Entering the Program from another Major or Institution

The program is designed to allow students to move between the major and the general Biological Sciences major without penalty. Providing for such movement is necessary because a student will NOT be allowed to major both in Microbiology and Immunology and in Biological Sciences. A student may move into the Microbiology and Immunology major at any time during their third or even fourth years simply by taking Bio 116L as the prerequisite to the other laboratory courses M121L, M122L and M124L. These courses will not carry majors only restrictions, leaving the path to the Microbiology and Immunology major open to Biological Sciences majors even as late as the fourth year. However, the requirement to take M121, M122 and M124 means that students should begin taking these courses in the 3rd year if they are considering entering the major. Such late transfer might provide a path into the major for a student who does not meet the eligibility requirement based on their second year Bio and Chem GPA. Such a student could petition for entry based on their performance in the appropriate Bio courses during their third and/or fourth years.

Conversely, since the existing Bio Core beyond Bio 99 requires no set order in which the courses must be taken, and since M116L, M121, M122, M124 and the associated labs should be acceptable satellites for the Bio major, a student can move out of the major and into the Biological Sciences major at any time without penalty.

We encourage Community College and other transfer students to apply for entrance into the Microbiology and Immunology major. Transfer students may not be admitted directly into the Microbiology and Immunology major, but instead will enter UCI as a Biological Sciences major and then change to the Microbiology and Immunology major once they have completed at least six of the required four-unit courses in Biological Sciences (minimum of two required in BioSci), Chemistry, Math and/or Physics (including labs and eligible electives) and earned a GPA of 3.0 or above in those courses. The basic principle is that to be eligible to transfer into this high level major, a student must demonstrate the ability to do B or better work in the field over an extended period of time.

In accordance with this principle, a UCI student transferring from outside of Biological Sciences is also required to transfer initially into the Biological Sciences major. Subsequent eligibility to transfer into the Microbiology and Immunology major will be as described for other Biological Science majors.