The UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics

Human Biology & Society, B.A.

Human Biology & Society, B.S.

• UCLA General Catalog description of B.A. and B.S. program requirements (scroll down webpage to see B.S.)
• Summary of core and elective courses associated with our B.A. and B.S.
• Sample course plan for premajor and major courses required by our B.A. and B.S.

How to become a pre-major in Human Biology and Society

Take Society and Genetics 5, (offered each Fall quarter).  You will learn about genes and gene expression, human evolutionary biology, and concepts of society, diversity and identity.  Receive a grade of B or better, and then contact our Student Affairs Officer, indicating your desire to be a pre-major in either our B.A. or B.S. program.  There is no application required for declaring pre-major status.  As a pre-major, you will work toward completing lower division preparatory requirements.

How to become a major

When preparatory coursework is done (or substantially done, for B.S. candidates), pre-majors need to apply to the major program.   Communicate with our Student Affairs Officer to receive an application and determine the right time to apply.

•  Application Process for continuing UCLA students

Application process is competitive. In 2012-13, about 25 majors will be graduated with either a B.A. or B.S. in Human Biology and Society.  In 2013-14, and thereafter, a combined total of about 60-80 majors will be graduated each year with a Human Biology and Society degree (either B.A. or B.S.).  Our aim is to keep the number of B.A. and B.S. graduated each year as equal as possible – in the near term, our B.A. are likely to be about 1/3 of the total number of undergrads in our Human Biology and Society major program. Note: the potential application pool of continuing (i.e., non-transfer) students is limited by the number of students who have taken the course, Society and Genetics 5.

Admission of continuing, non-transfer students is based on your progress through the required coursework (including grades) and a personal statement of interest, which explains why this major is right for you.  An admissions committee of our faculty decides all applications.  Completion of course requirements alone does not guarantee admission to the major.  To date, “B+” is closest to the GPA of students pursuing our B.A. or B.S. degrees.  Our B.S. applicants should be “good” at science – i.e., B range grades or better in math, chemistry, life sciences, physics.  Our B.A. applicants should be “good” at social science – i.e., B range or better in social science coursework.

•  Application process for Transfer Students

Caution: Transfer Admission to our B.A. and B.S. programs is likely to be extremely competitive. For arrival in Fall 2013, we accepted 5 B.A. and 5 B.S. applicants.  For arrival in Fall 2014, we do not expect an increase in this level of intake. We expect about 30-50 applicants for each of our B.A. and B.S. programs.  Acceptance rate for transfer students into our major programs is therefore low, and so, we recommend that transfer students should only apply to our major if they wouldn’t wish to be at UCLA unless part of our major program. Additionally, we cannot accommodate requests to switch into either our B.A. or B.S. program.  The demand for our small major program has simply become too strong for us to accommodate transfer student requests to switch into our program.