B.S. in Biochemistry

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Program Distinctives

• Rigorous education from a Christ-centered perspective.
• Pre-Health – Prepare for medical school or a health profession by taking courses foundational for success on exams like the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Dental Admissions Test (DAT), Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and the Optometry Admissions Test (OAT).
• Personal pre-health advising from faculty mentors with expertise in your career path, as well as access to accomplished Christian faculty who serve as guides and mentors in and out of the classroom and lab. Our 13-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio keeps classes small and conducive to greater collaboration, research opportunities, and mentorship than you’ll find at most large universities.
• Optional concentrations available in health, forensic chemistry, and chemical synthesis.
• Extensive undergraduate research opportunities with state-of-the-art equipment to give you hands-on experience in experimental or computational studies. Recent research projects have been conducted in areas including synthetic chemistry, computational chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology (on the study of signal transduction in conjunction with faculty in the biology department).
  • While much research happens on campus, many students obtain summer research opportunities at other prestigious institutions across the country including Penn State, the Universities of Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Washington, Duquesne, and Scripps Research Institute.
• Internship opportunities in a wide range of laboratory and clinical environments, as well as opportunities to work as a teaching assistant or lab technician in our lower-level and upper-level laboratory courses.
  • Recently students have interned with Hoffman La Roche Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland, PPG Industries, Perkin Elmer Genomics, AboundBio, Merck Global Security, Rockland Immunochemicals, SAI MedPartners, and Elanco, among other companies.
• Opportunities for select research students to attend national conferences with faculty, such as the annual American Chemical Society National Meeting. At conferences like these, you will have a platform to present your research results to the scientific community and gain more clarity for your career path as you ponder the possibility of graduate school.
• Post-graduate affiliations – opportunities for early acceptance or guaranteed consideration for medical school and other advanced degree programs.
• Extensive STEM facilities with glass-walled laboratories that put science in sight, as well as open, collaborative spaces for research and study.
• Wide array of modern instrumentation – we have graduate-school-level instruments like our NMR spectrometer and x-ray diffractometer. You will learn to use these top-level instruments starting freshman year to determine the properties and structures of compounds.  Chemistry majors will become experts on the use of all industry instruments, preparing you for a successful career or graduate program. Hands-on experience with current industry instrumentation will also prepare you well for internships or research early on in your college experience.
• Vocation-enriching humanities core classes woven into your academic schedule that will cultivate greater empathy, critical thinking, writing and other communication skills, and a well-rounded understanding of the world and your place in it.
• Course requirement in science, faith, and technology will help to cultivate your philosophy of science in the context of a Christ-centered academic community.
• Major-related student groups on campus including the local student chapter of the American Chemical Society, as well as the Pre-Health Society, Christian Medical & Dental Association, and Tri-Beta biology honorary.

Career Opportunities & Outcomes

• Career paths: If you’re like 96% of Grove City College graduates, you’ll be ready to compete for employment with companies like Perkin Elmer Genomics, Abound Bio, Merck, and Proctor & Gamble, doing work where you
  • Sequence DNA to locate genes responsible for disease.
  • Generate new antibody-based biological therapeutics.
  • Discover how to detect cancer before it becomes a tumor.
  • Use forensic tools to convict criminals and ensure justice.
  • Ensure the quality and purity of pharmaceuticals.
  • Assist pharmaceutical companies to develop clinical trials.
  • Monitor emissions from power plants to prevent environmental damage to God’s creation.
• You will be prepared to score well on the GRE and earn admission to prestigious graduate programs in biochemistry or pharmaceutical studies at institutions such as UVA, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Temple, and Vanderbilt.
  • Our alumni with doctorates are making advances in pharmaceutical research — using molecular biophysics to develop means to visualize cancer cells, creating synthetic routes to produce target molecules or new pharmaceuticals on an industrial scale, and developing new methods in bioinformatics. Others are making an impact in the classroom as professors at colleges and universities around the country.
• If you have a passion for the biomedical sciences and hope to pursue a medical profession, you will find excellent resources to prepare for the MCAT, DAT, and other admission tests to enter institutions such as LECOM, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Drexel, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, Wake Forest, Virginia, Michigan, and NYU Mt. Sinai.
  • Considering that our allied health school placement rate is typically higher than the national average, you will have the resources available to help you pursue your calling confidently.
• As a Grove City graduate with a firm foundation and refined skill set, you will be equipped to thrive in your field as an observant scientist and ethical leader who can harness biochemistry to help others flourish.

Program Specifics

• 74 major credit hours of rigorous undergraduate coursework in the chemical and biological sciences. For detailed course descriptions, view the College Catalog.
  • In addition to three biochemistry courses, the biochemistry major requires courses in analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biophysical chemistry, genetics, and cell biology, among others.
• Optional concentrations in health, forensic chemistry, and chemical synthesis.
  • The health concentration is geared toward students preparing for a career in the health professions.
  • The forensic chemistry concentration is geared toward students preparing for jobs in crime labs carrying out analyses like DNA fingerprinting.
  • The chemical synthesis concentration is geared toward students preparing to enter industry or study pharmaceutical synthesis at the graduate level.

Student & Alumni Stories

Emma Manwaring '25
B.S. in Biochemistry

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