Bachelor of Science in Biology

All students are required to complete a core of basic biology courses: General Biology (BIOL 101 and BIOL 102) and Genetics (BIOL 200). BIOL 101 and 102 are prerequisites for Genetics (BIOL 200).Unless approved as transfer courses at the time of matriculation, all core biology courses must be completed at Howard University. All prerequisite courses must be passed with a minimum grade of C before taking biology electives. After completing the core courses, students will take a minimum of 22 credit hours of Biology electives. Every student is required to take at least one elective course from each of the three concentration areas: 1) Cellular & Molecular, 2) Anatomy & Physiology, and 3) Ecology & Evolution. The remaining elective credit hours can be taken from any of the courses listed in the Biology Electives (page 5) in consultation with the student’s departmental advisor. Senior Seminar (BIOL 493 or 494) is required of all majors, and is taken in the senior year. A student must earn a minimum of 35 credit hours in Biology to fulfill the requirements for the major and all Biology courses must be passed with a minimum grade of C in order to count toward the 35 credit hours required for the Biology major.

Courses in chemistry, physics, and mathematics must also be taken as supporting courses for the departmental major. The supporting courses include: one year of General Chemistry (CHEM 003 and CHEM 004) including the laboratory components (CHEM 005 and CHEM 006); one year of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 141 and CHEM 142) including the laboratory component (CHEM 145), which is taken with CHEM 142; one year of General Physics (PHYS 001 and PHYS 002); and mathematics through Pre-Calculus (MATH 007), AND at least one of the following: Calculus I (MATH 156), Introduction to Statistics (MATH 009), or Biostatistics (BIOL 430).