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Biochemistry Major Requirements
The following courses or their equivalents are required for the B.A. degree program in Biochemistry:- General Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Physical Chemistry
- Calculus
- Physics
- Biology
- Recommended Electives
CHEM 1111 and 1131, 10 credit hours, or Honors CHEM 1151 and 1171, 10 credit hours.
CHEM 1051 and 1071 cannot be substituted for these requirements. Students who transfer to Arts and Sciences after having taken General Chemistry for Engineers, CHEN1211 and CHEM 1221, should consider those courses to be the equivalent of CHEM 1111 and should take CHEM 1131 to complete their general chemistry requirement.
Lecture: CHEM 3351 and CHEM 3371, 8 credit hours.
Lab: CHEM 3321 (or 3361), 2 (or 4) credit hours.
Organic lecture and lab must be taken together. CHEM 3361-3381 provides more lab hours and a better laboratory experience. Biochemistry majors who need to take organic chemistry in the off semester or during the summer will have to take the nonmajors lecture, CHEM 3311 and 3331. This will satisfy the organic lecture requirement.
Lecture: CHEM 4711 and CHEM 4731, 6 credit hours
Lab: CHEM 4761, 4 credit hours
CHEM 4761 satisfies the Critical Thinking CORE requirement. CHEM 4611can not be used to satisfy the majors biochemistry requirement.
Lecture: CHEM 4411 or 4511, and 4431 or 4531, 6 credit hours
PHYS 1120 is a corequisite and MATH 2400 is a prerequisite for CHEM 4411 and 4511. If in doubt about the selection of alternates, consult an advisor for course perspectives. CHEM 4521 can not be used to satisfy the major’s physical chemistry requirement.
A & S Calculus, MATH 1300, 2300 and 2400, 14 credit hours or Engineering Calculus, APPM 1350, 1360 and 2350, 12 credit hours (or a combination of these sequences).
Students need MATH 1150 or a strong high school math background in algebra and trigonometry to start either of these sequences.
PHYS 1110, 1120 and 1140, 9 credit hours.
A student who has taken PHYS 2010 and 2020, courses not requiring calculus, must make up the deficiency by completing PHYS 2130. Chemistry majors should consider Calculus I (MATH 1300) as a prerequisite and Calculus II (MATH 2300) as a corequisite for PHYS 1110.
At least 11 credit hours of biology including:
(A) A two-semester introductory biology sequence with laboratory (8 credits). This may be MCDB 1150/1151/2150/2151 or EBIO 1210/1220/1230/1240; the latter is recommended for premedical students. If taken before 1994, the courses MCDB 1050/1060/1070/1080 satisfy this requirement.
(B) One additional advanced course, 3-5 credits, chosen from the following: Principles of Genetics and Lab MCDB 2150/2151 (4 credits) for students who did not take these as part of the introductory sequence in (A), or Genetics EBIO 2070 (4 credits); Cell Biology MCDB 3120 (3 credits); Microbiology EBIO 3400 (4 credits); Molecular Biology MCDB 3500 (3 credits); Human Physiology IPHY 3430 (3 credits); Essentials of Plant Physiology EBIO 3530 (5 credits). If taken before 1996, MCDB 3400 will satisfy this requirement.
Note: it may be an advantage to take an upper-division (3000 level) course to satisfy requirement (B) in order to help meet the College requirement of 45 semester hours of upper-division course work for the BA degree.
Independent study, CHEM 4901; Inorganic Chemistry, CHEM 4011; Analytical Chemistry CHEM 4171 and 4181; Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Biosphere, CHEM 4901; and graduate CHEM courses may be suitable electives. Various advanced biology courses may also be helpful. Students should consult a biochemistry advisor about the choice of electives.
Minimum grade standards:
Although a D is considered a passing grade, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry will accept no grade below C- among the required CHEM courses and at most one D or D+ among all the required ancillary courses, i.e. in required math, physics, and biology courses. Grades of D- or F are not acceptable. In addition, the College of Arts and Sciences requires at least 30 hours of C- or better in the major and requires an average GPA of 2.00 or higher in all classes attempted in the major department. Any student who gets below a C- in a required course is encouraged to repeat the course to learn the material better, even if the grade could be counted.
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