Ecology, Behavior and Evolution (BI30)

The Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution major includes the fields of population biology, ecology, conservation biology, animal behavior, population genetics, biogeography, and evolution. These fields have in common a focus on evolutionary processes and whole organisms in relation to each other and to their environments. Because organismal biology spans such a wide variety of topics, this major has been designed to provide the basic fundamentals while allowing maximum flexibility within the general topic areas. Research careers in ecology, behavior, and evolution can be found in universities, government agencies, and the biotechnology industry. More applied careers are equally varied: recent graduates now work in forestry and wildlife management, as ecological consultants for US and foreign governments and private industry, as teachers, or in new fields such as ecological medicine and epidemiology, environmental design and planning, restoration ecology and conservation biology.

• Biology: BILD 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
• Chemistry: CHEM 6A, 6B, and 6C
• Mathematics: MATH 10A, 10B, and 11 or 20A, 20B, and 11
• Physics: PHYS 1A/1AL, 1B/1BL, and 1C/1CL or 2A, 2B, and 2C

Note: Any given course can only satisfy one major requirement

• Genetics (BICD 100)
• Introduction to Ecology (BIEB 102)
• Evolution (BIEB 150)
• EBE Core Courses - complete four upper division BIEB courses (4 units each)
• EBE Lab - complete one upper-division BIEB lab course (at least four units) offered by the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences.
• Biology Lab - complete one upper-division lab course (at least four units) offered by the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences. BISP 196/197/199 (at least four units) may count toward this requirement. An EBE lab not already used for the EBE lab requirement may be used.
• Biology Electives - complete at least ten to twelve units of upper-division coursework offered by the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences. Number of elective units are variable depending on the EBE Core courses and upper-division lab option selected (a total of 48 upper division units is required for completion of the major).
  • Upper-division Biology elective units may be completed with courses numbered 100-189 taken through UC San Diego’s School of Biological Sciences. Elective units may include one quarter of BISP 195P, up to four BIxx 194s, and one quarter of either BISP 193 or BISP 196/197/199.
  • Only one BISP 196/197/199 can apply towards the major. Subsequent quarters of BISP 196, 197 or 199 may be applied toward college and university requirements.

• Major Check Worksheet
• Freshman and Transfer Sample Plan Lookup Tool