Office of Biology Undergraduate Affairs

FAQs: Navigating Biology

Concentration Programs and Requirements

Biology Course Offerings

Undergraduate Research and Honors

Biological Science Departments

Internship and Postgrad Planning

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Steps for Filing Concentrations

  1. For freshmen and sophomores contemplating biology programs, Dean Thompson is available for advising  at every stage of planning. For appointments and office hours, phone 863-3133; email is invited at Marjorie_Thompson@brown.edu. Email will ensure a rapid response for brief questions.
  2. Sophomores:
    1. For developing concentration plans: schedule an appointment with Dean Thompson (see above). We will map out possible paths, consider what will be the "best fit" program for your interests, goals, achievements and constraints, including possible study abroad. These appointments are comprehensive and involve all aspects of the concentration planning until fourth semester.
    2. In your fourth semester, we will have a meeting that will address more detail about specific courses planned for the remaining four semesters. You will then be assigned a faculty concentration advisor (either Dean or another of the faculty assigned to our program/class year), and proceed to actually filling out and submitting the concentration forms.
  3. Contact your assigned concentration advisor (see B, above)  for a meeting, and formalize your concentration plans with the paperwork and signatures following a discussion. Along with Dean Thompson, your advisor will be working with you from now on, through until your graduation.

*Concentration forms must be completed by the end of  the preregistration period of your fourth semester.

Course work for  concentrations in the biological sciences is offered jointly by departments including: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB); Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry (MCB); Microbiology and Molecular Immunology (MMI); Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology (MPPB); Neuroscience NEURO); and Pathology (PATH). Opportunities to focus within any of these areas are available from within the curriculum as well as individual research projects.

 *There are TEN different standard programs, each with unique characteristics, and all solid, rigorous programs.


Honors in biology requires a thesis and oral presentation based on a research project (usually conducted via BI 1950/1960). The guidelines, a manual, and information on faculty research is available in the Biology Undergraduate Affairs Office, Arnold Lab, Room. 124, 97 Waterman Street