PRESENTER 1: All
right, here we go.
GREG CERA: Welcome.
My name is Greg Cera.
I'm an L&S college
advisor, and I'm
very glad that you were able
to attend today's webinar.
Today we have great speakers
from integrative biology,
molecular and cell
biology, and public health.
Zac is here from integrative
biology, Clara from MCB,
and Kimberly from Public Health.
I'll let themselves
introduce themselves
a little bit more as we go
through the presentation.
As you have questions
today, please
feel free to use
the Q&A question
feature at the bottom
of your Zoom screen.
We have advisors who are
on chat answering questions
through the Q&A
section, so please
feel free to type in your
questions and advisors
will be able to answer them
as the presentation goes on.
Today's agenda is pretty
straightforward in the sense
that I'll do a
quick introduction
to the College of
Letters & Science,
Zac and Clara will speak
about integrative biology
and molecular and cell
biology information related
to the major, things
about what the majors are,
what kinds of subjects
the majors study,
and information about the
requirements for the majors.
And Kimberly will speak
about the public health
major and those related topics
about what public health
major is, what
topics are studied,
and information about
the requirements.
And then toward the end of the
hour, probably about 15 minutes
will be devoted to a
question and answer session,
and how that's going
to work is the advisors
who are typing in on chat
in Q&A will read questions
that they've received throughout
the presentations so we can--
so we as the advisors can
address those questions
for the overall group.
Again, thanks for
coming today, and yeah,
we look forward to
presenting to you.
OK.
Now first off as an introduction
to the College of Letters
& Science at UC Berkeley.
It's the largest
undergrad college
within UC Berkeley's campus.
There are nearly 23,000
undergraduate students
within the college that study
over 80 different majors
within over 60 different
academic departments.
And the College of Letters
& Sciences the liberal arts
college at UC Berkeley.
Areas that are focused upon
include arts and humanities,
biological sciences, math
and physical sciences,
undergraduate and
interdisciplinary studies,
and social sciences.
So those are things like
history, art, art history,
music in the arts
and humanities area;
biological sciences-- this
is why we're here today,
so things like
molecular and cell
biology, integrative
biology and public health;
mathematics majors like math,
applied math, statistics;
physical science
majors like physics;
undergrad and interdisciplinary
studies majors
include things like a major
in interdisciplinary studies
and American studies
and media studies;
and then social science
majors including economics,
political economy,
sociology, anthropology
amongst many others.
OK.
Within the College
of Letters & Science,
our mission is to encourage
intellectual curiosity
and stimulate academic
and career exploration.
So as advisors, we
are here to help
you identify areas of
study in which you might
be interested in and help
you identify resources that
can help you
achieve those goals;
we're here to help promote
the benefits and values
of a liberal arts education,
the importance of asking
critical thinking questions,
and finding answers
to those questions;
and we're here
to foster student
development and success,
and that means many
different things
to many different individuals.
So we're here to support
you with your goals
and your academic development,
and your career goals
and graduate school
goals upon finishing
your undergrad degree.
And as well as advisors within
the college and advisors
within the
departments, we're here
to help you graduate
in a timely fashion,
meaning to be able to spend
the time that you have
at Cal to work toward completing
your degree during that time.
OK, and a quick overview
of academic advising
within Letters & Science.
You'll see here that there
are many different types
of advisors.
We all work together
and we all can
provide good
value-added information
in each of our
subcategories of expertise,
but know that as an
undergraduate student,
you have access to all of these
different types of advisors,
and all of us are here to help
you and we all work together
to be able to assist you.
As a general L&S
college advisor,
I mainly work with
students related
to the general overall
L&S college requirements,
planning for
lower-division courses
during your first semester
and the next few subsequent
semesters after that.
I hope to help assist
folks to connect
with different types
of campus resources,
help identify different
major interests--
so exploring, choosing a major,
and those types of things.
I am here to assist when folks
run into academic difficulties.
And L&S college policies
can be complicated,
so I'm here to also assist in
helping clarify those policies
and helping understand
what those policies mean.
Kimberly from Public
Health, Zac, and Clara
are undergraduate major advisors
in IB, MCB, and Public Health.
So as major advisors,
they are definitely
here to assist in
terms of course
planning for major requirements;
doing upper-division program
course planning-- so that means
the specific courses that one
would take within
their major typically
during their junior
and senior years,
their third and fourth
years; assisting
to identify different types
of research opportunities;
and preparing for grad
school in various areas.
In addition to departmental
advisors and general college
advisors, there are L&S
graduate school mentors
who are graduate
students who work
with undergraduate students also
to assist with understanding
major and career interests,
helping identify research
opportunities, and also working
on skills that can assist one
to be a good student--
a good successful student
in undergraduate school.
So like how to identify
working with professors
or working on time management
skills or different types
of academic study strategies.
The graduate school mentors
within L&S are great for that.
Within both academic
departments--
so within MCB an IB,
and also with an L&S,
there are peer advisors
available as well.
These are undergraduate
students who
work to share their
experiences with their major,
with their specific major,
and/or with their college,
like working as a peer
advisor within L&S
to provide good
information about how
to navigate L&S's course
planning and policies
and procedures.
And then lastly and
very importantly,
faculty advisors exist within
each academic department
as well, and the faculty
are critical to work
with to fine-tune one's
academic interests
and how to pursue those
interests, also working
with faculty to pursue research,
and for specific advice related
to graduate school
preparation is vital
when working with
faculty members.
So yeah, that was a
short little introduction
for the College of
Letters & Science,
and now Clara and Zac
can introduce themselves,
and they're going to share
information about IB and MCB.
CLARA NG-QUINN: Hi, everybody.
Thanks so much for
joining us today.
