Additional Major Requirements

To receive a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from UC San Diego, all students must complete at least twenty units of upper-division coursework in the School of Biological Sciences with a grade of C- or better. This coursework must directly apply to the student’s Biology major requirements, and must be taken while officially enrolled at UC San Diego. Courses completed outside of the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences will not be counted toward the residency requirement.

The minimum grade requirements for all biology majors are:

• All courses required and used toward any biology major requirements must be taken for a letter grade and completed with a C- or better.
• The minimum grade requirement applies to all lower-division, upper-division, required courses taken in other departments, as well as courses transferred and used toward major requirements.
• Exceptions will be made for those required courses that have a P/NP only grading option (e.g., BISP 199).
• The minimum major GPA requirement is 2.0.

Please note: The degree audit may not automatically reject D grades for the major. If your degree audit appears to apply a course in which you have earned a D to a requirement for the major, please contact a biology advisor.

To receive a Bachelor of Science from UC San Diego, all students must complete at least 48 or more units of upper-division course work within the major.

Please note: The degree audit may not display an accurate number of upper division biology electives required for the major in order to meet the 48 upper division unit requirement.

If you do not have at least 48 upper division units within your major requirements, you will need to take additional upper division biology coursework in order to satisfy this requirement.  If you have questions, please contact a biology advisor.