Elective Course Approval Process

Biochemistry students in class

How to get your elective courses approved for the Biochemistry BS and BS/MS degrees

Your choice of courses to satisfy the major requirements must be approved by the department. Please
obtain approval before starting the course so that you will be certain that it will satisfy your elective
requirement. All electives must be courses numbered 100 or higher* on a subject at least somewhat
related to Biochemistry, but they need not be Biochemistry Department courses. When your elective
choice is approved you will be notified by email; please keep a copy of this email for your records.

*Some Math and Statistics courses with numbers less than 100 may also be acceptable for the BS
elective.

Getting approval for your BS elective

You need to designate one course as your elective and obtain approval. To get your elective approved,
submit an "Online Petition to Request Substitution for a Requirement". The department will then review the requested elective and approve it if it is appropriate.

Instructions for the petition:

  • Select "I am petitioning to substitute a Brandeis University course towards a major or minor requirement"
  • Please specify the requirement that your Brandeis course will fulfill: "Biochemistry B.S. elective course."
  • Please make the case for the above substitution: (one sentence about why you want to take this course is
    fine).

If you get an elective approved and later decide that you want to use a different course to fulfill your
elective requirement, just submit a petition for the second course.

Getting approval for your BS/MS elective

If you are in the BS/MS program, you need a second elective for your MS degree in addition to the one
approved for your BS degree by the process described above.

Do not submit a course substitution petition for your M.S. elective. Instead, request approval by sending
an email addressed to both Jennifer Roy and Maryanna Aldrich.