COURSE CURRICULUM

The Genetics major at the University of New Hampshire is a rigorous, science-heavy program structured to build deep expertise in molecular biology, genomics, and data-driven life sciences, and its curriculum is clearly divided into four main parts—foundation courses, bioscience core, genetics core, and electives—followed by a capstone experience, ensuring students develop both theoretical understanding and practical research skills; the foundation stage is strongly quantitative and scientific, including general and organic chemistry, calculus, biostatistics, and physics, which means this major is not easy and requires solid commitment to math and science, but this is necessary because modern genetics relies heavily on analytical thinking and laboratory precision; the bioscience core then builds essential biological knowledge through courses like molecular biology, microbiology, cell biology, and biochemistry, forming the backbone for understanding how genes function inside cells and organisms; moving forward, the genetics core focuses specifically on advanced topics such as genomics, bioinformatics, microbial genetics, and lab-based experimentation, where students learn techniques like DNA analysis, sequencing, and computational biology, which are critical in today’s biotech and medical industries; a major strength of this program is flexibility in electives, allowing students to specialize in areas like human genetics, evolutionary genetics, bioinformatics programming, microbiology, or even interdisciplinary topics such as pharmacology and immunology, depending on career goals; importantly, the program emphasizes research through lab-based electives, senior thesis options, and independent investigations, culminating in a capstone experience that integrates all prior learning into a real project, which could be research, teaching, or applied work; overall, this major prepares students for careers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, research labs, healthcare, and emerging fields like genomics and personalized medicine, while also being an excellent pathway to graduate school, medical school, or genetic counseling, but it is best suited for students who are genuinely interested in biology at the molecular level and are ready for a challenging, lab-intensive academic journey.