So my name is Clara
Ng-Quinn, I am
one of the staff advisors for
Molecular and Cell Biology.
ZAC CHESTNUT: Hi.
And I'm Zac Chestnut,
I'm one of the advisors
for Integrative Biology.
CLARA NG-QUINN: All
right, so first you just
want to give you our
contact information
as well as the faces of the
other advisors in our office.
So our department--
oh, sorry, can you
go back to the slide, Greg?
Thanks.
So our email addresses for
each of our advising offices
are listed here on this slide.
So normally we're located in
Valley Life Sciences building,
which is closed right
now due to the pandemic.
However, we are still available
for virtual appointments.
So if you want to schedule a
virtual appointment with us,
you can do so on CalCentral.
Just make sure to choose either
IB or MCB as your advisor type.
Next slide.
ZAC CHESTNUT: Great.
And Clara and I are
both staff advisors,
but we have a lot
of different types
of advisors available to
help answer your questions.
We have junior and senior
students in both the IB
and the major as peer advisors,
and they volunteer their time
to relate their own experiences
because they have made some
of these same decisions
about classes, about finding
research, about joining
extracurricular opportunities
in clubs.
They're making
these same decisions
about potential career options.
And so there's here to help
you navigate your journey
through Cal and relate their
own personal experiences
in order to help you.
And there are also
physical resources
to help-- or in this
case, virtual resources.
Each of the three majors
we're talking about today
participated in the
Major Map program,
and so these are available to
download these booklets that
highlight some different
experiences along the way.
So what might a IB student
do in their second year
to get involved
with research versus
what might an MCB student
do in their third year
to start exploring
different career options.
So we encourage you
to visit this website
and to look at all of the
different major maps available.
Next, please.
OK, so we're going
to be talking about--
Clara and I are going to talk
about the IB and MCB majors.
For IB, one of the first
questions I always get
is, what is IB?
And that's understandable.
It's not a term that a lot of
students have heard before.
So integrative biology
is integrative.
It is a comparative
approach that
combines a lot of
different disciplines
together to answer big
complex biological questions.
And so if-- maybe a type of
question you're familiar with
would be, what is one
aspect of an animal cell?
What maybe is one molecular
factor or stimulus that caused
this cell to differentiate?
Now there's cube over here
to the right of the slide
kind of represents
some different levels
of organization, different
levels of organismal diversity,
different time points,
and that question
of what causes this one
animal cell to differentiate
would be represented by
one point on this cube.
Now a more maybe traditional
integrative biology approach
is going to take that
one point on the cube
and expand it across these
different three axes.
And so it might ask
that initial question,
and then expand it
to say, what role
does this cell play in
this particular tissue type
or in the system?
Or how is this different--
this organism we're looking at
versus one other organism?
Does that provide some
kind of advantage?
How is this
specialized cell type
different in a
closely related taxa?
Maybe what external pressures
could have led to that?
So we're looking at
different organism types,
we're looking at different
organization types,
and we're looking at
different time points.
Next, please.
CLARA NG-QUINN: All
right, so now I'm
going to tell you a
little bit about MCB.
So MCB stands for
Molecular and Cell Biology.
It's split into five
different emphases
that you can see
here on the slide.
So this is a great
major for you if you
want to study biology
at a microscopic level
and become an expert
in whichever emphasis
that you declared.
But regardless of which
emphasis you choose,
all MCB students will
take fundamental classes
in biochemistry, genetics, and,
of course, molecular biology
and cell biology.
So if you're interested in a
very detailed look at biology,
this is a great major for you.
Great, next slide, please.
ZAC CHESTNUT: So
many students come
in asking, what are the
differences between IB and MCB?
And there are
differences, but we
like to highlight the many
similarities between the two
majors as well.
And before we get into the
differences and similarities,
I do want to point out that
we kind of-- all of us in L&S
want you to explore with
your time, especially
this early time in freshman
and sophomore year.
There are 13 biology
majors on campus
split across five different
colleges and schools,
and we want you
to be able to talk
to people in each of these
colleges and schools,
in each of these
departments to really get
a sense for what the
student experience is like,
what the research
experience is like, what
the coursework is like,
where the faculty are like.
So we want you to explore.
All right, so now we're
getting into IB versus MCB.
Clara and I both
mentioned that-- so IB
takes a comparative
approach, we're
looking at
comparative functions,
maybe, we're looking from
an evolutionary perspective;
whereas MCB takes a more
specialized approach looking
at molecular
interactions themselves.
IB faculty can include aspects
of ecology and paleontology,
and MCB faculty can include
aspects of biochemistry
and development,
but really, there
are a lot of similarities
between the two.
So first off, we have
the same lower division
of prep coursework.
And so your first
semesters are going
to be taking classes
for both majors.
And you've got the
upper division level,
from IB classes can count for
MCB electives and vice versa.
Both majors encourage students
to study abroad and have
study-abroad classes that
can account for electives.
Both majors have research
opportunities for students
and prepare students for
research-oriented careers
if that's your choice.
They prepare students
for grad schools
and professional schools medical
school or veterinary school.
And they both have
the opportunity
to take advantage of
different research tools,
like molecular tools
such as CRISPR,
or bioinformatics tools like
whole genome assemblies.
They both use different organism
types for their research study,
and they both take on some
of these similar topics
of physiology and metabolism,
genetics, disease, and health,
but from different
perspectives, and that's
kind of what separates
maybe some IB coursework
from some MCB coursework.
Lastly, one of the
main differences
that our students see as
well is that the structures
at the upper
division of the major
can be different,
whereas IB has a kind
of a build-your-own approach
where students can take classes
from a large variety
to supplement
and their main interest,
MCB has a more structured
linear progression where
you're becoming more and more
specialized and more and
more of an expert in one
particular focus.
