Information and Departmental Plan of Study
At Princeton, courses in the biological sciences are offered in two departments. Students with interests in molecular, cellular, and developmental processes should enroll in the Department of Molecular Biology(link is external). Those with an evolutionary orientation and interest in organismal, population, and community processes should enroll in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology(link is external).
Students considering a concentration in molecular biology are encouraged to attend a departmental sophomore open house that is held in the spring term to introduce them to the departmental requirements, courses, faculty, and research topics.
Prerequisites
To enter the Department of Molecular Biology, students must have completed MOL 214 with a grade of C or better. CHM 201/207 and 202, or one unit of chemistry AP credit and CHM 202 or 215, or two units of chemistry AP credit, are also required to enter the department.
An alternate path into the department is through the integrated science curriculum (see below).
Program of Study
General Requirements
The following courses are required:
Organic Chemistry
CHM 301 and 304, or CHM 337. Courses taken at other institutions can be used toward fulfillment of the chemistry requirements with prior approval from the Department of Chemistry. The organic chemistry requirement must be completed before the beginning of junior year.
Quantitative
Students satisfy the quantitative requirement by taking one course in statistics (SML 201, ORF 245, or MOL 290) and one course in either computer science (COS 126 or above) or math (MAT 103, 104, 175, 192, or any 200-level MAT course). SML 201 and COS 126 are the recommended choices for most students. AP credit cannot be used toward the fulfillment of the quantitative requirement. Courses taken at other institutions can be substituted for the second required course (but not for the statistics course), if approved by the corresponding department.
Physics
Physics 108 (strongly recommended), or PHY 103 and 104, or PHY 101 and 102. PHY 108 is a one-semester, biologically oriented alternative to the traditional full-year sequences. Premedical students who need two semesters of physics can combine PHY 101 or 103 with PHY 108. Neither AP credit nor courses taken at other institutions can be used toward the fulfillment of the physics requirement.
Departmental Core Courses
The following core courses are required: MOL 342, MOL 345, MOL 348, and MOL 320/350. Except under very special circumstances, these courses must be taken before senior year. MOL 350 is offered in the fall to junior concentrators and is the conventional path for the major. MOL 320 has limited enrollment and is offered in the spring to sophomores who intend to concentrate in MOL and plan to study abroad(link is external), or have taken/are concurrently taking MOL 348 and want an early introduction to research methods and laboratory experience. MOL 320 and MOL 350 are considered equivalent courses and only one can be taken.
All four departmental core courses count toward the eight required departmentals. No substitutions are allowed except in the case of study abroad which, if it entails intensive research and with advanced permission, can substitute for MOL 350.
Other Departmentals
All students must take a total of at least eight departmentals. In addition to the four departmental core courses, students must take at least one 300-, 400-, or 500-level course with MOL as the primary listing. The remaining three departmentals can be chosen from among all 300-or-higher-level MOL, MOL-cross-listed, or other approved courses (see list on department website). Note that CHM 301, CHM 304, and CHM 337 qualify as departmentals. Only courses taken at Princeton count as departmentals; there are no exceptions to this rule.
Any course that is a prerequisite, requirement, or departmental must be taken for a letter grade (no Pass/D/Fail). The sole exception is that, at the point of declaring the MOL concentration, students may appeal to "uncover" a single P grade in order to meet a prerequisite or requirement for entry. See the Office of the Dean of the College's policy on appealing to rescind a P grade(link is external).