[SmilerNuts]

Welcome to the zoological society!

Apply to join here

Is anyone else applying for it? and what are you most looking forward to about it?

[Lou_]

Well you already know I'm applying for it lol

I can't wait to look at animal behaviour and in particular predator behaviour!!!
The field trips look great too. Especially in 4th year when you get to do your own project.

And have to say I'm not looking forward to the dissection parts lol!

[wendy_17]

Im doing it !!! mememememe!!! lol Ive aplied for it anyway should I say at Aberdeen, and Edinburgh Im looking forward to almost all parts because the courses both sound interesting

[Lou_]

Wendy did you only apply to 2 unis?
Where do you most want to go?

I'm now seriously considering making Aberdeen as my first choice instead of St A because Aberdeen looks like it's quite good for zoology and it has a dedicated zoology dept.

I applied for biology and not zoology (apart from at Glasgow where you can't apply for just biology) but I'm hoping that I can still take zoology modules and then specialise in zoology in 3rd and 4th year. In 1st year usually all biology students take the same general bio modules anyway.

[wendy_17]

No no Lou I applied to 6 lol, only 2 were for zoology, ll my courses are biology related tho, Ive also got Animal Biology, Biological science applications to lol I'm hoping to get into 2nd year direct because I'm studying for an HNC at the moment.
Ohh yeah I also applied to st andrews for zoology as well (slaps self for forgetting, I kinda mostly wantto go there but its probably going to be aberdeen as I have no chance of getting into st andrews at 2nd year and I can't afford to fund all four years by myself unfortunately.) Im really looking forward to gettin offers (hopefully:P) back lol

So are you planning on moving away then when you go to uni? I am lol will be good I look frward to the new experience.

[The_Luvbster]

I've also applied for zoology So far I've only gotten an offer from Sheffield, and it's been a month. Doesn't seem like a very popular course, does it? And are biology department admissions officers slackers and/or procrastinators or do they just have too many applicants to make a quick decision? (in case you're reading this, dear admissions officer, i was only joking. i respect you so very much and please don't reject me *grovels*)

I've applied for (not in order of preference):
Animal Behaviour - Sheffield
Animal Behaviour - Exeter
Zoology - Nottingham
Zoology with Industrial Placement- Durham
Zoology - St Andrews
Zoology - Imperial

Anyone else applied for any of the above??

[Lou_]

I applied to St Andrews as well.

Well done on getting into Sheffield Luvbster. What's your 1st choice?

Wendy - I applied for Stirling too! it's called animal biology there though, weird!
Yeah I want to move out!
What's your HNC in?

Will applying for biology instead of zoology affect my chances of getting a place since more people are likely to apply for biology than zoology?
I was told that as long as you applied for something in biology it's okay and you can switch about between biology degrees a lot in 1st and 2nd year.

[SmilerNuts]

In first and 2nd year you just choose whatever modules you feel might interest you and then when it comes to Honours (at Aberdeen anyway) you specialise in Immunolgy, Parasitology, Marine Biology or Zoology.

Lou - we're doing Animal Behaviour in AH Bio and it is SO interesting! Predator Behaviour is also what i'm most looking forward to.

Wendy - are you not applying to SAAS to pay for your fees for you? or are you not from Scotland? Student loan should cover everything else. I've been told that going straight into 2nd year isn't good as 1st year is when they let you adjust to the way they work in uni and let you off more with stuff whereas if you were 2nd year they would expect such high standards that would probably be really hard for any newbie at first

[blondielilangel]

Originally Posted by The_Luvbster

I've also applied for zoology So far I've only gotten an offer from Sheffield, and it's been a month. Doesn't seem like a very popular course, does it? And are biology department admissions officers slackers and/or procrastinators or do they just have too many applicants to make a quick decision? (in case you're reading this, dear admissions officer, i was only joking. i respect you so very much and please don't reject me *grovels*)

I've applied for (not in order of preference):
Animal Behaviour - Sheffield
Animal Behaviour - Exeter
Zoology - Nottingham
Zoology with Industrial Placement- Durham
Zoology - St Andrews
Zoology - Imperial

Anyone else applied for any of the above??