Next, please.
CLARA NG-QUINN: All
right, so now I'd
like to tell you about our
biology business program.
So this is a very unique
opportunity at MCB.
So a student in this program
will have equal passion
in both biology and business.
A student in this program
receives simultaneous degrees
with a BA in the MCB
major with any emphasis,
and a BS in business
administration
from the Hass
School of Business.
So this is a very
rigorous program.
So they start in their freshman
year with a freshman seminar,
and they'll end with a
senior capstone project.
And along the way, the
students in this program
will have specialized career
and professional development
opportunities, and
they'll be able to get
involved with industry leaders
and also research specialists.
If you're interested in
the biophysics program,
it's very important that
you contact Sarah Maslov who
is the program
manager, and her email
is provided here on this slide.
And she can help you get
started and get on track
with all the requirements
for Bio Business.
OK, next slide, please.
ZAC CHESTNUT: So IB and
MCB start off very similar.
We both require two
semesters of calculus,
one semester of general
chemistry with lab,
two semesters of organic
chemistry with lab,
two semesters of general
biology with lab,
two semesters of physics
with lab, and then IB
has a one-unit seminar
class that is also
required for IB students.
So because we're so similar
in those first couple years,
we encourage you to
explore, and most students
will declare IB
an MCB in their--
maybe the end of
their second year,
beginning of their third year.
But those timelines
are varied based
on your individual
approach, and that's
really we're coming in
and talking as advisors,
we can help you formulate
potential plans, so
that way you're incorporating
your biology coursework,
but also some non-biology
exploratory coursework.
Next, please.
CLARA NG-QUINN:
All right, so I'm
sure you have a lot of questions
about schedule planning.
So let's talk about that.
So this slide shows two
different sample for your plans
for IB and MCB majors.
Feel free to take a
screenshot of the slide.
So in your first semester
that we have here,
we recommend taking either
Math 10A or Math 1A,
along with Chem 1A and 1AL,
which is the general chemistry
lecture and lab, and that's
actually all the major courses
that you have to take
in your first semester.
That's not going to add up
to a full time schedule,
though, so we do recommend
also adding in a reading
and composition course
or a breadth course
along with Math and Chem.
We also recommend
taking IB 77A, which
was shown on another
slide, and this
is a one-unit seminar that
introduces integrative biology
topics.
And it's also just a
great way to learn more
about the IB major and round
out the rest of your schedule.
So round out the rest
of your schedule.
So I highlight the
second semester here
in blue in both these
schedules because that's
where they deviate.
So in the left-hand
schedule, this student
is taking Math 10B or
1B, and Chem 3A/3AL,
which is organic
chemistry lecture and lab.
In the second schedule
on the right-hand,
this differs in that the
student's taking their first
semester of biology--
so either Bio 1A
or 1B, and they're
doing Bio instead of
organic chemistry.
So you'll notice for all
eight semesters here,
this student is taking a
maximum of two major classes
per semester, they're
graduating on time,
and they're not taking
any summer classes.
So we find that our
students are able to fit
in all of their
general requirements
along with their major
requirements, and maybe
even a minor or a
double major as well.
So next slide, please.
OK, so let's talk a little
bit more about math.
I saw on the questions there's
a bunch of questions about that.
So we set two different math
series, either the Math 10
series or the 1 series.
We do not accept the Math
16 series for IB and MCB.
So the Math 10
series is actually
a combination of calculus,
stats, and combinatorics,
and this is intended for
life sciences majors.
So because it incorporates
multiple math topics,
it's a very fast-paced class.
So we actually recommend
that students have already
taken calculus in high school
before taking the Math 10
series.
And this will count as
both calculus and stats
for medical school as well.
The Math 1 series, on the
other hand, is just calculus.
So if you're interested in
the Bio Business program
that I discussed
earlier, you should
plan on taking the Math 1
series, not the 10 series.
You should also take
the Math 1 series
if you're interested in
doing a minor or double major
with other STEM majors such as
engineering, physics, computer
science.
So keep in mind that these
classes are very challenging,
so I want to give you
some prep options.
If you haven't taken
calculus in high school
before or if you're
just feeling nervous,
then I do recommend taking
Math 32, which is pre-calculus,
in your first semester,
and push off calculus
to your second semester.
This will not hold you back
from graduating on time.
So on the other hand, if you're
planning to take calculus
in the fall, but
maybe you're still
feeling a little bit nervous or
if you want some extra support,
then I recommend the
Math 98 Agile course,
we choose a one-unit seminar
offered by the Student Learning
Center.
And here, they give you extra
tutoring, extra practice
problems, they'll go over
the lectures of the math
class in a smaller environment.
So if you're not sure which
math class you're ready to take,
though, the math department
does have a diagnostic exam
that you can take, and the
link to that exam is on slide.
OK, next slide, please.
OK, so let's talk
about chemistry.
So just like the math
courses I mentioned,
Chem 1A is a very
rigorous class as well,
and you're not going to
have any review, basically,
of high school chemistry.
So we really recommend
that if you go into Chem 1A
in your fall
semester, we recommend
that you've already taken
chemistry somewhat recently
beforehand.
So if you taken AP
chemistry before,
that's very good
preparation for Chem 1A.
So I do want to mention Chem 32,
which is the chem prep class.
So we recommend taking
Chem 32 instead of Chem 1A
if you feel like your background
in Chem is kind of shaky.
Like if you took Chem in
your sophomore year instead
of your junior or senior
year, for example,
or if you didn't do well
on the AP or IB chem tests.
I do want to
reiterate that taking
Chem 32 in your first semester
is not going to hold you back
from graduating on time.
