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Omar Hernandez

The Core to All Life and Science

As an incoming freshmen, going to college is a big step in your life. From now on youre

responsible for yourself and any action you take affects your future. One of your biggest and

most important decision you have to make when starting college is choosing your major. Your

major should be something you love to do because its what you will be doing for the rest of your

life. If you like helping others or the environment you should major in biology, because who

doesnt want to make a difference in the world? Majoring in biology involves a lot of work and

you must put all your time and effort into it. Even though this major is tough the work and effort

you put in will be very rewarding at the end.

Majoring in biology isnt going to be easy. This major requires people who have good

communication skills, good problem solving skills, good team working skills, people who are

self-confident, are leaders, and are flexible. It is important that you have these characteristics

because this major is very competitive. If you have all of these characteristics you shouldnt have

a problem, but if you dont it is very important that you achieve these as soon as possible. If

youre trying to get a job in this field and they see someone who has more traits than you they

might pick them over you. This major isnt all just about what character traits you have you must

also be doing really well in school.

Every class you take is important because they all affect your GPA, and even though most

careers look at your GPA some also look at how you did in certain classes. Well for biology

majors it is important that you do really well in four classes: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and

Math. These four classes are the main focus for this major. I know some of you might have
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gotten upset at the fact that I said Math, but trust me at the end this major is well worth the work.

If you actually try hard enough Math wont seem that hard plus all college campuses have tutors

for those who need extra help. This doesnt mean that you can just slack off on all your other

classes that werent the four I mentioned, this major requires you to work hard in all your classes

because you are required to have at least a 3.0 GPA. You need at least a 3.0 because thats what

you need to get a degree, and if you finish without a 3.0 thats basically it because you cant do

anything with a BA or BS in biology.

This major requires students to put lots of dedication and effort into their school work.

This major isnt for someone whos always out partying, because this major requires lots of

hours of studying. There will be lots of group work because it is important that people majoring

in biology know how to work well with others. It is also important to do group work because you

practice the characteristics such as communication skills, problem solving, etc. Group work is a

great way to practice and strengthen these traits. You will also get lots of homework and test in

all your classes. Thats why I stated earlier you must study a lot, so you will always be doing

well in all your classes plus you will never get left behind. The hardest thing for all the classes

will be the finals unless you have been studying throughout the whole semester. This major will

take up a lot of your free time and replace it with studying because if you want to be successful

you cant be slacking off.

Even though I have been saying you are going to be studying for most of the time that

doesnt mean you cant hang out with your friends once a while. Its good to get your mind off

things and thats something you have to do once a while in this major because it can be very

stressful. At the same time though you must know how to be flexible by having good time

management skills especially if you have a job. You must know when its best to take a break
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from so much school work especially when you have less time to be messing around. In this

major you will also have to do some stuff involving your major whether its volunteering at

hospitals or helping out in the community. You have to be involved in the community because

once you have your degree and are applying for a job if they see you have no experience in the

field at all about what you want to get a job for they will take the person who did.

Being a biology major doesnt mean when you start your job youre going to be in a

laboratory all of the time it depends on what career path you end up taking. In this major you can

end up working in a hospital, laboratory, office, pharmacy, zoo, jungle, school/university, and

many more places it is all up to you. For all of you that want to become doctors, nurses, dentist,

lab technicians, forensic scientist, veterinarian, marine/wildlife biologist, teacher/professor,

biochemist, basically anything that involves life and science biology is the major for you.

Biology is the major that eventually leads to any of those careers. Once you choose what career

path most interest you, you have to start looking at different schools. Every university is best

known for certain majors/careers. For example UCLA is known for its school of dentistry, UC

Davis is known for its vet school, UC San Diego is known for its school of medicine just to name

a few. Also once you pick which career path youre going to take youre going to aim for certain

degrees starting with either pre-med or pre-health, which ever applies for your major. From there

you will have to take certain classes for example pre-med needs to take calculus whereas pre-

health takes statistics. You need to do a lot of research before completely deciding what career

path you want to take. Also in this major it is important to have a plan A, B, and C just for

emergencies because you never know whats going to happen. What if you dont get in and you

only had plan A, now what. You dont want to put all the eggs in one basket you got to spread

them out.
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Now talking about money which is what most of you want to hear, all jobs involving

biology get paid really well. Why do you think all of these people are really smart, its because

they have spent almost all of their time studying. Working in a career involving biology doesnt

mean once your shift is done your done for the day. People in these careers never stop working

thats why they get paid so much plus they can save your or a loved ones life. Doctors get paid

a median of $208,000 per year, Nurses get paid a median of $68,450 per year, Dentists get paid a

median of $159,770 per year, Lab Technicians get paid a median of $50,930 per year, Forensic

Scientists get paid a median of $56,750 per year, Veterinarians get paid a median pay of $88,770

per year, Marine/Wildlife Biologists get paid a median pay of $60,520 per year, Biochemists get

paid a median pay of $82,180 per year, Professors get paid a median pay of $90,420 (Bureau of

Labor Statistics). This states that working hard and with lots of dedication you get a really good

reward money wise. This was also just a small portion from all the possible careers you can

choose from.

Once you start working in the career you choose life will be great. You will have lots of

money, a family if you like, and a flexible work schedule. Most job that involves biology will be

working really long shift and in some careers shifts might even be days. Although you will be

working long shifts you will also be reward with more than average days off. Most careers

involving biology only require three to four days of work. Which means you can spend lots of

time with your family or friends. Also for career that involve traveling most get free housing, but

you will be traveling from place to place often. Plus youre going to be helping people, and who

doesnt like that?

Biology is the core to all life and science related careers. After you choose whatever

career path you want to take you will see the rewards at the end are totally worth it. Once youre
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working and have gotten your Bachelors, Masters, or Doctors degree you will notice that all

the hard work and sacrifices you made to make sure you succeed payed off. I know at first this

major can be very stressful but you have to look at the positives. The whole time you will be

trying to help people, animals, or plants and who doesnt like either one of those, you will be

learning new things every day, you even learn how to become a better person by taking this

major. This major is a big morale booster plus all the rewards you get at the end are worth it. In

this major it doesnt matter what career path you choose from the endless possibilities of biology

related careers. Majoring in biology is something you wont regret.

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Bibliography

Departments at the UC San Diego of Medicine. UC San Diego Health Sciences,

https://healthsciences.ucsd.edu/som/pages/default.aspx. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Summary. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,

https://www.bls.gov. Accessed 8 May 2017.

UCLA Dentistry. UCLA Dentistry, https://www.dentistry.ucla.edu/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Vet Med Home | UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Vet Med Home | UC Davis School

of Veterinary Medicine, http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/index.cfm. Accessed 8 May

2017.