College Level Requirements

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State Mandated Common Course Prerequisites

Students wishing to transfer to USF should complete the A.A. degree at the community college. Some courses required for the major may also meet FKL Liberal Arts Requirements thereby transferring maximum hours to the university. If students transfer with fewer than 60 semester hours of acceptable credit, the students must meet the university’s entering freshman requirements including ACT or SAT test scores, GPA, and course requirements.

There are no State Mandated Common Prerequisites for this degree program.

Students are encouraged to complete as many of the following courses as possible, during the program of study at the community college, and when feasible in FKL Liberal Arts/Gordon Rule courses. Unless stated otherwise, a grade of "C" is the minimum acceptable grade.

• Biology I and Biology II (BSC 2010, BSC 2010L, BSC 2011, BSC 2011L)
• Calculus (MAC 2241 and MAC 2242 or MAC 2311 and MAC 2312 or MAC 2281 and MAC 2282)
• General Chemistry (CHM 2045, CHM 2045L, CHM 2046, CHM 2046L)
• General Physics (PHY 2053, PHY 2053L, PHY 2054, PHY 2054L) or (PHY 2048, PHY 2048L, PHY 2049, PHY 2049L)
• Introduction to Physical Geology and History of the Earth and Life (GLY 2010, GLY 2000L, GLY 2100, GLY 2100L)

Total Major Hours: 62-64 Hours

Major Core Courses - 38-40 Hours

Tier 1
Two introductory courses in each of the five (5) natural sciences areas: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology. Choose from the following courses:

• Calculus I and II:
  • MAC 2241 Life Sciences Calculus I
  • MAC 2242 Life Sciences Calculus II or STA 2023 Introductory Statistics I
    • *MAC 2311 and MAC 2312 are also acceptable for the major.
    • *MAC 2281 and MAC 2282 are also acceptable for the major.
• Biology I and II:
  • BSC 2010 Cellular Processes
  • BSC 2010L Cellular Processes Laboratory
  • BSC 2011 Biodiversity
  • BSC 2011L Biodiversity Laboratory
• General Chemistry I and II:
  • CHM 2045 General Chemistry I
  • CHM 2045L General Chemistry I Laboratory
  • CHM 2046 General Chemistry II
  • CHM 2046L General Chemistry II Laboratory
• Geology I and II: 
  • GLY 2010 Dynamic Earth: Introduction to Physical Geology
  • GLY 2000L Essentials of Geology Laboratory
  • GLY 2100 History of Life
  • GLY 2100L Earth History Laboratory
• Physics I and II:
  • PHY 2053 General Physics I and PHY 2053L General Physics I Laboratory
  • PHY 2054 General Physics II and PHY 2054L General Physics II Laboratory 
    • PHY 2048 General Physics I - Calculus Based and PHY 2048L General Physics I - Calculus Based Laboratory and PHY 2049 General Physics II - Calculus Based and PHY 2049L General Physics II - Calculus Based Laboratory are also accepted for this major

Major Elective Courses - 24 Hours

Tier 2

Students are required to complete a minimum total of 24 credit hours. A minimum of 6 credit hours of structured, upper-level (3000-level or higher) courses in three of the five natural sciences areas is required. All Tier 2 courses in the sciences will be selected by the individual student, but must be chosen from the list of courses approved for department major credit.

Additional Major Requirements

Major Requirements

Free Electives. Courses over and above the required courses should be taken to complete a 120 hour program. Additional courses in computer programming, economics, management, engineering, statistics, writing, and other applied disciplines are strongly recommended to strengthen the degree for subsequent professional employment.

Transfer Credit: It is strongly recommended that students transferring from community/state colleges to the University of South Florida complete whole sequences of chemistry courses, such as general and organic chemistry, before they transfer. Even though courses may carry the same common course number, topics covered may vary significantly from school to school.

D/F Policy: The following three departments, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology and the Department of Integrative Biology have instituted a procedure to provide students with the best opportunity to progress toward their degree requirements.

Effective Fall 2009, the following D and/or F grade rules apply for students to continue in all of the following majors:

• Biomedical Sciences
• Biology (including the marine science concentration)
• Microbiology
• Chemistry (BA, BS)
• Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences (INS)
• Medical Technology and
• Pre-medical sciences students (PMS) who have not yet declared a major

All students entering USF for the first time, in Fall 2009 or later, who subsequently earn three (3) D and/or F grades in applicable USF science and math coursework for their major (i.e. Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics) will be required to change their major to a major more appropriate to their goals and academic performance, and to a major that is not conferred by the Department of Chemistry, Department of Integrative Biology or Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.

All continuing USF students who entered USF prior to Fall 2009 and who have not earned any D or F grades in USF science and math coursework for their major (i.e. Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics) before Fall 2009, will also be redirected after earning three (3) D and/or F grades in subsequent terms. Upon earning the 3rd D and/or F grade, students will be required to choose another major more appropriate to their goals and academic performance, and to one that is not conferred by the Department of Chemistry, Department of Integrative Biology or Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology,( and Molecular Biology.

All continuing USF students who entered USF prior to Fall 2009 and who have earned one (1) or more D or F grades in USF science and math coursework for the major (i.e. Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics) prior to Fall 2009, will be allowed to count all previous D/F grades as one (1) D/F grade. After Fall 2009, students who earn two (2) additional D and/or F grades (resulting in three (3) total D/F grades) in subsequent terms will be required to choose another major more appropriate to their goals and academic performance, and to one that is not conferred by the Department of Chemistry, Department of Integrative Biology or Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.

Lab only courses are not counted towards the total number of D/F grades earned for the policy. Grade Forgiveness will NOT apply to the mandated requirement of changing majors.

If a student is in violation of the D/F policy, regardless of major, they will no longer be able to take any courses offered by the Department of Chemistry, Department of Integrative Biology or Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.

Major Grade Requirement

A grade of C or better is required for science and mathematics courses and each supporting course for the Major. All courses in any chemistry major must be taken with letter grade (A, B, C, D, F, I) except those courses which are graded S/U only.

Major Residency Requirement

At least 12 of the 24 hours at Tier 2 must be taken at USF for residency.

Twelve hours of upper-level major applicable courses must be completed at USF for the Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences degree.

Additional Major Information

Major Advising

Department of Chemistry Advising: chemadvise@usf.edu or http://chemistry.usf.edu/advising/.

Major Faculty

Chairperson and Professor: R. Larsen; Associate Chairperson and Professor: J.E. Lewis; Distinguished University Professor Emeritus: D.F. Martin; Emeritus Professors: J.C. Davis, Jr., J.E. Fernandez, L. Mandell, R.M. O’Malley, G. Solomons; Professors: B.J. Baker, M. Eddaoudi, W.C. Guida, J.P. Harmon, M.D. Johnston, J. Leahy, M.L. McLaughlin, G.G. Meisels, D.J. Merkler, L. Ming, R. Potter, B. Space, E. Turos, P. Zhang; Associate Professors: J. Antilla, K.S. Bisht, A. Malik, A. van der Vaart; Assistant Professors: J. Cai, I. Gelis, S. Lewis, S. Ma, J. Raker, D. Rogers, L. Woodcock; Research Professor: M. Acevedo-Duncan; Research Assistant Professors: X. Cui, M. Kumar, E. Rivera, L. Wojtas; Instructors: L. Anderson, D. Cruz-Ramírez de Arellano, K. Fields, U. Kulatunga, C. Vetromile, S.T. Weldegirma.