Department of Biological Sciences

Academic Advising

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 Melissa Bailey or Dwight Moore. 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. The advisor is a very helpful person to students during their college experience, but students must take the initiative and visit with their 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 second week of October for the Spring semester and the second 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 date when enrollment can begin. 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	Ecology and Biodiversity	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