Biology, Enviro Sci, DS @ UNC Chapel Hill

[weak vale]

It's squirmy!!
Some information about me...

• 4th year student at UNC Chapel Hill
• Majoring in Biology and Environmental Science
• Quantitative Energy Systems track for Environmental Science
• ...& a Certificate in Applied Data Science
  -# Side note: I've switched majors 4 times while I've been here!
• I currently work in a genetics lab on-campus doing bioinformatics and other data things.
  -# ---
  I plan on attending UNC for a MS in Information Science, focusing on bioinformatics and environmental informatics. After that, I may pursue a PhD, but if not, I will likely be pursuing quantitative/computational positions in fields of science, like maybe working for energy companies or as a biostatistician. I also have interest in environmental health science and computational toxicology; generally, I really love the intersection of statistical and computational approaches and life/natural sciences.
  I've gotten a good taste of a lot of the sciences here, ranging from ENEC, BIOL, ENVR, and EMES, to STOR, COMP, INLS, and MATH. I'm currently completing a honors thesis in EMES, focused on real-time bias correction in flood modeling.
  -# ---
  Some things I will not be able to answer...
• I will not be answering any questions about financial aid, merit aid, etc., as I have no experience with any of the "how do I pay for college" stuff, but I do recommend reaching out to our Office of Scholarships and Student Aid.
• I have some experience in transferring in courses from other schools, both CC and 4-year universities. Otherwise, I can't speak to the transfer student experience.
• I am not premed. I do have some friends that are, and I can speak to our BIOL program, but no personal experience in the realm of "planning to go to med school." Sorry!

Ask away, and go heels! 🩵🐏🩵🐏

[solar meadow]

AMA with Squirmy from UNC Chapel Hill

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matamgimanipur

are you a north carolinian?

[weak vale]

Born and raised! Lived in Wake County my entire life :)

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qhasti | pH

this is a test of the biological broadcasting system. Can you explain how spatial genetics methods can claim high resolutions? 😉

[weak vale]

qhasti my dear i am a silly goose but i will try!
my understanding (kinda rooted in geospatial techniques that ive done in envsci) is that, assuming your goal is simply to map spatial distributions of genetics, you could use geostat interpolation/machine learning to fill in areas that have little/no data that pull down overall map resolution
of course you could always just sample better
and if u mean high resolution in terms of just the data quality and not necessarily the spatial distribution im sure there are comp/stat methods to help with poor quality data

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ave

hello billie how are u doing today how is the day going and what made you decide to do this ama :o

[weak vale]

hello ave!

1. i am doing okay today!
2. i had a busy day showing my grandma my apartment but now im snuggled up in bed so we're balling
3. i really love answering questions AND i love yapping abt my experiences (and indoctrinating people into coming to UNC)

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mintmobiile

you said you switched majors a lot, what was the process like? and since you know quite a bit about their environmental science program, could you speak to any pros or cons there are at unc chapel hill specifically for that field?

[weak vale]

switching majors was SUPER easy (since none of my swaps involved a major that required an application lol). i literally just went to drop-in advising over zoom and asked to switch and they said "yeah sure"
my major swap timeline was something like...
pre-environmental health science --> biochem and studio art --> pre-EHS and studio art --> biology and environmental science --> biology and envsci (quantitative energy systems track)

i really love our envsci program here since there's a very heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary learning (both at UNC and in the major)
i looooove how flexible the major is, and the advisors care more about prepping you for a career than meeting arbitrary requirements. an example, all envsci majors are required to take an environmental problem solving class (ENEC 203), but there are maybe 20-30 more advanced quantitative courses that they'll count for the requirement (assuming your math skills are strong). another example being my electives; im interested in modeling, energy, & enviro finance, so my advisor is working with me to tailor my electives/"concentration" courses towards those, even tho QES doesnt have an explicit concentration in that lol
biggest con is something you might not have to deal with, but we're having some departmental issues w classes since we lost an advisor last year, but they're hiring a bunch of people right now so the "lack of support/offerings" feels like a temp issue. things that weren't cons for me but might be for others: you have to take calc 2 and you have to have a minor or 2nd major in an allied science

i will also add that if you're more interested in the social science applications of environmental stuff, check out the environmental studies major!

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meepmerp__

Hi! What do you hope to do after college (with regards to ur major)?

