Admissions Requirements
Transfer applicants who have completed more than 6 semesters or 80 hours of coursework are subject to an additional review. Priority is given to students who can complete degree requirements within a total of ten semesters in college (not counting summer sessions).
GPA
It is expected that applicants to this program will earn a minimum of 3.0 (A=4.00) GPA in the required technical subjects (biology, chemistry, physics and math) and a minimum 2.7 (A=4.00) cumulative GPA for all transfer coursework completed.
Coursework
Please note that the introductory Biology sequence must include an Organismal/Evolutionary course and a Molecular/Cellular course. Contact the Biology Advising Office at (217)333-6774 for specific recommendations for your community college.
Students With Fewer Than 50 Transferable Credit Hours at Time of Application
If you’ll apply to Illinois with fewer than 50 transferable credit hours, you must complete transfer coursework equivalent to the following University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign courses before or during the term you’re submitting your application:
- CHEM 102, General Chemistry I and CHEM 103, General Chemistry Lab I
- CHEM 104, General Chemistry II and CHEM 105, General Chemistry Lab II
- IB 150, Organismal & Evolutionary Biology
- or MCB 150, Molecular & Cellular Basis of Life
Students can take their institution’s Biology I and/or Biology II. It is recommended that students transferring into MCB with less than 50 transferable credit hours take MCB 150 at the University of Illinois, when a direct equivalent to MCB 150 is not available at their transfer institution. This will enable the student to be better prepared for MCB 250 at the University of Illinois.
Students With 50 or More Transferable Credit Hours at Time of Application
In addition to the above courses, if you’ll apply to Illinois with 50 or more transferable credit hours, you must complete transfer coursework equivalent to the following University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign courses before or during the term you’re submitting your application:
- IB 150,Organismal & Evolutionary Biology (if not completed previously)
- MCB 150,Molecular & Cellular Basis of Life (if not completed previously)
If a direct equivalent to MCB 150 is not available, students will be expected to complete MCB 150 upon transfer to ensure a smoother academic transition to the MCB program. If a direct equivalent to MCB 150 has been completed, students will be expected to complete the MCB Placement Test upon transfer to ensure placement into the appropriate course.
Admissions Recommendations
Coursework
Although it isn’t required that you do so in order to be admitted, we also highly recommend that you complete transfer coursework equivalent to the following University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign courses before or during the term you’re submitting your application:
- CHEM 232,Elementary Organic Chemistry I and CHEM 223, Elementary Organic Chemistry Lab I
- MATH 220,Calculus
- or MATH 221, Calculus I
- RHET 105, Writing and Research (at most institutions, the equivalent requires a two-course English composition sequence)
Graduation Requirements
To graduate, all students are required to complete at least 45 semester hours of credit at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At least 21 of these credit hours must be at the 300 or 400 level.
General Education Courses
Included in our graduation requirements are general education (gen ed) courses. These classes allow you to gain and use broad knowledge beyond the specialized learning you’ll do through your major. Learn more about our general education requirements. You may be able to use Transferology to find gen ed courses that will transfer over from your institution to UIUC.
Language Other than English
Although this program doesn’t require you to complete our language graduation requirement for admission, we strongly encourage you do so before transferring.
| For Admission | For Graduation |
| No Requirement | Level 4 |
Learn More About This Major
To learn more about this program, including degree requirements and similar majors, we encourage you to check out the below resources.