And the Student
Learning Center also
runs study groups,
tutoring, and mock exams,
so if you do decide
to take Chem 1A,
there is still extra support
there for you if you need it.
OK, next slide.
ZAC CHESTNUT: Great.
So there are a couple
of biology options.
So all IB and MCB
students are required
to take Bio 1A and 1B as
their general biology courses.
Now there's no set order here,
it's just A is certain topics
and B the other set of topics.
And so you could take Bio 1B
first before you take Bio 1A.
Bio 1B also has a lab
built into the class,
and so there is no 1BL, it's
all combined as one lecture lab.
Bio 1A does have an
adjoining lab class
that you can enroll
for at the same time.
So Bio 1A is lecture and
Bio 1AL is the lab class
that you would enroll
for at the same time.
Now IB 77, Integrative
Human Biology,
is a good class for
anyone interested
in biology in that first year.
77A is in the fall semester
and 77B is in the spring.
It's a one-unit seminar
where different faculty
come in each week and
talk about their research
and how it relates to different
human biology problems.
In IB, we have a lot of
different human biology
classes, like Human Reproductive
Biology, Human Anatomy,
[INAUDIBLE],, there's
Endocrinology, I could go on.
But not every class
has human in the title.
And so the faculty
are coming in talking
about their research
in their classes
and how the problems
that they're solving
are related back to
different organism types,
including humans.
It's a good opportunity
to meet different faculty
through office hours, and
it's also a good opportunity
to meet students interested
in biology, especially
human biology,
because you're going
to be sitting next to people
who are also maybe in your math
class or your chem class, but
this is a more collaborative
experience.
There are other lower-division
options as well.
So there's an American
cultures class, IB 35AC
for Human Biological Variation.
There's an MCB lower-division
class on Drugs & the Brain,
but there are also some
really small neat freshman
and sophomore seminars
where you have
maybe 15 students and
getting to interact closely
on a weekly basis with
different faculty members.
Next, please.
CLARA NG-QUINN: OK, so
as I mentioned before,
taking Math 32 or Chem
32 in your first semester
will not hold you back
from graduating on time.
So this is another good
slide to screenshot.
So I wanted to show you here how
taking either Math 32 or Chem
32 in your first semester would
alter your four-year plan.
So the left-hand schedule
is a Math 32 schedule,
and the right-hand side
is a Chem 32 schedule.
So as you can see, it
does shift the order
of the lower-division
classes a little bit,
but this student is
still only taking
two major classes per semester,
they're not taking any summer
classes either,
and they're still
able to graduate on
time in eight semesters.
So we really want to emphasize
that you should really
consider which schedule
will be best for you
and which schedule will set
you up to be successful at Cal.
OK, next slide, please.
OK, so I saw that there
were some questions
about test credit.
So only MCB accepts test credit.
IB doesn't accept any
test credit whatsoever.
So you can see the test credit
that we accept here, it's
just chemistry and biology.
I do want to let you know
that a lot of our students
come to Berkeley with AP
credit, but they often
choose to take Chem
Bio anyway and not
waive it because they
want to strengthen
their foundational
knowledge before jumping
into our upper-division courses.
So for example, our
students typically
don't take Bio 1A or 1B
until their second semester
or their sophomore year, as
you saw on previous slides.
So if you took AP biology in
your junior or senior year,
that would have been quite
some time since you last
took biology before jumping into
our upper-division bio classes.
So we usually recommend
taking Biology at Cal
anyway and not leaving it.
Of course, it's up to you.
But I do want to point
out that if you're
thinking about applying to
health-related graduate school
such as medical school,
pharmacy, dental, et cetera,
these graduate schools often
don't take test credit,
so you wouldn't be able to
waive chem or bio anyway
if that's your career path.
But don't worry,
the test credits
that you get from
these tests will still
count towards your overall unit
count needed for graduation,
so it's not for nothing.
And one last thing-- we do
not accept AP credit in math
or physics, but that
said, AP calculus
can be used to place into
higher-level math classes.
You would still need to take
two semesters of math, though.
This is-- there's a
lot of like options
here, so we recommend
that you reach out
to us if you want to talk about
these alternate math options.
And again, I want to just
repeat that this test credit
slide only applies to
MCB majors since IB
doesn't accept test credit.
OK, next slide, please.
ZAC CHESTNUT: Great.
So I wanted to point out
that study-abroad options are
a great experience for
IB and MCB students
to maybe take major classes,
but maybe take something
else entirely and still
get that worldly experience
and help maybe satisfy another
major or breadth requirement.
Study-abroad programs do take
a lot of advanced planning,
and so we recommend that you
meet with study-abroad advisors
when you're here on campus,
as well as major advisors.
And there is a webinar
with L&S on July 7
that will be themed
for study abroad.
CLARA NG-QUINN: OK,
so we want to give you
some resources if
you are interested
in health-related careers.
The Career Center has
really great resources
for pre-med and
pre-health students,
such as the list of
all the prerequisites
for those graduate schools,
which we have a link for here.
They also have pre-med
and pre-health advisors
that you can talk to.
There's going to be a pre-med
and pre-health webinar on June
22 if you want to learn
more about preparing
for these careers.
And also, I had mentioned
the Student Learning
Center on previous
slides, so I just
wanted to drop their link to
their resources here again.
And then finally, IB and MCB
both have departmental student
clubs that organize socials,
faculty student luncheons,
and other community events,
so I'd recommend checking them
out, too.
So DIBS is our IB student club,
and MCB has two student clubs,
which are mcbUSA and MCBcDNA.
So I really recommend
checking them out.
Next slide.
ZAC CHESTNUT: We get asked
a lot what students can
do with a major in IB or MCB.
And the correct but
sometimes frustrating
answer is you can do anything.
