Although I'm sure many different majors can relate to these in one way or another, they really do apply specifically to biology majors. You like science, but as you make progress and your classes get harder and harder, suddenly they are the bane of your existence. Here are 10 signs that you are a biology major.
1. You have a love-hate relationship with your science courses.
You fell in love with science in high school, so much that you decide to get your Bachelor's in Science. Now, as you sit in your microbiology class that takes up most of your study and homework time, you're wondering why you ever made that decision.
2. Your upper level courses often make you question your existence.
"Please explain what "Severe Chronic Focal Caseous Submandibular Lymphadentitis" is, then determine the magnitudes of each of the three overlapping stages of the inflammation taking place in the named disease." Sorry I must have missed that part when I was in medical school.
3. Chemistry classes are your own personal hell.
How many grams of barium hydroxide are needed to neutralize 40.0 mL of a 2.38 M solution of phosphoric acid?
Don't know? Me, either. I thought this was chemistry... not math.4. Scientific names.
All you can think about when you're learning about binomial nomenclature is how weird the world would be if everyone referred to walruses as "Odobenus Rosamarus" or Perry the Platypus was called "Perry the Ornithorhynchus anatinus". (That picture is lyrics from Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda," by the way.)
5. You're tired of hearing, "It can't be that hard."
You are so right... biology is the easiest degree I could get in college, that's why I picked it. Why don't you come do my pathology homework, then tell me it's not that hard.
6. You dread advisement week.
Advisement week is just a professor telling you what you already know; how "behind" you are. You sit there and smile and nod as they list off the seven classes you need to take next semester but you're really crying inside.
7. Chemistry labs are terrifying.
If you are as terrified of lighting a bunsen burner as I am, then you know where I'm coming from. And if you cringe every time your lab professor turns on the fume hood, because that means you're going to be carrying out a chemical reaction that creates a product of some toxic gas that could make you pass out if you breathe in too much of it. It's so much fun. Actually, I prefer to just observe the phototaxis patterns of a Planarian flatworm if you don't mind. Flatworms don't spontaneously burst into flames.
8. Other majors complain about their two science courses required for their degree.
Oh, you have to take two science courses with lab? Poor you. Here's my plan of study.
I'll trade you.
9. What's graduation?
When's my graduation date, you ask? Oh no, no see I'm going to be in college until I'm 80. I still have to take microbiology, genetics, Chemistry II, Invertebrate Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry I and II, Physics I and II... the list goes on and on. So, yeah, graduation? Eventually.
10. We're all a little crazy.
If it's your first instinct to culture that moldy bread in your pantry to see what kind of organism is growing on it, then you're probably a bio major. Or maybe you get a sore throat and instead of going to the doctor you consider doing your own throat swab to test for streptococcal bacteria. Yeah, it may be a little weird but hey, no one's perfectly "normal."
