Biology, BA

Program Coordinator: Grace Chen (2515 Life Sciences and Biotechnology Building; 252-328-9769; chenf21@ecu.edu)

The core curriculum in biology is intended to give majors a background in biodiversity, cell biology, evolution, ecology, genetics, molecular biology, and physiology.

The degree requires a minimum of 120 s.h. as follows:

1. General education requirements - 40 s.h.

(For information about courses that carry general education credit view the General Education Program section.)

2. Demonstrated foreign language proficiency through level 2004 - 12 s.h.

(For information about the foreign language requirement view Special Requirements for the BA Degree in the Academic Advisement, Progression and Support Services section and Placement Testing, Foreign Language in the Admission and Readmission section.)

3. Core - 28 s.h.

4. Cognates -11 s.h.

CHEM 1160 - General Chemistry II
CHEM 1161 - General Chemistry Laboratory II
MATH 2121 - Calculus for the Life Sciences I
PHYS 1251 - General Physics Laboratory I
Choose one of the following statistics courses:
BIOS 1500 - Introduction to Biostatistics
MATH 2228 - Elementary Statistical Methods I
MATH 2283 - Statistics for Business
PSYC 2101 - Psychological Statistics

Note:

CHEM 1150, CHEM 1151, CHEM 1160, CHEM 1161 are required, but CHEM 1120 and 1130 will be considered for students transferring into the program.

5. Biology laboratory requirements - 2 to 10 s.h.

Choose at least two of the following groups:

Note:

BIOL 1050, 1051, 1060, 1061, 1150, 1151, 2110, and 2111 may not count toward the Biology major.
BIOL 1100, 1101, 1200, and 1201 are core courses for Biology BA and may not count towards the laboratory requirements.
A student may only use one group of the 2000-level human physiology and anatomy coursework (e.g., BIOL 2130 and BIOL 2131 as a group) to fulfill the laboratory requirement.

6. Minor or second major or 18 s.h. of approved structured electives

Students can choose

to complete a minor other than the Biology minor or the Science minor, or
to complete a second major other than the Biology, BS or
an area of specialization with at least 18 s.h. structured electives with the help of a biology faculty advisor. The structured electives must be approved by the departmental administration. Areas of specializations include, but are not limited to, bioinformatics, biotechnology, pharmacology, conservation, education/communication, and marine biology.

7. Electives to complete requirements for graduation

ECU Minor Requirements Policy

The university’s policy regarding double counting credits between major and minor can be found in the Academic Advisement, Progression and Support Services section of this catalog. See “Minor Requirements”.

No more than 9 credit hours required for satisfying a major can count towards the credits required for satisfying a minor, excluding specified cognates (required courses but outside of the major discipline).
Individual programs may have additional restrictions.
A student may not major and minor in the same discipline as defined by the program’s 6-digit CIP code.

If you have questions, please reach out to your program coordinator or director.