schools, can provide information about research opportunities, and can provide assistance with applications to jobs. Your advisor can be a very helpful person to you during your college experience, but you must take the initiative and visit with your advisor. All students must meet with their advisors at least once per semester to enroll for the next semester.

Once a student has been assigned a faculty member from the department, it becomes the responsibiliy of the student to contact his/her advisor for advice before enrolling in the next semester's classes. The advisor's signature is required on all enrollment forms. The advisor's signature is also required before dropping or adding classes. Pre-enrollment usually starts the first week of October for the Spring semester and the first week of March for the Summer and Fall semesters. The class schedules are generally published through the BANNER system a couple of weeks ahead of the printed copy. Students should contact their advisors as soon as possible after the schedule is available to set-up an appointment for advisement. The sooner that this is done, the sooner the student can pre-enroll, and the fewer closed classes that the student will encounter.

Some things to consider.
List of Programs or Areas of Study

The Department of Biological Sciences offers 3 undergraduate degrees; Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BS), and Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE). The BS degree with a major in Biology has six concentrations; general biology, botany, zoology, environmental biology, physiology, and molecular & cellular biology. The BSE degree has two options, one teaching field or two teaching fields. Students working on a BS degree can also major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which is a major offered jointly between Biology and Physical Sciences. For more information on specific degree requirements refer to the undergraduate catalog. The catalogs are found as PDF files and the Department of Biological Sciences begins on page 89 of the catalog for any given year.
Faculty members in the department will also provide advice about course work and career opportunities for students with certain interests such as wildlife biology, pre-physical therapy or genetics, for example. These programs are based upon one of the six concentrations for the BS degree, and, in general, students with these interests will graduate with one of the six concentrations for the BS degree.

Clicking a link in the table will take you to a listing of the advisors in that area, a link to the advising sheet for that emphasis or area, and, where available or appropriate, a suggested four-year sequence of courses. For specific graduation requirements including those of the general education program, a current student should run a degree evaluation in BANNER. Your advisor can help with this if you have questions.
General Biology Botany Environmental Biology Zoology Microbial & Cellular Biology
Physiology Aquatic
Biology		 Wildlife
Biology		 Genetics Pre-Agriculture
Pre-Medical Technology Pre-Medical Pre-Dentistry Pre-Optometry Pre-Physical Therapy
Pre-Veterinary Pre-Physician Assistant Pre-Mortuary Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Secondary Teaching


Concentrations within the Bachelor of Science in Biology

Areas of Advising within the Bachelor of Science in Biology
These would be within one of the six concentrations listed above.
Bachelor of Science in Education


Bachelor of Science

Last updated on 5 March 2008.
Provide comments to Dwight Moore at mooredwi@emporia.edu.
Return to the Biological Sciences' Home Page at Emporia State University.