Being a Biology Major at Whittier College

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

This is Katie Ann, and I'm going to tell you about being a biology major at Whittier College. So in this video, I'm going to talk about why I chose to become a biology major. What the classes are like at one year, um, with the workload is like as well as what's the biggest difference between the academics in high school to the academics in college? So I'm a third year biology student at one year, And the reason why I became a biology major is honestly, I really just wanted to know how things worked. When I started college, my goal was just to learn about everything I possibly could. I was a chemistry major for a little bit and then eventually landed in biology. The thing I really love about biology is you really get to understand how everything in the world around you works. There's all of these things going on, and all of these processes happening in all these interactions happening, and you really have no idea. So I just love that because I just think it's so fun and it's so interesting to really understand what's going on around. So at Whittier College, a lot of science costs are surrounded around a lot of writing and being able to present and express what you're learning. I've had lots of essay exams, just a lot of writing and being able to express what I'm learning about. That has really allowed me to hone in on my scientific writing skills, which is really important for a scientist as well as really be able to fully understand what I'm talking about, to the point that I can communicate it to both the scientific audience as well as just the general audience. So the classwork is a mix of independent and group work. There are a lot of assignments such as the exams, um, small assignments, maybe some lab work that is very independent. Very, um, is it time for you to show what you know and express that to your professor? Along with the independent work, there is a lot of group work, So most of my labs have been group project based, um, as well as certain activities and maybe presentations. Work it really allows me to kind of bounce ideas back and forth with my classmates, kind of get to know them better as well as, like practice. Um, expressing these ideas with other scientists, being able to show that in a group setting and being able to work with others to kind of collaborate on this project to really present to our professor. In a 16 week semester, I'll probably take around 3 to 44 unit classes, most of the same classical four units, and that will end up being about 4 to 5 hours of lectures or labs per week. Then I usually try and spend about one hour every day per class. So five days a week, Um, with four classes, that would be 20 hours of studying a week. That's usually enough to keep me on top of whatever assignments I have preparing for exams or finishing up lab reports. The last thing we have to talk about is the biggest difference from my academic career in high school to now in college. So one of the biggest difference is that I think really impacted me when I started college was that you have to do it yourself. You also have to make sure that you are advocating for yourself. What advocating for yourself might look like is making sure that you're giving your best in your class is to show your professor. Making sure you go to office hours to talk to your professor. Going to network events, making sure you show up to the science club. When I first started, I actually emailed some of the professors at what year and asked them if I could meet with them over Zoom. I talked to them about their lab, what classes they give and really just wanted to make a connection with them and what really came of, that is, by fall they were already asking me, Hey, do you want to work in my lab? Hey, do you wanna help me out with this. I really found that they were ready to invest in me. One of the biggest, biggest hurdles for B going from high school to college was learning how to advocate for myself and to hold myself accountable at the same time, being at Whittier and being at such a supportive and inclusive place really helped me in that because there were professors and there were stuff that we're ready to invest in me and ready to advocate for me and teach me how to advocate for myself. Overall, I love being a biology major at what year it has been such a wonderful experience. I'm so excited for what the coming years have for me. I hope you learned a little bit more about being a bio major at Whittier.