Getting Started in One of Our Majors

To ensure timely graduation, ALL first year students intending a major in our department should:

• Take BOTH BIO 105 and CHEM 105 during their first semester.

Academic Advising Occurs in Phases

Your officially assigned adviser's name appears on the first page of your STAR. You will likely go through at least two advisers during your college career at UW Oshkosh. One will be a UARC staffer and the other will be a department faculty member.

Your First Advisor

New freshmen and transfer students are assigned a general adviser in the UW Oshkosh Undergraduate Advising Resource Center. Your UARC adviser will help you plan your first semester(s) at UW Oshkosh based on your stated interests (including your major, if you decide to declare one right away). This person likely has a load of several hundred students to advise. He or she is not an expert on the biology or microbiology department curriculum. See the above "warning" on "Getting Started in One of Our Majors."

Your Department Faculty Advisor

To qualify for faculty adviser assignment, you must declare a major in our department (fill out a form in the UARC to declare or change a major) AND complete the following courses:

• BIO 105 Intro Bio: Unity
• CHEM 105 Gen Chem I

Bring your STAR showing completion of these courses to the main biology office (Halsey 142) and ask to be assigned a faculty adviser. You may request a certain faculty member but, because we try to keep adviser loads evenly spread at no more than 20 to 30 students per adviser, your request may not be able to be honored.

IF YOU PLAN TO GRADUATE IN FOUR YEARS, BE SURE TO VISIT YOUR DEPARTMENTAL ADVISER ABOUT ONCE PER SEMESTER!

Certain Faculty members specialize in certain advising areas, as follows. Either attend their office hours or email them for an advising appointment.

• Pre-Vet: McDermott (has DVM as well as PhD)
• Other Pre-Health: Bentivenga, Cooper, Dilkes, Kallas, Kostman, Kurtz, Michalski, Vaughan
• Cell/Molec/Prof: Holton
• Env Health: Mueller-Spitz
• Healthcare-Bus or Healthcare-Sci: Merriman
• Secondary Education: Wise
• Ecol/Org Biol: Adler, Pillsbury, Stelzer, Zaspel
• Micro: Bentivenga, Kallas, Mueller-Spitz, Shors

Once assigned to a faculty adviser, the student remains with that adviser unless either the student or the adviser requests a change. Exceptions occur when there is a new faculty hire, a resignation, or a sabbatical. Reassignment in such cases may be made by the program assistant without consultation of the faculty or student(s) affected.

Peer Advising

PALs are student advisers who work out of the UARC.  In addition, two biology- or micribiology-based student organizations on campus put our majors in touch with a network of student friends and mentors and provide priceless opportunities to get "been there, done that" advising. These organizations are:

• Biology and Microbiology Club. For students with any interest in these fields.

• Pre-Health-Professionals Organization (PHPO). For students interested in ANY aspect of health.

Open Advising

Dr. Merriman will meet with any student at any stage of his or her degree.  Email her for office hours or an appointment.

Career Advising

Your departmental adviser may be able to give you career advice, but don't neglect the many resources offered elsewhere on campus. UW Oshkosh has a very active Career Services Center, including exercises to prepare you for the all-important interview process. YOU RETAIN CAREER SERVICES OFFICE ACCESS EVEN AFTER YOU GRADUATE!

Finally, the Counseling Center also offers advice to enrolled students.

CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF POTENTIAL CAREERS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.