Biology Major

Requirements for the Major in Biology

All courses for the Biology Major must be taken for a letter-grade, except course, course and course.

1. course, course, course.

2. course, course  or course, course or course  and course.

3. course, if needed, and one Pomona math course above MATH030 PO. This course can be in calculus (course or course) or can be an approved statistics course such as course, course or BIOL 153 HM.

4. One upper-division laboratory or field course in organismal biology from course, course, or course, course.

5. Four additional upper-division biology courses, three of which must be laboratory or field courses.

6. Senior Thesis: course or course.

   • No more than one course credit from any combination of half-credit courses may be applied to the major.

   • course, course, course, course and course may be substituted for upper-division biology courses.

   • Students interested in ecology and conservation biology should take course after course. These courses are pre-requisites for the following upper-division courses: course, course, course, course, course, course, course, course and course.

   • Upper-level courses taken at the other Claremont Colleges may be eligible for major or minor credit with prior written permission from the department chair. One course credit may be obtained for appropriate upper-division biology coursework undertaken in a Study Abroad Program with prior written permission from the department chair. If a student chooses an upper-level biology course to fulfill the requirements of another major, that course cannot be used to fulfill a Biology Department major or minor requirement.

   • Senior Exercise. Seniors are required either to present a satisfactory research thesis based on original research in the laboratory or the field, completed over two semesters (course and course), or to present a senior thesis in grant proposal format based on library research (course or course). Students are strongly encouraged to take a course in statistics before beginning the Senior Exercise.

      

First-year Students
The department recommends that students interested in pursuing a major or minor in biology take the courses listed below in the first year.

This first-year schedule is also desirable for students contemplating majors in Molecular Biology, Neuroscience or Biology/Public Policy Analysis.