AIDAN POLLARD
News Editor
Fredonia has shortened the path to the M.S. degree in biology, and some students think it could help put the school on the map.
“I think it’s definitely a good idea, just for financial reasons,” said Jacob Traverse, a junior molecular genetics major. “Our bio program is great, and I think that streamlining it to getting a master’s in five years, as opposed to four years of undergrad and two years of graduate [school], will just further add to our program.”
The program, which used to be a full undergraduate degree and then a two-year graduate program, has been shortened so students begin taking graduate-level classes their senior year.
The change puts Fredonia’s bio department more in-line with some of the other departments that offer five-year programs at the university.
“I think it’s also just a really good idea, especially if you’re doing research here, to just be able to continue it and also get a masters,” said Emilee Stenson, also a junior molecular genetics major. “It’s a really good opportunity.”
Traverse went on to say how the five-year program could be a good way to raise grades for med-school applications, as well as how the program is likely to be a good resume builder.
Stenson and Traverse also agreed that the five-year program may help bring Fredonia further into the limelight as a biology school, improving on its already well- regarded programs.
“We are one of three schools in New York state, and the only public institution, to offer a molecular genetics major, and it’s incredible [that] we’re a SUNY school that offers this program,” said Traverse. “The fact that you can major in molecular genetics as an undergrad and then take one year to get your masters, I think that just adds to our [program].”
Stenson and Traverse then recounted a story that an alumna speaker at a Fredonia health professions panel told.
“[The speaker] sat down with an admissions person for her graduate school … and he immediately went for this binder of very small schools with a very small bio program, and he couldn’t find [Fredonia]. Then he went to the next level, and he couldn’t find [Fredonia], and then he went up to the top-tier [schools], and he found it,” said Traverse. “We were ranked amongst some of the best … undergraduate institutions for bio in the country.”
Even though Stenson and Traverse missed the cutoff to start the five-year program, since it began after they were already sophomores, their excitement for Fredonia’s biology department and where it may be headed was palpable.