Earning a Science Degree

COS Degree Requirements

OSU Catalog Language

To graduate with a B.S. degree in the College of Science, undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements:

University Baccalaureate Core (48)
College of Science Requirements (these credits can also fulfill part of the baccalaureate core requirements)
1. Mathematical sciences (12)
2. Physical, earth, and/or biological sciences (15) to include a two-term sequence (At least one term in biological science and one term in physical or earth science. Must include a two-term sequence in one of these sciences)
Department requirements (see each department)

Some departments also grant a B.A. degree that requires a full year of a college-level (200-level or above) foreign language and at least 9 credits of College of Liberal Arts electives in addition to credits required for the baccalaureate core. See the department listings for specific requirements.

A minimum 2.00 GPA is required in College of Science majors and minors; (S/U grading is not allowed in science majors or minors).

The curricula are shown for each major; some substitutions can be made with department and college approval. Unless otherwise indicated, the conditions and credits for research, thesis, reading and conference, and seminar are to be arranged with the instructor involved.

Exceptions to Degree Requirements

S/U exceptions for major requirements are at the discretion of the departments Lead Advisor.
S/U exceptions for COS requirements are at the discretion of the COS Head Advisor.
Exceptions to the minimum GPA requirement must be approved by the academic unit.

Major Requirements

Requests for exceptions to department (major) requirements are approved and entered into the student’s record by the Lead Advisor (or designee) in that unit.

Approval for advisors to input major exceptions should be approved by the program Lead Advisor.
Appeals to denied request should be made to the Department Chair.

COS & Bacc Core Requirements

Requests for exceptions to the COS requirements and University Bacc Core requirements are approved by the COS Head Advisor (or designee).

Approval for advisors to input COS or Bacc Core exceptions should be approved by the College Head Advisor.
Appeals to denied requests on COS degree requirements will be sent to the COS Associate Dean for Academic & Student Affairs.
Appeals to decisions on University Bacc Core requirements should be sent to the unit responsible for course content via a university Transfer Equivalency Petition.

Clarification of COS Requirements

COS requirements may “double dip” with major and bacc core requirements.
For all majors except for Math, all COS requirements will be satisfied by major requirements.
Students must complete 2 courses from one of the following science sequences:
- Biology: BI 101, BI 102, BI 103, BI 211, BI 212, BI 213
- Chemistry: CH 121, CH 122, CH 123, CH 201, CH 202, CH 231, CH 232, CH 233, CH 225H, CH 226H
- Physics: PH 201, PH 202, PH 203, PH 211, PH 212, PH 213
- Geography: GEO 101, GEO 201, GEO 202, GEO 203, GEOG 102, OC 103
A total of 15 credits in biological and physical sciences is required for the college requirements. In addition to the sequence courses above, students must complete:
- Any courses in BI, BOT, CH, MB, PH, Z, or GEO 101-103, 201-203, 221, 322, 323
Students must complete at least one course from each the biological and physical sciences categories.
COS requirements many not be taken as S/U.
Grades with a D-or above may be used to fulfill college requirements.
- Minimum grade requirements for major courses is at the discretion of the department.

COS Major Requirements

COS Major Codes

506 - Biochemistry and Biophysics - Corvallis

927 - Advanced Biophysics
926 - Neuroscience
928 - Pre-Medicine

509 - Biology - Corvallis, OSU-Cascades

715 - Ecology
517 - Genetics
572 - Marine Biology
743 - Physiology & Behavior
713 - Pre-Dentistry
226 - Pre-Education
714 - Pre-Medicine
584 - Pre-Veterinary Medicine

520 - Chemistry - Corvallis

519 - Advanced Biochemistry
521 - Advanced Chemistry
518 - Biochemistry Option
523 - Business Option
516 - Chemistry Education
303 - Chemical Engineering
504 - Environmental Chemistry
505 - Forensic Science
522 - Materials Science
690 - Pre-Medicine

560 - Mathematics - Corvallis

692 - Applied and Computational Mathematics
737 - Mathematical Biology
234 - Secondary Teaching Emphasis
658 - Statistics