[weak vale]

My current plan is grad school, either for information science or environmental engineering. Job-wise, I have a good deal of flexibility; I'd love to go into something with numbers (so environmental finance & modeling sound fun), but I'm also able to go into environmental/biology technician roles for things like enviro microbiology or other lab things. I would love to work for the NIEHS or EPA <3

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mintmobiile

can you talk a little bit more about the required minor/second major in an allied science? im interested in interdisciplinary study and maybe a minor in a humanities subject, would this still be possible as an environmental science major? thank you!!!

[weak vale]

You could totally double minor or double major with a minor. The enviro science requirement does require it to be a science, so things like information science, marine science, math, stats, CS, DS, geology, biology, chemistry, etc. are the kind of options in that direction.
There is a lot of room to take humanities focused classes in both the enviro sci BS and enviro studies BA, but if you're really interested in the humanities side of environmental stuff, definitely check out the BA! The concentrations they offer are super cool, and it still requires a somewhat STEM-y background (intro bio+lab, calc 1, and either chem 1+2 or phys 1+2)
All that being said... Its 100% possible to pick up a social sci/humanities minor (or take classes in that direction) with an envsci major :)

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jp | kaf studies @ caltech.

if it’s not too invasive, do you mind giving us a general rundown on why you changed majors to your current one? did you face any unforeseen difficulties with any of your former majors?

[weak vale]

For sure!! My first year was a little rough; I struggled in calc 2 and physics 1, and applying for environmental health science requires calc 3, diffeq, and physics 2, so I felt I wouldn't be able to do it. I switched to biochem because I thought that would give me flexibility for environmental stuff that I was interested in, and studio art because well I'm an artist and always wanted to go to art school haha. After a semester or so of that, I flunked out of organic chemistry, and I realized the studio art courses were way too tailored to fine art, so I re-evaluated my options from the context of like "studying what I love and preparing me for environmental careers." For a brief moment I was pre-EHS again, but ran out of time to apply, so I went for biology and envsci. After meeting with my envsci advisor, he convinced me that I would benefit from and enjoy the QES concentration (and offered to sub calc 3 with math for data sci) and I said "fuck it". Ended up enjoying it a lot and stuck with it :)

Oh yeah, tangentially related to that...

do not take more than 2 stem your first semester

I know you are all very intelligent students. You will get torn to shreds. You are not weak for making a good decision. Trust me.

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mintmobiile

what's the rest of the town like? any cool places?

[weak vale]

It's very green! Franklin Street is definitely the biggest "cool place" in terms of food, shops, and social stuff, but if you're a fan of nature, we've got quite a few natural areas nearby. On campus there's Battle Park and the Coker Arboretum; and I think the NC Botanical Garden is busable if not walkable.
I think there may be a few bus lines that go out to Southpoint (not technically in Chapel Hill but still a fun place) which is a nice mall, but definitely bus/car to get there

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berkeley reject

im sure that switching majors a lot would've changed your schedule and the courses you need to take right? how did you manage to stay on track to graduate on time? did you take summer classes or rigorous course loads or -? also just any general time management strategies you have (:

[weak vale]

I'm struggling to find the best way to put this, but for me, there was only a little bit of scheduling shenanigans involved when switching majors so much. The biggest "help" in reducing those shenanigans was that a lot of my majors shared the same "additional requirements", which are courses required that aren't directly part of the major. Like for biology, some of the additional requirements are chemistry courses, some math, some physics, and a programming course.
Outside of STEM, although I've never been through it, I would assume that there's a similar bit with humanities/social sciences, slightly depending on which majors you switch between (like psych BA to anthro BA might be a little different than english BA to history BA). Also, if your major classes could count for gen ed requirements, you can still put those towards gen eds after you switch.

For me, staying on track to graduate was more around mental health stuff. There were two semesters where I underloaded/did the bare minimum because I wasn't well enough to handle 15+ hours. Every summer I've done at least one summer class, including the summer before my freshman year (I wanted something to do in my free time, and it got ENGL 105 out of the way quickly). I don't see this being an issue for a lot of majors, but I know my 2nd summer, I had to do both of my remaining BIOL core classes (202 and 205) because they were phasing them out for the new BIOL curriculum, and I needed them to start taking upper division electives. Otherwise, I mostly used summer classes for "gen eds I struggled with at UNC" (PHYS 118, CHEM 102+L, CHEM 261)

I have done a few semesters of rigorous course loads, but those were less to "graduate on time", and more because I wanted to do a lot. Like adding a certificate for fun, and doing my research field site.