bio > npb major

Coming in to college, I chose to be a Biology major. But after exploring my options, I decided on becoming an NPB major!

NPB stands for Neurobiology, Physiology, & Behavior. You can also decide on an emphasis/track (neurobiology, physiology, or organism-environmental interactions).

I personally decided to become an NPB major because I noticed that the Biology major requirements had a lot of classes that I did not need for dental school. NPB was a good fit for me because a lot of the pre-requisite courses for the major overlapped with dental school pre-requisites! That makes it easier for me when preparing to take the DAT & applying for dental schools.

One of my concerns as a NPB major was whether or not I would be learning information that is too specific/not relevant for dentistry. But this thought was proven wrong when I was in my NPB 110A upper division class! I remember learning about how lidocaine (an anesthetic used by dentists) affects neuron signaling. Even though you do learn specifics about the body, I think that the information we learn is very interesting (and also found on the Bio section of the DAT)!

The NPB major has so many different upper-division classes to choose from to fulfill your major requirements. Having so many options is great for exploring different subjects within the NPB field.

One thing I regret is not exploring other majors outside of the College of Biological Sciences. For example, one of my friends is a Psychology major with a Biology emphasis and after talking to her, I realized her major was something I should have considered. So during your first 1-2 years at UCD, I would recommend looking into different colleges and speaking to academic advisors for more advice!

Overall, I am happy that I am an NPB major & am glad I made the switch from Bio. If I were to give you advice on choosing majors, I would recommend meeting with advisors from different colleges, talking to upperclassmen who have similar career goals as you, and even talking to the master advisors for more help.

Best of luck!

Subin