Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Major in Biology

Minimum required: 120 semester credit hours

General Requirements

1. The general education core curriculum courses are listed in the degree plan below along with the statewide component code number. See the General Education Core Curriculum section of this catalog for the Texas State requirements and options in the core curriculum, including Honors courses.
2. Students must complete a minimum of 36 advanced hours (3000 or 4000 level courses).
3. Students must select a minor from the approved list of Undergraduate Minors. The recommended minor is Chemistry or Biochemistry. Minor and electives should be chosen in consultation with the academic advisor.
4. The minimum number of hours required for this degree program is 120. The number of free elective hours a student will complete depends on the number of hours a student may need to achieve the required 120 total or 36 advanced hours.
5. Students entering Texas State with fewer than 16 credit hours completed after high school graduation will be required to take US 1100. All others will be exempt from taking this course. Students may be required to earn an additional elective to reach the 120 minimum total credit hour requirement for the awarding of a degree.
6. Nine semester credit hours must be writing intensive (WI).
7. If two years of the same foreign language were taken in high school, then no additional language hours will be required. In the absence of such high school language, two semesters of the same modern language must be taken at the college level.

8. For transfer students, 24 semester credit hours in biology, chemistry and physics (or their equivalents) may be transferred from a Texas public institution of higher education for the Biology Field of Study and be applied to the Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology at Texas State University. More information about the Field of Study is available in the Academic Policies section of this catalog. The transferable Texas Common Course Number (TCCN) is listed below the Texas State University course number in the following course list.

   Course List

   Code	Title	Hours
   BIO 1330	Functional Biology	3
   TCCN: BIOL 1306
   BIO 1130	Functional Biology Laboratory	1
   TCCN: BIOL 1106
   BIO 1331	Organismal Biology	3
   TCCN: BIOL 1307
   BIO 1131	Organismal Biology Laboratory	1
   TCCN: BIOL 1107
   CHEM 1341	General Chemistry I	3
   TCCN: CHEM 1311
   CHEM 1141	General Chemistry Laboratory I	1
   TCCN: CHEM 1111
   CHEM 1342	General Chemistry II	3
   TCCN: CHEM 1312
   CHEM 1142	General Chemistry Laboratory II	1
   TCCN: CHEM 1112
   CHEM 2341	Organic Chemistry I	3
   TCCN: CHEM 2323
   CHEM 2141	Organic Chemistry Laboratory I	1
   TCCN: CHEM 2123
   PHYS 1315	General Physics I	3
   TCCN: PHYS 1301
   PHYS 1115	General Physics I Laboratory	1
   TCCN: PHYS 1101
   Total Hours		24

Course Requirements 

¹

While PHIL 1305 or PHIL 1320 are strongly preferred, the department will allow other Language, Philosophy, and Culture Component Code 040 courses to satisfy this requirement.

²

Biology advanced electives are 3000-4000 level Biology courses.

• Biology advanced electives cannot be chosen from: BIO 4305, BIO 4402, BIO 4403, or BIO 4408.
• BIO 4299 requires faculty and departmental approval, and in order to apply as an advanced biology elective, students must take BIO 4299 two times in succession.

³

Students may apply only one course from [BIO 3421 or BIO 3426] towards the biology major requirements.