Course 7 degree requirements altered
Course 7-A discontinued, 7.02 split, 7.18 removed
The Department of Biology has approved changes to the degree requirements of Course 7 to take effect in Fall 2019. With the new requirements, Course 7 will be similar enough to 7-A that Course 7-A will no longer be offered as a major.
The changes consolidate Courses 7 and 7-A into one major. They are meant to accommodate the increasing number of students pursuing interdisciplinary majors or participating in UROPs, according to an email sent to the faculty and students in the biology department from the department’s undergraduate officers.
7-A is no longer a course option for those graduating in 2020 and beyond. However, current students who declared Course 7-A will be allowed to graduate with a degree in this major, Adam Martin, associate professor of biology and undergraduate officer, wrote in an email to The Tech.
7.02 (Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication), an 18-unit subject that used to be a required CI-M for Course 7s, will be split into a 6-unit lab course, 7.002 (Fundamentals of Experimental Molecular Biology), and a 12-unit CI-M subject, 7.003 (Molecular Biology Laboratory). The goal is to provide an introductory lab course that fits easily in students’ schedules so that they can take it earlier on, Martin said in an interview with The Tech.
“They get that experience, it prepares them to do UROPs, and so the idea was to get them into the lab earlier,” Martin said.
7.18 (Topics in Experimental Biology), a 30-unit subject that used to be a required CI-M, is no longer offered. Interest in 7.18 has dwindled due to higher enrollment in UROPs that give students a similar experience, Martin said.
The number of units in the biology major has decreased from 141–144 to 126 due to the removal of 7.18, which can be replaced with a 12-unit CI-M subject. More options for CI-Ms are available in the new Course 7 requirements.
Updated major requirements are available on the biology department’s website.