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Introduction:

The following information should be helpful when advising Biology Majors and students who have not declared a major, but consider themselves Pre-Med, Pre-Dent, or Pre-Vet, etc. The majority of preprofessional students follow the guidelines for the B.S. Major in Biology because it provides the chemistry, physics and biology background required for the GRE, MCAT or DAT exams that are usually taken in the spring of the Junior year.

Academic Requirements:

To graduate from Gonzaga University with a Bachelor of Arts or Science degree students need a total of 128 semester credits: an average of 16 credits per semester. Students also need to fulfill the core requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences. A minimum of 104 credits must be from courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences. No transfer credits will be accepted from two-year institutions (community colleges) after the beginning of the Junior year. Required classes for the B.S. or B.A. Major or the Minor in Biology also fulfill the Science requirements in the core curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences.

B.S. Major in Biology: 60 credits

Notes:

* Electives should be approved by an advisor in the Biology Department. Courses designed for non-majors, such as BIOL 100, BIOL 123, BIOL 170 and BIOL 199 do not count toward Biology elective credits for Biology Majors.

† It is recommended that the Advanced Topic class (BIOL 399 2 cr.) be taken in the Junior year.

§ Organic Chemistry (CHEM 230) is a prerequisite for BIOL 201 and 202. Consequently, BIOL 201 requires a full year of college chemistry (CHEM 101 or 105 and CHEM 230). BIOL 201 is a prerequisite for all upper-division Biology classes.

§§ As of the 2005 catalog, students must receive a grade of C- or better in CHEM 230 in order to take CHEM 331.

†† We strongly recommend that B.S. Biology majors and preprofessional students take either CHEM 240 or CHEM 310. Material obtained in these courses is essential for students going on to professional or graduate programs. Either CHEM 240 or CHEM 310 must be completed prior to taking Biochemistry, BIOL 440, which is very strongly recommended for preprofessional students. No science classes are offered at Gonzaga in the Florence Program and few are offered during the summer-plan accordingly.

No science classes are currently offered at the Gonzaga in Florence program–plan accordingly.

Recommended Class Schedule For B.S. Biology Majors:

Pre-Med, Pre-Dent, and Pre-Vet students are strongly encouraged to follow this schedule.

What is particularly critical about this recommended schedule, but not immediately apparent, is the string of prerequisites in the major. A pivotal course in the curriculum, BIOL 201 (Cell Biology), requires that a student has completed at least one semester of Organic Chemistry. Organic Chemistry I is a necessary prerequisite for Cell Biology that utilizes the fundamentals of biological chemistry to analyze cellular function. Note also that BIOL 201 and BIOL 202 are prerequisites for all upper-division courses in Biology. Additionally, most research opportunities in the department require skills obtained in BIOL 201 and BIOL 202. Therefore, students who do not take CHEM 101 and CHEM 230 in their freshman year, are unable to take Cell Biology during the sophomore year and must delay Cell Biology until their Junior year and research opportunities until the following summer. Furthermore, it is to their advantage to take the correct sequence of classes with their peer group. Peer group association is believed to be a factor that enhances the formation of study groups and is likely to be a factor in student performance and retention. NOTE: If students do not take BIOL 101 and CHEM 101 in the fall of their freshman year they are unable to take upper-division Biology classes until their senior year.

Similar issues are encountered when advising biology majors who are Pre-Med and Pre-Dent students. These individuals must complete a minimum of 2 years each of Chemistry and Biology and one year each of Physics and English before they take the MCAT or DAT exams in the spring of their Junior Year. These students require extremely good advising to keep them on track and very few options are available for them if they miss BIOL 101 and CHEM 101 in the fall of their Freshman year. Available, though undesirable, options for these students range from taking three science classes simultaneously during their Sophomore or Junior year, taking PHYS 101 and 102 their Freshman year (or in the summer) or taking a summer Organic Chemistry class. Students should also be aware there are significant differences in admissions requirements between different programs. For example, UW School of Dentistry requires entering students to have a semester of biochemistry. Students must take responsibility to know and understand the admission requirements for the professional schools to which they wish to apply.

