I just got an email asking for some advice. There must be other people looking for the same advice out there, so this sounds like a perfect post to file under the Ask The Mind category.

Hi Karl,

I am a senior at Davis High school, who is planning to attend UCD later this fall, and going into Biology. It was shocking to me last night when I was flipping through Pharyngula, and found your website with references to Davis all over it. I will now make sure to reserve my Thursday nights for your radio show. I would like to ask you, however, if you have any helpful hints for an up and coming freshman, going into the Biology track at UCD.

An excited high school student, *snip*

P.S. Favorite Sci-Fi books of all time - Brave New World, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Favorite Sci-Fi films of all time - Donnie Darko, The Fifth Element, Planet of the Apes.

Pharyngula is really the place to find out what’s happening in the science blogging world. Half of PZ Myers’ posts are links to other people’s blogs.

Cool, now I’ll know that someone’s listening to the show! Heh, just kidding - it’s hard to know who’s tuning in to the show, whereas I know how many people download the podcast version of it.

Those are some pretty good scifi choices.

So, biology at UCD. When I enrolled as a genetics major back in 1999, I had a limited view of what I could do with it. I often joke that the default goal of a biology major is medicine, until they find out what else is out there. For example, I didn’t think that plant biology would be all that great, but then I loved it, and I now find myself applying to grad school for plant genetics.

Along the way, I sampled a little anthropology, geology, entomology, and I worked for a while in a mouse genetics lab. Eventually, though, I found myself working in a plant lab and taking courses on plant biochemistry and development. In my explorations I figured out what I was really interested in. The general biology major allows for some flexibility in choosing your courses, and there isn’t a better time to explore than this. Explore.

Getting to know your professors is also good. They’d be more than happy to help you figure out what options there are, and if you decide to go into graduate school, you’ll need a few professors that know you well enough to recommend you. And you may learn that many of the professors teaching the core courses are sometimes some of the more accomplished researchers, and you never know who’s got an internship you could sign up for.

For me, figuring out exactly what I wanted to do was the biggest problem, and when you have a goal it can be easier to avoid goofing off when you need to be studying. Also, the quarter system at Davis goes very fast, try not to get more than a couple lectures behind in any class. Finally, you don’t need to get all your general education classes done first, if you leave a little space for more fun and relaxed courses for your last couple years, it can make some quarters a little less stressful.

Hope this helps for starters. Thanks for listening, too!