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Arpie Akopian
Be A Darwin
College is coming up, recommendation letters here and some appeal letters there.
Planning your future is pretty difficult and you are put on the spot when your high school
counselor calls you in their office and asks you what major you are choosing. You either know
what you are doing or you go with the popular majors people tend to choose because you do not
know yet. One of those majors happens to be biology! It is usually the go to if you want to do
anything in the science field. Going into biology people think they are only restricted to being a
doctor. That is not true. There are a ridiculous amount of options to choose from biology and it
even spreads out to different branches!
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms,
including their structure, function, growth and evolution, distribution, identification and
taxonomy. Biology now a days has its branches and divisions. It first has its Bachelors of Arts
and then it has its different sections of Bachelors of Science. Bachelors of Science consists of
Cell and Molecular, Environmental and Ecology, Microbiology, Biotech/Medical Technology,
and Marine Biology. Choosing between Bachelors of Art or Bachelors of Science is not really
difficult. BA is more for general biology and a review of all the sections whereas BS is more for
a specific area in Biology. It also includes extra classes and is more for students who want to do
something in the research field. I, myself, had applied to colleges with Biology: Cell and
Molecular but decided to change it to just Biology (BA) since I was certain with what I was
doing. It can be used as a back-up if you are not sure with what you are doing. It also involves
you taking more classes so even if you do not want to anything like cell and molecular or
research, you can almost go back to anything in just Bachelor of Arts!

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The amount of opportunities a major in biology offers is endless. From different classes
to different jobs. Students are given a flexible opportunity for doing what they enjoy. Biology
being a part of the Science and Mathematics department, it offers and endless amount of science
and math courses. Other than these classes being very informative and giving knowledge to the
students, there are different courses offered to give the student a choice to choose some. Those
classes, being high level Biology courses, are: Vertebrate Biology, Plant Morphology, Plant
Ecology, Parasitology, Human Anatomy, Medical Genetics, Biotechnology, Biology of Viruses,
Flowering Plant Systematics, etc. These are only a few courses from the upper division biology
courses that are offered at California State University, Northridge. It gives an overview of what
you will be learning if you choose to take General Biology (BA). Also the different variety of
classes show how flexible these courses are. If you would rather learn about marine animals for a
semester, go ahead! If not, you can choose a course about a plants anatomy. It does not hold you
back from anything, it just offers courses that will help inform you on all sorts of Biology.
Another positive from these variety of courses is that 90% of them are hands on. It gets
you right into the courses and you can start on these right from your freshman year! Different
forms of hands on courses would be dissection of different animals, even humans. Or looking
under a microscope and testing out new viruses. Since this major is filled with so many things to
do, it will take time and it is difficult. As a freshman, going through advisement meetings with
my counselor, she had told me that majoring in science I will be filled with lots of work. Less Is
More is what she said and that reassured that I was not the only one who was going to take
more than four years to graduate. I was okay with that. It just shows that you have to be for sure
if you want to be taking this major and you have to be committed with the long sleepless night
full of work.

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Choosing my Biology major, I was giving a choice to choose a pre-health major if I was
doing anything of that sort. My options were: pre-medical, pre-pharmacy, pre-dental, preoptometry, pre-veterinarian and physician assistant. Each option had its own requirement, such
as pre-dental wanted you to take a class in Introduction to Literature during your sophomore year
or pre-optometry wants you to complete Psychology 150 during anytime of your undergraduate
degree. Most of these pre-health courses have similar courses so you are allowed to switch if you
ever change your mind.
After all these different courses you would assume the amount of jobs there are for
biology majors is a huge amount. Here are some occupations with their median salary and the
required education: Allergist: Doctoral Degree ($166,400+), Biochemist: Doctoral Degree
($79,390+), College Professor: Graduate Degree ($62,050+), Dentist: Doctoral Degree
($146,920+), Epidemiologist: Masters Degree ($63,010+), High School Teacher: Bachelors
Degree ($53,230+), Nutritionist: Bachelors Degree: ($53,250+), Surgeon: Doctoral Degree
($166,400+), Veterinarian: Doctoral Degree ($67,090+), Zoologist: Doctoral Degree ($57, 430+)
etc. These are a few common jobs that range from small to large salaries and also require
different types of degrees for their position. A college professor and a zoologist are total different
field of their career but have had the same major. It shows that Biology is a diverse major is one
of the great choices.
According to USA Today College, General Biology is #4 out of 10 majors that is the most
popular college major. It is chosen because it is the least resisting to fulfill med school
requirements if you were to apply to one. Biology pushes you to do your best. Charles Darwin,
who you might know of that was constantly mentioned in our high school biology books was a
biologist (obviously)! He was the one to bring forth all this science that we are learning now. He

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is the back bone of all our studies. Other biologists, such as Hippocrates, actually wrote a book
about how to be a proper physician back when no one knew a thing. Aristotle was the first to
categorize animal life based on their characteristics. And a very important one that people
usually forget about is Andreas Vasalius! He was the founder of the modern human anatomy.
Choosing biology can make you the next Darwin or Aristotle. You have to be here to create, fix
and produce.
When I was choosing my major, I had decided to do Biology BS Cell and Molecular
because I really was not aware what the difference was. I thought that since it was a science
major choosing Bachelors of Science was a better choice. Later on during my freshman year did
I find out that if I continued on with BS, I would be taking more research based classes instead of
general biology. I was told by my counselor that it would not be a negative effect on me but more
for if I decide to do something in the laboratory field. It can be used as back up just in case I
decided not to go with what I planned. But since I was sure, I decided to change it just Biology in
BA.
Growing up I was surrounded by animals all the time. My dad loved them and we needed
to have some more company around the house. I had grown up with many birds, dogs, hamsters,
fish and even a rooster. Until now, I have two dogs and a huge fish tank. I love being surrounded
by animals, it brings me joy. It is scientifically proven that pets increase happiness for families.
This is why I decided to become a Veterinarian. I have stuck with it since I was little. Yea... I had
changed it a couple times but always ended up going back to it. To me, that was a sign that I
should be doing that with my life. I want to wake up every morning, go into the office and make
sure my patients are healthy and will always be healthy. I do not want of them to suffer. I want to

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see happiness in a families eyes when I cast up their dogs leg and tell them the dog will be
perfectly fine.
Choosing Biology was not really hard for me. As I was changing from Bachelors of
Science to Bachelors of Arts, I was told I can even major in Physiology, Anatomy, Math, Physics
or Chemistry. But I decided to stick with Biology because yes it is tough but I knew I would be
getting the best from it. It is filled with a ridiculous amount of science classes that are
challenging but informative. I believe that I can do it.

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Bibliography

"What Can I Do with a Biology Degree? | Prospects.ac.uk." What Can I Do with a Biology

Degree? | Prospects.ac.uk. AGCAS Editors, Nov. 2014. Web. 13 May 2016.

"What Can I Do With a Major in Biology?" All Job Openings. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.
Hagy, Chad A. "Most Famous Biologists List of Famous Biologists in History." Totally
History Famous Biologists Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.