Premed and Predent Students who are not Biology Majors.

Students must complete a minimum of 2 years of Chemistry and a minimum of one year each of Biology, Physics and English before they take the MCAT or DAT exams with their peers in the spring of their Junior Year. However, BIOL 101 and BIOL 102 alone would not prepare students adequately for the MCAT or DAT exams. The best preparation for these students is provided by the core curriculum in Biology (BIOL 101, BIOL 102, BIOL 201 & BIOL 202). Note that BIOL 101 and CHEM 230 are the only prerequisites for BIOL 201. If the student can not fit 4 semesters of biology into their schedule they may take BIOL 201 & BIOL 202 with the permission of the instructor even if they have not taken BIOL 102. If non-majors opt not to take BIOL 102, they should be aware that they may be at a disadvantage in BIOL 201 and BIOL 202.

Recommendations for Freshman Registration:

The following recommendation is made with the understanding that over 1/4 of all incoming freshmen declare a major in Biology or an interest in Pre-Med/Pre-Dent.

1) Before any other registration decision is made ALL Biology majors or Premed/Predent undeclared students should be enrolled in BIOL 101 and CHEM 101 (or CHEM 105). CHEM 105 will provide students with a better chemistry background than CHEM 101, but it should only be taken if the student performed well in a full year of high school chemistry, and are fluent in algebra.

2) Very few medical and dental programs have a calculus requirement and there is no overriding rationale for placing Biology majors in calculus the first semester. For Biology majors, one semester of statistics or a year of advanced math such as calculus is strongly recommended. If the student is a chemistry or physics major they must take calculus in the first year. Appropriate math classes may be selected after consultation with their advisor.

Personal Requirements:

While many freshmen students declare an interest in health science careers, few actually complete the program and apply to a medical or dental program. Those students who are most successful are extremely competitive, hard-working individuals who will let nothing get in the way of their chosen goal. Each year 10-15 students from Gonzaga apply to medical programs. Overall our graduates enjoy an acceptance rate of about 60%. Nationally about 40,000 students apply to medical schools each year and a total of about 16,000 students are accepted. Therefore, the national acceptance rate is roughly 40%. In spite of intense competition for admission into medical and dental programs, Gonzaga graduates have fared quite well in recent years. Between 1998 and 2003, 107 Gonzaga graduates have applied to medical, dental and veterinary programs; of those, 75 have been accepted. Some of these students were accepted on their second application.

The University of Washington is normally the top choice of Medical and Dental programs for Gonzaga graduates. They have a very good academic program and students from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho pay in-state tuition of around $12K/yr compared to $28-$35K for private medical and dental schools or paying out-of-state tuition at a public university in another state. The UW is a very competitive program, they get about 17 applications for each student they accept. Students entering in the fall of 2003 had a mean GPA of 3.69 and mean MCAT scores of Verbal Reasoning-10.0, Physical Sciences-10.3, Biological Sciences-10.8 and a "P-Q" on the writing sample-all of these scores are WELL ABOVE the national average. Clearly, many very good students are not getting accepted to UW medical school-at least not right out of college. In fact, the average age of the entering class is around 25, indicating that many individuals are entering medical school with a significant amount of post-college experience.

What types of post-college experience are students getting? The Director of Admissions at the UW Medical School views individuals who have worked with the Peace Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, or other volunteer organizations very favorably. Working with physicians, clinics, or hospitals, volunteering at local hospitals, health care organizations, nursing homes, or a family physician, or obtaining significant experience in health care settings in other ways during the undergraduate career is essential. These experiences expose a student to a wide range of situations that allow them to more precisely define their rationale for going into medicine in the first place. Volunteer coordinators at hospitals, area clinics, and smaller clinics like CHAS (Community Health Association of Spokane) help place students in these positions.