And that's because these majors
are technical and prepare you
to take on a lot of different
types of problems, right?
So you're learning
analytical skills,
and then you're solving these
complex, interdisciplinary
problems as a team
throughout your coursework.
And so that's good preparation
for a research-based career,
and that can be a
field-based, maybe
a conservation-based
research career,
it could be clinical
research, it
could be we lab research
or bioinformatics.
But that's also good
preparation for education.
And if you're
interested in education,
I suggest that you look
at the CalTeach program
on campus which helps
students get placement
programs in local schools to
further their education career
path.
But some students will want to
leave science and maybe go in
as a corporate
analyst or consultant.
They might go into patent law.
They may work in science
and biotech or pharmacy,
but as a sales or policy person.
And of course, a
lot of our students
are interested in the
health care field,
whether that's maybe being
a primary care provider
and going to a medical
school or PA program,
maybe going through a
nursing program, PT/OT,
but maybe also as a genetic
counselor or other community
health consultant.
Next, please.
All right, and so finally,
we've got some common myths
we wanted to clear up, and
these are from last year's
Q&A afterwards as well.
So one of the first
common myths is
that I can't talk to an
advisor until I declare.
Greg, if you'll
hit the next one.
And that's just not true.
So we encourage you
to reach out to us
through email now, and then
once we're all back together,
come into our office and come
see us through drop-in advising
or make an appointment.
Advisors are guides.
We're not-- we don't want to
be gatekeepers to the major,
we want to help you to
and through the major.
And so we want to
serve as these guides
and help you kind of
work out your plan,
both your academic plan
as well as your career
plan and your extracurricular
plan as you go.
Next, please.
All right, so next,
pre-med and research
are the only job options.
I hope we covered that
in our last slide.
You're learning all of these
great transferable skills,
and so there are a
lot of different job
options available to you.
All right, IB and MCB students
don't have to do research.
Now we are a
research university,
we're pretty good at it.
And so if you want
to do research,
we encourage you
to look into that.
But you'll get some experience
in experimental design
through your
required lab classes.
And so we want you
to optimize your time
as it matches your
interests-- if that's research
or if that's something else.
OK, if we hear a lot that
there's a perception nationally
in STEM classes that the lower
divisions are very competitive.
Now we found that most times,
students working together
are actually working
towards shared success.
And so we want to dispel
that competitive nature,
we want to dispel
that competitiveness.
We want you to work together
to introduce yourselves
to your classmates and
work together, so that way,
you can together to
succeed in these classes.
And a part of that is
introducing yourselves
and learning that
everyone is coming
from a different starting
point and everyone
has the same question.
And so by forming
these study groups
and working together,
by speaking up in class,
you're going to
help each other out
and you're going to
form relationships
that you're going to carry
through these lower-division
classes into your upper-division
classes and beyond.
And I just want to make one
more plug for the Major Maps.
They're a good resource to
peruse while you're living.
GREG CERA: Thank you
so much, Zac and Clara,
for the great information
about MCB and IB.
And up next, I welcome
Kimberly who will introduce us
to the Public Health major.
KIMBERLY HENDERSON:
Yeah, so hi, everybody.
My name is Kimberly Henderson,
and I am one of two academic
advisors/co-managers
for the School of Public
Health's undergraduate program.
Next slide.
So the undergraduate program
at the School of Public Health,
we've got two staff, two
people getting all going.
So I'm Kimberly.
Our other academic
advisor/co-manager is Patricia
Cruz.
And then we have our
wonderful peer advisors.
These are the peer advisors
from this past academic year,
and their information
will be towards the end
of my presentation,
but I'm going
to be referring to them
a lot because they're
so extraordinarily
helpful when it comes
to prospective students asking
questions about prerequisites--
how does this
course load handle?
What did you do to
get into the major?
What's the application like?
All those questions,
perfect resource right here.
Next slide.
So yeah, applying to the majors.
So Public Health is a capped
major, meaning that we have--
for us, that means that we
have a certain number of seats
that we can ever have
at any given time.
And so we do have an application
process, which is primarily
what I'm going to
be going over today,
in addition to the Global
Public Health minor.
So applying to the major, we
have four different components
to the application.
We have the grades--
prerequisite classes, which
we're about to go over;
two essays; and a resume.
So what we're looking for
primarily within all this
is academic preparation,
personal, professional,
volunteer experiences,
and then seeing
what your future
leadership potential
is within public health.
All right, so prerequisites.
We have three
different categories.
The first is biological
science, and we have seven units
of biological science.
Second is math-- so two
different math courses,
and the third is social science.
We do accept community college
credit and certain AP credit,
which I'll be going over.
Next slide.
All right, so the biological
science prerequisites.
We require seven units of
biological science coursework.
You can do a combination
of any of these classes.
A lot of people
do choose to take,
m example, Bio 1B or
MCB 50 because that's
a four-unit plus three
units equals seven units,
but there are many
students who choose
to take three-unit
classes to meet
the seven-unit requirement.
Next slide.
For the math prerequisites, we
require a full year of math.
We often get asked,
can I take MCB--
or I'm sorry, MCB--
Math 32?
And no, that is an
old prerequisite,
you cannot take Math 32 to
count towards the prerequisites
for the public heath major.
Like Clara was saying, it's a
really great preparatory course
and many of our
students take it,
but it does not count
as a prerequisite.
When we say complete
a full year of math,
you can take Math
1A and Math 1B,
but you can also take Math
1A and 16B; Math 10A Math 1B.
We just require that
it be an A and a B.
It does not have to be
from the same series,
but you might want
to do that depending
on if you're considering
double majoring,
if you have a backup major that
requires a certain math series,
if you're pre-health, all
these different things.
Next slide.
All right, so the social
science prerequisites,
we require three courses
in at least two areas.