570 - Microbiology - Corvallis

736 - Aquatic Microbiology
607 - Pre-Medicine

590 - Physics - Corvallis

589 - Applied Physics
586 - Biological Physics
588 - Chemical Physics
592 - Computational Physics
593 - Geophysics
587 - Mathematical Physics
594 - Optical Physics
777 - Physics Teaching

606 - BioHealth Sciences - Corvallis

576 - Pre-Clinical Laboratory Science
595 - Pre-Dentistry
775 - Pre-Medicine/Pre-Podiatry
603 - Pre-Optometry
583 - Pre-Pharmacy
585 - Pre-Physical Therapy
597 - Pre-Physician Assistant

620 - Zoology - Corvallis, Ecampus

971 - Biochemistry & Molecular Biology - Corvallis

972 - Advanced Molecular Biology
973 - Computational Molecular Biology
974 - Pre-Medicine

Degree Exceptions

For COS core requirements and bacc core exceptions please see the College of Science Head Advisor

For major requirement exceptions, the student should meet with their primary academic advisor first.

For MyDegrees exceptions, the department lead advisors are responsible for inputting degree exceptions.

Biochemistry and Biophysics: Kari Van Zee
Chemistry: Chris Pastorek
Integrative Biology: Brock McLeod
Mathematics: Adel Faridani
Microbiology: Linda Bruslind
Physics: David McIntyre

Bacc Core Exceptions for COS majors

For advisors who are assisting students prior to the process below, it is important to reference the Bacc Core Learning Outcomes website. Students must be able to explain how transfer courses meet the specific learning outcomesfor the bacc core category they wish to fulfill.

Current Bacc Core Exceptions Process

For students who would like to have transfer courses applied to bacc core requirements, their primary academic College is responsible for managing these requests. For most colleges, these requests are approved by the College’s Head Advisor.

COS students may submit a request for transfer courses to be considered for bacc core requirements, by completing this Qualtrics survey.

Students will need to identify how their transfer course(s) fulfills the Bacc Core Learning Outcomes for the requirement they want fulfilled.
A course syllabus or documentation of the course content, requirements, expectations, learning outcomes, etc., from the academic term they completed the course will be required in order to approve requests.
If the students request is approved, an exception will be entered into MyDegrees as well and a note on the students record of the exception.
The student and their academic advisor (or lead advisor if no primary advisor is assigned) will be notified when the request has been completed.

There is currently a committee of folks working on a standard practice for bacc core expectations across the university. We are still a ways away from implementing a new process so for the time being, we will continue to use the survey above. More information to come.

Difference, Power, and Discrimination (DPD) & Writing Intensive Curriculum (WIC) Bacc Core Exceptions

Colleges do not approve transfer courses for DPD or WIC exceptions. Requests for these exceptions are approved by the directors of the DPD and WIC programs respectively:

DPD Director: Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi
WIC Director: Dr. Sarah Tinker Perrault

COS advisors and/or students may complete the COS bacc core exception survey for DPD or WIC course.

Requests must include a course syllabus. Requests missing documentation will not be considered.
Students may complete the COS survey above with their documentation.
The COS Head Advisor will review requests for DPD/WIC applicability, then forward requests meeting requirements to the appropriate program.

Catalog Year Declaration

Advisors may complete the change of program workflow request to change a student's catalog year.

Catalog Term Rules for Curriculum Changes

This document contains several examples for common transactions, but the list of examples is not exhaustive.

CATALOG TERM OBSOLESCENCE

At the time of graduation, all students, including transfer students, must use a catalog that is not more than ten years old. A student may petition to the Head Advisor of their College for any extension of a catalog greater than ten years from their expected graduation term.

CATALOG TERM IN THE CURRICULUM RECORD

The Catalog Term of the Curriculum record governs the catalog year used to evaluate baccalaureate core and university degree requirements in MyDegrees. The term here should reflect the term of the student’s admission & matriculation at a particular student level or their term of readmission at a particular student level. For Degree Partnership Program students, the first term the student is admitted to OSU will be the matriculation date and will determine the catalog year for institutional and baccalaureate core requirements.

