Is majoring in Biology difficult?

Is majoring in biology a good safe career choice?

• Hello, I want to know if majoring in biology is a good safe major? is there a lot of options to do with it? how hard is it, does it have a lot of math? and what is the difference ...show more

• Answer:

  A major is not necessarily a career choice - you might end up using it, you might end up working an office job that's unrelated to it, but that you couldn't get without a bachelor's degree (in anything). There are multiple career choices for biology majors, from research laboratory work to getting a certificate on top of the degree and teaching. For really intensive bio-based jobs, however, you'll need a graduate degree, as Missy pointed out. You could still get a research aid job with just a BA, but it wouldn't pay very well. A BA and BS differ based upon your school's curriculum for each. In the US, most schools consider a BA to be more grounded in arts and BS to be more grounded in sciences (hence their names), and the two degrees will have different general requirements (i.e. most schools require 4 semesters of a language for BA and 4 semesters of math for a BS), but it really will depend upon your school. Generally, the two are unlikely to affect your ability to secure a job with your degree, although certain graduate programs and lab jobs might look more kindly on a BS. Unless you have a lot of AP credits or take placement tests, most US universities will require 4 years for either a BA or BS. If you really want to know more about your career choices, a good bet would be to think about what type of jobs you'd want, and then call employers and ask them - a lot of large companies would have human resources personnel willing to give you a short bit of information about this - or try talking to your faculty adviser or a careers officer in the administrative department of your school.