And so what that
means is you have
to complete three social
science courses from this list,
and you can only do
one class per row.
So for example, you could do
Psych 1, Soc 1, AND Anthro 3.
But you would not be able to do
Psych 1 and Psych 2 and Anthro
3, because Psych 1 and
2 are from the same row.
So only one from each row.
All right, and AP credits.
So we accept AP scores
for psychology, economics,
and government.
And so for
psychology, it must be
a 3, 4, or 5 for Psych 1 or 2.
For economics, you need
to have both AP scores
from microeconomics
and macroeconomics.
So both would count for
either Econ 1, 2, or 3.
And for government or
political science, again,
3, 4, or 5 for the AP Gov.
For math, we will take
an AP score of Math AB
or BC a 3, a 4, or a 5
to count for Math 1A.
If your Math BC
score is a 5, then it
counts for both Math
1A and 1B, but only
in that situation
does it count for 1B.
We do not accept AP scores
for biological sciences.
All right, and so we
always get this question
when it comes to community
colleges, and often confusion.
And you'll see the
two yellow circles.
We've got two different
community colleges and students
looking at taking Bio 1A or
the equivalent class of Bio 1A.
The class on the bottom,
Antelope Valley College,
there's an and.
So in order for the student
to take the community college
class that counts for Bio
1A here at UC Berkeley,
they need to take both
Bio 110 and Bio 120.
Whereas at the community college
at the top, it's just Bio 130.
So if you're looking
at community colleges,
be aware of these nuances.
All right, so those
are the prerequisites.
The next two components I'm
going to be talking about
are the essays.
So we have a
statement of purpose,
and basically the
statement of purpose
is talking about what are your
goals in public health, what
do you want to do
in public health?
Are you interested in
health policy management?
Are you interested
in epidemiology?
Or are you more interested in
environmental, maternal child
health, nutrition?
These are all different areas
that you could look into.
But it's more about like,
what are your long-term goals,
what are you doing
now extracurricularly
to prepare for that, and what
would you get from the major
to be able to reach
those long-term goals?
Next slide.
So personal history statement.
For the personal
history statement,
this is really
where you can talk
about who you are as
a person, your family
background, cultural background,
socioeconomic status,
experiences growing up,
educational disadvantages.
We do not have a prerequisite
GPA for the public health
major; however, if your
prerequisite GPA is at a 2.75
or below, we do require
that you address it
in the personal history
statement explaining like what
happened, how are you--
what are you doing to do
better, and how is it going?
But this doesn't-- it doesn't
deter you as long as you
complete--
as long as you write about
it in the history statement.
Next slide.
All right, and the final
component of the application
is the resume.
And so you could submit
a resume or a CV.
Most students submit a resume.
And this has got everything
that you're doing.
So if you're working
at Starbucks,
you put that on there.
The reviewers and professors who
are reading these applications,
they want to know, where is
the student's time going?
Are they at a disadvantage?
What's going on?
So yeah, resume.
All right, so the
application timeline.
We have two times during the
year we have an application.
One is in December
or the fall, and one
is in May in the spring.
It is always December
17 through the 31st,
and May 17 through the
31st no matter the year.
They have approximately
the same admissions rate,
anywhere from 81% to 90%
as of the last three years,
so just be aware of these times.
For incoming freshmen, you
must apply to the major
by the end of your
fifth term, but we
do recommend applying by
the end of your fourth term.
And for transfer
students, they have
to apply by the end
of their first term.
We do also recommend
having a backup major.
We will ask you on
the application what
is your backup major because we
want you to be prepared and be
ready to go.
Next slide.
Yeah, so tips for
applying to the major.
Reflecting on how your
professional experiences
informed your interest to pursue
public health-- so leadership,
getting involved with
the campus community--
I know right now that
looks a little different,
so you can definitely
talk to us about that.
Having multiple people review
your essays and resume.
The Writing Center, the
Career Center, these
are wonderful
resources to help you
prepare for the application.
Academic performance.
Like I was talking about before,
discussing that in your history
statement and make sure you
have an alternate major in mind.
All right, and just as a
small little introduction
to what is the major entail?
So these are the public health
major requirements should you
be admitted into the major.
Public Heath 142, 150A,
B, D, and E, and Data 8.
So we're looking at
Biostatistics, Epidemiology,
Environmental Health, Heath
Policy Management, Community
Health, and Human
Development, and then
Foundations of Data Science.
I do want to note that
while Data Science is not
a prerequisite, it is
a major requirement,
we highly recommend taking
it within your first year
if you can; if not, your
second year, because it
is much easier to get into
during your first year
at the university or
during your first semester
as a transfer student.
It's also meant to be a prep
course for Public Health
142, so just make
sure to consider that.
We have a whole slew of
electives, many of which
are MCB and IB, so definitely
take a look at those.
And then we have a
capstone requirement,
or you can complete
an honors thesis
which can do your own research
with a faculty mentor.
Next slide.
All right, and so
advising resources
before we quickly get into the
Global Public Health minor.
Myself and Patricia,
you can email us
at sphug or S-P-hug
@berkeley.edu.
And if you ever have questions
or just want to talk,
that's how you get a hold of us.
We have advising appointments.
We don't go through
CalCentral, we
go through a online portal
called Setmore so that anyone
can get a hold of us.
So please make an
appointment with us.
Also, we have our drop-in
hours, so please check out
our drop-in hours.
Our peer advisors also have
appointments and drop-in hours,
they will not be here with
us until the first week
of classes.
So make sure to come
to Patricia or I
if you want to reach
out during the summer.
But then once school starts,
definitely check them out.
Additionally, normally we're
located in Berkeley Way West,
but right now
everything's online,
so just be aware of that.