Example 1 (Matriculation with no breaks in enrollment): The catalog term in the curriculum field for a student that matriculates into their undergraduate program in 201001, and has no breaks in enrollment of 4 terms or more (which would require readmission), should remain 201001. This is the catalog term which their baccalaureate core and university degree requirements should be evaluated under at the time of degree clearance.
Example 2 (Break in enrollment with Readmission): The catalog term in the curriculum field for a student that matriculates into their undergraduate program in 201001, but has a break in enrollment of 4 terms or more (which requires readmission) is changed to the term of readmission. If they return to the university in 201103 their curriculum catalog & field of study catalogs become 201103. The readmission catalog term is what their baccalaureate core, university degree requirements, and major/minor/option requirements will be evaluated under at the time of degree clearance.

FIELD OF STUDY CATALOG

The Catalog designator in the Field of Study tab determines what catalog year requirements the associated field of study (major/minor/option etc...) will be evaluated under. These items can carry different catalog terms from one another and from the curriculum catalog term. Generally, the field of study catalog is determined by the term in which that particular field of studywas officially declared by the student and entered in Banner. However, if the student is pursuing a major and option, the major and the 1stoption associated with that major must have the same catalog. The catalog of the linked major and option is set by which was declared most recently. Subsequent majors/minors/options will be assigned a catalog based on the term they were declared.

Also, a student in consultation with their advisor can choose to move their field of study catalog year forward. This is accomplished by submitting a signed Catalog Declaration form with the appropriate catalog term designation. Catalog terms can be moved forwards but not backwards in time.

Example 1 (Initial Major declaration): A student matriculates to the university in 201001 therefore their curriculum catalog term is 201001. In 201101 the student declares a new major. At that time the curriculum catalog term remains their term of matriculation (201001), but the field of study major catalog would be set to 201101.

Example 2 (Option Declaration): A student matriculates to the university in 201001. In 201101 the student declares a new major. At that time the curriculum catalog term remains their term of matriculation (201001), but the field of study major catalog would be set to 201101. However, in 201102 the student declares an option to accompany their major. Still the curriculum catalog term remains their term of matriculation (201001), but the declaration of the option requires that their major and option catalogs be the same. The most recently declared dictates what the catalog will be; so in this case the curriculum catalog is 201001 & both the major and option would be assigned a catalog of 201102.

Example 3 (Minor Declaration): A student matriculates to the university in 201001. In 201101 the student declares a new major; at which time their major catalog becomes 201101. In 201103 this student declares a minor. The minor catalog stands alone and is determined by when it is declared. So in this example, the curriculum catalog is 201001, the major catalog is 201101, and the minor catalog is 201103.

Example 4 (Additional Options): A student matriculates to the university in 201001. In 201101 the student declares a new major; at which time their major catalog becomes 201101. In 201102 the student declares an option to accompany their major, and the major and options are assigned catalog 201102. Now, in 201103 this student declares an additional option. The catalogs of subsequent options are determined by when they are declared. So in this example, the curriculum catalog is 201001, the major & option catalog is 201102, and the subsequent option catalog is 201103.

Example 5 (Multiple Degrees): A student matriculates to the university in 201001 therefore their curriculum catalog term is 201001. In 201101 the student declares a new major. At that time the curriculum catalog term remains their term of matriculation (201001), but the field of study major catalog would be set to 201101. In 201103 the student declares that they will be seeking a second degree and major. The curriculum catalog term and major catalog of the second degree & major will both be set to the term of declaration (201103 in this example).

Deficient Foreign Language Requirement

For high school transcript or proficiency exam: Office of Admissions

For other Deficient Foreign Language questions: Office of the Registrar

*See specific contacts in the Advisor Contacts page

Writing Intensive Curriculum

Writing Intensive Course Requirement for Double Degree and Dual Major

ALEKS

Interpreting ALEKS scores

OSU ALEKS website

Alternative Credit Opportunities

For Advance Placement scores, College-Level Examination Program, International Baccalaureate, and other alternative credit sources