Heya
I applied for animal behaviour last year & chose sheffield as my first choice eventually. I started in september this year & ended up dropping out within 3 weeks because it was nothing like how i expected or wanted. The course was very broad, they really mean what they say on the info & there was loads of plants stuff as well. There were about 10 of us on the animal behaviour course & they put us & the zoologists with the biologists. I was really unhappy because of how much plant stuff we were doing and there wasnt even any point switching to zoology because we do mainly the same topics. Its only when u register in the uni that u can actually view all the modules u will study over the whole of the 3 or 4 years. Bit of advice - contact the uni & ask for the whole of the course content for the whole of time you are there & how many credits each one is worth. Then u can make an informed decision & hopefully wont be as disappointed as me before i left. I thoguht wildlife forensics looked really interesting for one thing but discovered when i registered that it was only worth 5 credits not the usual 10.
Just a warning - I dont know about u, but i chose animal behaviour because i hated plants thus wanted to study animals. Just so u know..
Since leaving i still stay in touch with some people on my course & one of them doing animal behaviour is gonig to talk 2 a tutor about how lame the course is & another, doing zoology, is really fed up with all the plant stuff at all.
Having said this, the uni is great & the night life is fab! I really miss my mates i made there over the 3 weeks i was there.

Best of luck though with the rest of your offers & if u do go to sheffield im sure u will love the uni as a whole! The people r lovely i found though

If u have any questions on sheffield regarding what i said above please feel free to PM me! x-x

[Lou_]

^^ But usually in 1st year don't you have to take modules from a wide variety of biology subjects and that would explain the plants part? Then in 2nd or 3rd year you do JUST your chosen subject.

I don't know but that's how it works in Scotland.

I'm preparing myself for having to do human biology in my 1st year - ugh!! Not looking forward to that!

SmilerNuts you're so lucky!
Wish I was taking AH bio
in Higher our teacher said there was some animal behaviour in Unit 3 (Control & Regulation).. is there?

[Revenged]

If you were to consider studying biology at university I'd recommend going to a university where you could transfer between any life science department very easily... You'll probably find that a certain area interest you most (or you'll find a certain area you want to avoid - normally biochemistry or anything to do with plants)...

[The_Luvbster]

Does anyone know what you do in the one extra year of uni in Scotland? Is it just more in-depth zoology, or just that you do more general biology and less zoology? Thanks a lot for the advice blondielilangel.... i don't actually think i'll be choosing Sheffield because, to be quite honest, i went there this summer and didn't really like the city (too grey and depressing for me) :P If you don't mind me asking, are you in a different university now and if so, what are you studying? I'm not a big fan of plant biology either... besides, if you apply for animal behaviour then quite obviously you're not much of a plant person. If you were you'd be doing biology or botany.

[Lou_]

Originally Posted by Revenged

If you were to consider studying biology at university I'd recommend going to a university where you could transfer between any life science department very easily... You'll probably find that a certain area interest you most (or you'll find a certain area you want to avoid - normally biochemistry or anything to do with plants)...

Yeah, are a lot of unis in England not like that?
Here in Scotland all the unis I visited said that you can move about between all the different biology degrees very easily and don't have to comitt to one until your 3rd year and even then if you realise you've made a mistake sometimes you can change to a different course in 4th year.

Luvbster - well in 1st year you take a whole range of biology modules and usually they cover all the topics in biology, then in 2nd year you get to pick modules and again you can still take modules from a variety of biology areas but you start to specialise a little more and begin to prepare yourself for your Honours years. Then 3rd and 4th year are your Honours years where you do just the one subject and usually 4th year involves a big project.

[ramdom]

im applying for Zoology and animal mangement
i just look forward to studing everything

[SmilerNuts]

Yeah i really cannot be bothered with another year of plants stuff.

Lou - Yeah there is a bit of animal behaviour, it might be unit 2 as well. Unit 2 has some animal defence mechanisms and stuff which is really interesting. Unit 3 is some methods of reducing water loss in plants and animals and even the plant stuff is pretty good there.

For some reason i thought about biochemistry before realising what it was lol, ditto botany!

Lou is just so knowledgable about uni!

[Lou_]

Can't wait to start the animal parts!
I think we're starting it next week

I love botany
I think plants are fascinating although I seem to be in the minority lol! I'd much rather learn about plants than the human body. I think human biology is soooo boring! Not looking forward to doing it at uni AT ALL.

[SmilerNuts]

If you don't wanna do human biology then surely taking zoology rules that out? cause you don't do much of it in 1st year uni, a lot of which is just beefed up AH as far as i know

[ramdom]

i don't mind the human part as long as there is not a lot of it

[SmilerNuts]

yeah human parts could be ok, depending on what sort of stuff it is. But zoology is more about animals than humans surely?

[Juncture]

I think lots of unis with biology (and related things) you take a standard first year which makes it more flexible, but it does depend where you've applied to, most places make it reasonably clear and you can always email them any questions