And our website, I highly
encourage everyone to go
to the publichealth.ber
keley.edu/undergrad website,
because that is where all of the
most up-to-date information is
about the major,
the requirements,
what's going on, resources.
This is where both Patricia
and I will work for you
if you come to talk with us.
Next slide.
All right, so moving right along
the Global Public Health minor.
So the public health field seeks
to improve human populations
by developing and
applying knowledge
that can prevent disease
and promote health
throughout the state,
nation, and the world.
So basically this
minor, we are focusing
on the global spectrum
of what can we
do in regards to public health.
Next slide.
So the Global
Public Health minor
can be earned by non-public
health majors and public health
majors, but there are
slight differences
due to L&S
requirements, so we're
going to primarily
discuss non-public health
majors earning a global
public health minor.
This is a summer minor.
I will say first, it is meant
to be completed over the summer.
So there are certain classes
such as Public Health N112 that
are only offered during the
summer, so just something
to consider.
So core courses, Public Health
N112, Public Health 142,
and Public Health 250A.
So Global Health-- A
Multidisciplinary Examination,
Biostatistics, Epidemiology.
For non-majors, you're
taking three core courses.
For public health
majors, you are solely
taking Public Health N112
and Public Health 142,
and you're using Public
Heath 142 as a double count.
All right, so next slide.
Then you have electives.
If you are a non-public
health major,
you'll be taking two electives.
If you're a public
health major, you'll
be taking three electives
excluding Public Health
150B and D. So this is
the list of electives
that we have this summer.
All of them are incorporating
COVID-19 pandemic information
in regards to public health
in these different fields.
I'm assuming and
we are currently
discussing how to
include relevant topics
in future classes as
well, so future summers.
So yeah, those
are the electives.
And so on our website, all this
information is on the website.
We have this wonderful chart.
So for non-public
health major, these
are the classes you can take,
and for public health major,
these are the
classes you can take.
So it's laid out,
hopefully this chart
makes it a little
easier to understand
what you can and can't
take depending on if you're
a public heath major or not.
Next slide.
Things to note.
The Public Health major--
I'm sorry, the Global
Public Health minor
does not have prerequisites,
it does not have an application
process, it can be completed
in one or multiple summers,
there are fees because
it is a summer minor,
and there are deadlines.
So we do-- next slide.
We do have a
declaration process.
So this is not an
application, it is simply
a declaration process.
Once you've decided you want
to be a global public health
minor, you fill out the
form and you send it
into our sphug email.
And then when you're
done with the minor,
you submit a completion form
with what you actually ended up
taking, and you will be
potentially qualified
for a scholarship.
So next slide.
So the scholarship.
Everyone wants to know
about the scholarship.
It is a $2,000
scholarship if you
meet the following criteria.
You must be currently
enrolled UC Berkeley student,
you have to complete the
minor within one or two
consecutive summers, you must
complete four of the five
requirements during
the summer, you
have to get a C or higher in all
the classes, all five classes,
and you must submit the
completion minor form
within two weeks of the
start of your final course.
So scholarships that
are awarded-- so, say,
summer of 2020, if someone
gets a scholarship this summer
of 2020, it would be
awarded in December of 2020.
Next slide.
So scholarship.
Also, if you are a senior taking
your final class for the minor
during the academic year, it
may affect your eligibility
for the scholarship.
This is a lot of
wording and we're
running out of time, so this
wording's on the website.
I highly recommend
going to read it if you
are interested in this option.
Next slide.
So finally, contact information
again, myself and Patricia,
we are also global
public health advisors.
The peer advisors will
also be available.
We have one peer
advisor coming on board
who will be actually completing
this minor this summer,
so we're very
excited about that,
and then this is all the links
that were listed prior as well.
Thank you.
GREG CERA: Thank you
so much, Kimberly,
for that great information
about the prerequisites
for public health and how
to apply to the major.
Yeah, at this point we
have about nine or 10
minutes left for a Q&A session.
So some of our awesome
advisors who've
been on the Q&A chat section
will address some questions
that they have seen coming up
over the course of the last 50
minutes or so.
AUDIENCE: Thank you so much.
I do have a quick question, and
this is for MCB specifically.
On the MCB website, it says that
Math 1A and 1B is a required
prerequisite for
the C100A course,
but is Math 10A series also
an acceptable prerequisite
for this class?
And I'll write this question
in the chat room as well.
CLARA NG-QUINN: Yeah.
So MCB 100A is
Biophysical Chemistry,
and yes, the Math 10 series
is an acceptable prerequisite
for MCB C100A.
Basically MCB C100A
they expect students
to have already
completed the equivalent
of a first year of calculus.
So the answer's yes.
I should say that
students usually
don't take MCB C100A until
their junior year, though.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
I have another MCB
question if I can continue.
If a student's emphasis is
in neurobiology, what year
or when should they
be able to take
neuroscience and
neurobiology courses?
CLARA NG-QUINN: So I'm assuming
that the student is asking
about upper division
neurobiology courses,
and that is usually
taken junior year.
If you look on--
sorry, I don't know
if you can change
your slide to slide number 15.
That's the sample
for your plans.
But typically-- yeah, thank you.
So you'll notice that in the
third and fourth years here,
we kept it general with just
upper div IB/MCB courses.
So that would be
when you take classes
such as your neurobiology
upper-division lectures
or the courses that are
particular to a certain MCB
emphasis or IB emphasis.
So those are upper-division
classes are more specialized,
so that's why you're taking them
in your third and fourth year
after you've taken all
the prerequisite courses.
But that said, there are some
lower-division neuroscience
classes, such as MCB
C62 that you can take in
your first and second years
as well, although keep
in mind that MCB C62 would not
count towards the MCB major.
