Transfer Students

What To Do Before You Transfer

Transferring to the University of Virginia and completing a degree in Biology, particularly if you enter as a 3rd year transfer student from a community college, requires careful planning and completion of certain prerequisite courses before you matriculate at UVA. Before taking any science or math courses at your community college, you should refer to UVA’s online transfer credit evaluator to be certain that the courses you complete will transfer as direct equivalents to the specific, required UVA courses listed below.

The following graphic provides a simple checklist of courses you must have completed before matriculating at UVA in order for you to declare a Biology major as a 3rd year transfer student. The graphic also lists courses we recommend you have completed before you arrive. Read more about these requirements below.

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Biology Prerequisites

1. Two semesters of introductory biology lecture + laboratory courses that transfer as equivalent to UVA BIOL 2100 and BIOL 2200.

Credits for these courses can also be earned through AP (score 5), IB (upper-level exam score 6 or higher), transfer or dual enrollment.

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Chemistry Prerequisites

1. Two semesters of general (inorganic) chemistry lecture courses that transfer as equivalent to UVA CHEM 1410 and CHEM 1420.

Credits for these courses can also be earned through AP (score 4 or 5), IB (upper-level exam score 5 or higher), transfer or dual enrollment.

2. Two semesters of general (inorganic) laboratory courses that transfer as equivalent to UVA CHEM 1411 and CHEM 1421.

AP credit is never given for labs, so students who receive credit through AP for CHEM 1410 and 1420, must still complete the laboratory courses.

Both the general chemistry (inorganic) lecture and laboratory requirements may also be satisfied by transfer courses, in which lecture and laboratory components were combined into a single course.

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Math/Statistics/Physics Prerequisites

It is strongly recommended that you have also completed the following:

One semester of calculus and one semester of biostatistics.

Eligible calculus courses (or AP/IB credits) will transfer as equivalent to any of the following UVA courses: MATH 1210, 1220, 1310, or 1320. Eligible statistics courses will transfer as equivalent to either of the following UVA courses: STAT 2020, 2120.

Two semesters of physics with labs

Eligible physics courses will transfer as equivalent to any of the following UVA courses: PHYS 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040 (algebra-based)

PHYS 1420, 1429, 2410, and 2419(calculus-based)

PHYS 1425, 1429, 2415, and 2419 (calculus-based)

What To Do After You Transfer To UVA

Before enrolling in your fall courses and before you can declare a Biology major, you must attend one of the transfer student orientation sessions and watch the video by the Biology Undergraduate Director outlining the Biology program on the Transfer student Collab page.

The following graphic provides a guide for scheduling program requirements for the BA in biology for 3rd year transfer students. This guide, and the detailed information below, will help you fit all the courses that will be required for the Biology major in two years at UVA.

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Biology Courses For Your 1st Semester at UVA

1. One of the Biology core courses: BIOL 3000 or BIOL 3010.

Three core courses are required for all Biology majors: BIOL 3000 (Cell Biology), BIOL 3010 (Genetics & Molecular Biology) and BIOL 3020 (Evolution and Ecology). These three courses do not need to taken in any particular order. However, you must take either BIOL 3000 or BIOL 3010 during your first semester at UVA. You should then plan to take BIOL 3020 during the following spring semester and the remaining core (either BIOL 3000 or BIOL 3010) during the next fall semester.

2. One 3000-level or higher BIOL elective course.

In addition to taking either BIOL 3000 or BIOL 3010, you are strongly advised to enroll in no more than one additional 3000-level or higher elective BIOL course, based on your interests. Taking another 3000-level or higher elective BIOL course during the spring semester will help you stay on track for completing the major.

Chemistry & Physics For Your 1st Semester at UVA?

The B.A. degree in Biology doesn’t require chemistry beyond the introductory level or any physics; however, organic chemistry and introductory physics are required for application to medical and dental school (and many other healthcare-related professional schools). So, if you're pre-med, you should also plan to enroll in organic chemistry and physics courses during your first semester at UVA. In fact, this is absolutely necessary if you’re planning to apply to medical school at the end of your 3rd year of college (that’s your 1st year at UVA) and not take a “gap” year after graduation. If, however, you plan to stretch out your pre-health preparation courses (strongly advised), you can avoid this concurrent schedule of challenging science courses.

The organic chemistry courses (lecture/lab) are CHEM 2410/2311 and CHEM 2420/2321. The standard introductory physics courses (lecture/lab) are PHYS 2010/2030 and PHYS 2020/2040. Since both of these chemistry and physics courses are taught in a strict fall-spring sequence, they must be started in the fall semester.

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Non-Biology course that can be applied to another major

Non-Biology course that can be applied to another major

Because many transfer students find pursuing a Biology major to be challenging, you should enroll in a non-Biology course during your first semester at UVa that could be applied towards another major should you decide to change your area of study. For example, you may want to consider taking EVSC3200 Fundamentals of Ecology as this is a required gateway class for Environmental Science majors, but can also be applied as an elective towards the Biology major. Alternatively, you may want to consider taking a non-science course that can be applied towards an area of study in the social sciences or humanities.

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Declaring a Biology Major

The requirements for the Biology undergraduate major degree programs are described in detail on the individual program web pages:

Because of the more restrictive declaration eligibility requirements for the B.S. degree, incoming 3rd year transfer students can only initially declare the B.A. degree. Eligibility to declare the B.S. major in Biology requires completion of all three core courses (BIOL 3000, 3010, 3020) with a 2.700 cumulative GPA (B- average) for these three courses. Once you have met this eligibility, you can change your B.A. declaration to the B.S. degree.

You should consult the How to Declare a Biology Major web page for the procedure for declaring your Biology major.