Double concentrations
Students may not pursue a double concentration of any program offered within the Departments of MCDB, EEB, or the Program in Biology. These concentrations include: Cell and Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biology, General Biology, Plant Biology, and Neuroscience. Students also may not pursue a double concentration in CMB and Biochemistry, because these concentrations have too many courses in common. Students may pursue a double concentration in Chemistry and any of the other concentrations listed above.
Waiver of requirements
Concentration prerequisites or required courses cannot be waived! However, substitutions for prerequisites may be approved if the student demonstrates that he or she has mastered the topic of a prerequisite. For instance, a student who did not achieve a high enough score on the AP exam to receive credit for calculus, but nonetheless elected Math 215 and received a passing grade, should have 215 approved as satisfying the calculus requirement.
Advanced Placement credit for high school work
Students who receive a score of 4 or 5 on the Biology AP test will receive credit for Biology 195, and are eligible to register for any course listing introductory biology as a prerequisite.
Students who receive credit for Biology 195 by virtue of their AP test, and elect to take Biology 195, will lose the Advanced Placement credit.
Students who receive a score of 3 on the AP exam will receive credit for biology 100. Such students will need to take Biology 195 to satisfy their introductory biology requirement, and will receive full credit for this course.
Waitlist Policy for Courses in Biology, EEB, and MCDB
If any Biology, Ecology or Evolutionary Biology (EEB) or Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) course becomes full, students are strongly encouraged to use the waitlist. Overrides will be issued at the discretion of the instructor for a given course, prioritized by a combination of the student’s concentration, class schedule, and their order on the waitlist. Students on the waitlist must attend the first day of class or discussion and notify the instructor or GSI of their desire to enroll in the course. Students issued overrides will have a set amount of time to register (varies based on the period of registration). The Registrar’s Office will clear waitlist of students’ names with expired overrides.
Credit limit on introductory level courses
Students may receive no more than 17 credits for biology courses numbered 199 and below.
Grading
Letter grades must be assigned to all courses fulfilling concentration requirements. LS&A permits students to fulfill concentration prerequisites on a pass/fail basis. A grade of at least C- is required to achieve a passing grade in a pass/fail course.
To graduate with any concentration, a student must achieve an overall grade point average of 2.0. A grade of D- is still a passing grade as long as the overall GPA in the concentration is acceptable. A passing grade generates honor points, which are used to calculate the GPA.
Credits for a repeated course that was passed the first time will not count towards graduation. Grades for repeated courses will be indicated on the transcript each time the course is repeated; however the repeat grade will only contribute toward the student’s GPA when the initial grade for the course was D+ or below.
“I” (incomplete) grades must be made up by the fourth week of the next fall or winter semester in which the student is enrolled. Otherwise, the grade will lapse to “E”.
Students dissatisfied with grades received in Biology courses may follow grade grievance procedures, which can be obtained from Undergraduate Student Services Office.