But you can just
take it for fun,
and it would still count as
a biological sciences breadth
class.
OK, thank you.
AUDIENCE: OK, this is Wendy.
I did have a question, and I'm
sorry if I missed this earlier,
but one of the
questions I was asked
is, if a student has credit--
IB credit through high
school for Bio 1B,
do they need to
retake it for MCB?
CLARA NG-QUINN: Let's see.
So-- sorry, I just wanted to--
so the question was about IB?
AUDIENCE: IB credit
from high school, yes.
CLARA NG-QUINN:
OK, so slide number
20 has our tax credit
that MCB accepts.
So remember, integrative biology
does not accept test credit,
though.
So-- oh, I should also say
when it comes to the IB tests,
that we only accept higher-level
tests, not standard level.
So if you received a 5, 6, or
7 in IB higher-level biology,
that can waive Biology 1B
if you choose to waive it.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
And then I had another question.
Students are wondering how the
classes going remote possibly
for fall as well, how will
that impact those bio courses,
like Bio 1b and Bio labs?
And will lab still be held
remotely or how will that work?
ZAC CHESTNUT: I
can jump in here.
We don't know at this point
what the campus's instruction
plans are for fall.
They will, once they release
their instructional plan,
they will post updates to the
online schedule of classes
at classes.berkeley.edu.
And so you'll be able to see
changes there in real-time
as you're looking at open
sections and what to take.
Now the bio classes, Bio 1A
with its lab, 1AL, and Bio 1B,
they are often taken in the
second semester of freshman
year or even later
into sophomore
and possibly even junior year
for the IB and MCB majors.
And so that might be
where taking something
like math and a
chemistry lecture class
in your first semester if
you're worried about labs
or aren't able to
make it to campus,
that might still make
sense for your schedule
and would still be fine
for our normal plan.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
This is [INAUDIBLE] I
have a few questions
to ask for the major advisors.
So one of the questions
is, what is the level--
what is the difference in the
difficulty level between Chem
3A and Chem 12 since MCB biochem
emphasis requires Chem 12?
CLARA NG-QUINN: I can
take this question.
So the Chem 12A and 12B
series is organic chemistry
for students in the
College of Chemistry.
So the Chem 12 series is
more advanced than the Chem 3
series.
So in that question, the MCB
emphasis in biochemistry has
another track called
biological chemistry,
and because that track
focuses a lot on chemistry--
it's in the name--
the preferred organic
chemistry series
for the biological chemistry
track is the Chem 12 series,
and those students also
have to take Chem 1B.
But that said, the Chem
12 series is preferred,
but it's not mandatory.
So we will still
accept the Chem 3
series for the biological
chemistry track in MCB.
So if a student is
taking the Chem 3 series
and realizes they really
like chemistry and really
want to do this
track, then we're not
going to stop them from majoring
in biological chemistry.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
And then I have another
question about both bio and chem
courses.
If there is a course
that has a lab attached,
do those have to be taken
in the same semester?
Is it recommended
to space them out?
How does that work and is
it the same for bio classes
as it is for chem?
ZAC CHESTNUT: So for bio--
Bio 1B's lab is
already attached.
So Bio 1B's lab is a part of
your registration for Bio 1B.
For Bio 1A, the lab must
be taken at the same time,
and so the enrollment system
requires that students
enroll in both together.
For chemistry, the lecture
can come first and the lab
in a later semester-- so you
can split your enrollment,
but the lab must come
in after the lecture.
In each of these
cases, the class notes
on the online schedule
classes indicate
if you must enroll
at the same time
or if you can split
your enrollment.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
Then I had a question
about Chem 4A.
Is it possible for students
to enroll directly in Chem 4A?
Or is there a particular
set of prerequisites
they need to take?
Or can they test out and
go directly into Chem 4A?
GREG CERA: OK.
And seeing that
it's on the hour,
this will unfortunately
have to be our last question
for the Q&A session today.
Definitely we'll be able
to answer this question,
and then from there, I just
want to thank everybody
for your time today.
Zac, Clara, and
Kimberly, thanks so much
for joining us and sharing this
information about the majors.
And student participants,
so that you know,
this webinar is being
recorded, and in a number
of days, usually four or five
days after the event-- so four
or five days after
today, the webinar
will be available on the L&S
Advising YouTube channel.
So if you type in L&S
Advising Berkeley on YouTube,
this webinar will be available
for you to review again there.
So yeah, sorry to interrupt,
but one more time with that--
with that question, [INAUDIBLE]
AUDIENCE: Oh, thank you.
The question-- sorry,
I just deleted it.
The question was, can a student
test out and go directly
into Chem 4A?
CLARA NG-QUINN: I
could take this.
So the Chem 4 series is
actually general chemistry
for the College of Chemistry.
So essentially it is the
more advanced version
of the Chem 1 series.
So it's not something
that you necessarily
test into since College
of Chemistry students
will take that in
their first semester.
So I guess if you're
thinking about changing
into the College of
Chemistry, then you
could take the Chem 4 series.
MCB and IB will accept
the Chem 4 series.
But if you are just
planning to be a bio major,
then the Chem 1 series
is perfectly fine.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
GREG CERA: And
thanks again so much,
Zac, Clara, and
Kimberly, yeah, we really
appreciate this information.
And yeah, students, as
additional questions
are coming up, please
feel free to reach out
to your GBA L&S advisor.
The L&S college advisors who
are assisting you with GBA
will absolutely be
able to help you
with a number of your questions
related to the majors,
and also the contact
information for the departments
are on this web page--
or this presentation
page as well,
so please feel free to use the
resources available to you.
And yeah, thanks so
much for coming today,
and we look forward to
speaking with you more
as the coming months roll by.
Thanks so much.
