Undergraduate Academic Accelerator Pathway (2-Term) - Bachelor of Arts in Biology

at Shorelight Group - The University of Utah USA

If you have a passion for numbers and problem-solving, consider majoring in applied mathematics. Unlike “pure” mathematics, where math is a theoretical pursuit, the field of applied mathematics uses math to solve real-world problems. These problems can be as simple as allocating an investment and calculating returns, or as dramatic as using mathematical algorithms to crack and decrypt intelligence codes. This degree provides students with excellent quantitative and analytical skills, and a math degree is the perfect stepping stone for a countless number of careers.

Finance deals with the concepts of time, money, risk, how they are interrelated, and how money is budgeted and spent. Finance students learn how to assign value to projects, companies and securities. They also study how individuals and businesses can efficiently allocate financial resources, invest, and raise capital. With these skills, Finance majors can determine wise investment strategies, value stock options, and help companies and individuals manage their money. A critical component of a finance students’ education is meaningful, real-world opportunities, balanced by worthwhile classroom experiences. The U’s Finance curriculum covers topics such as business statistics, business calculus, corporate finance, insurance, investments, and real estate. A global perspectives course allows students to apply an international context to the business skills and perspectives they are learning.

In addition to the traditional major, students may pursue an emphasis in Advanced Financial Analysis, an honors-level program that provides students with a deeper foundation in finance and accounting, supplemented by additional technical competence in financial modeling and coding as applied to finance problems. Courses will focus on developing technical skills and applying those skills to solve problems in realistic settings.

If you have a passion for filmmaking and are interested in movies and media, consider studying Film & Media Arts at the University of Utah. This program offers students the opportunity to examine the visual art form that defines our time. Through a series of courses covering the history, aesthetics, and criticism of the motion picture, students gain critical thinking skills and hands-on experience in film and video production. You will be exposed to cinema from around the world, exploring genres such as narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation. Electives in women directors, film diversity, film genres, animation, storyboarding, sound, screenplay writing, and other topics are also available.

If you want to explore the world around you and help make the world a better place, consider becoming a chemical engineer. Chemical engineers take chemistry out of the laboratory and into the real world by applying scientific knowledge, technical expertise, innovation, and creativity to make useful materials; without chemical engineering, things like fertilizers, vaccines, and antibiotics wouldn't exist in the quantities that we need them. With their skills and abilities, chemical engineers can be involved in research, development (taking a process from bench scale to full scale), design and evaluation (deciding how a process should work), plant design (deciding how a chemical plant should be built), plant operation, sales, management, and academics. The University of Utah’s Department of Chemical Engineering is nationally recognized for its research and teaching. In this program, you will complete courses in math, physics, chemistry, and engineering. You can also complete an optional emphasis in Energy Engineering. By the time of graduation, about 50 percent of our graduates have found employment or been admitted to post-graduate programs that include law, medicine, and graduate school in a variety of fields. 

The Spanish program at the University of Utah is ideal for students who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the Spanish language and the cultures of those who speak it. Students of this program will study the language, literature, history, and society of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, gaining cross-cultural understanding and an appreciation of diversity. The curriculum consists of courses in Spanish grammar, composition, conversation, and reading. Electives are then chosen from a variety of allied fields, allowing students to focus on the aspects of the language and its speakers that fascinate them most. Topics covered include the literature, film, linguistics, and culture of Latin America and Spain. The program also offers a wide range of seminars in Golden Age, Modern Peninsular, Colonial Latin American, Caribbean, Contemporary Latin American, and U.S. Latina/o studies, as well as Spanish linguistics. This diverse range of study ensures that students will graduate with the language literacy and critical thinking skills they need to be successful in a number of careers.

Speech and Hearing Science professionals evaluate, diagnose, and treat individuals with speech and hearing disorders, such as disorders of communication, the voice, swallowing, and cognition. The undergraduate major in Speech & Hearing Science (SPHS) is a pre-professional degree for speech language pathology and/or audiology. Students in the program complete courses in phonetics, anatomy and physiology of speech and hearing, language science, pediatric and medical speech-language pathology, hearing disorders and evaluation, and psychometrics (measuring mental abilities and processes). Electives in allied fields -biology, physics, and psychology, for example- are also required, along with 25 hours of field experience observing treatment practices for speech, language, and hearing. Students who complete this program earn a BS in Speech and Hearing Science and are then prepared to enter graduate programs in the field: a master's degree is required for professional practice in speech-language pathology, and a doctor of audiology (AuD) is required for professional practice in audiology.

Anthropology is the study of human beings; their cultures, biology, behaviors, and their changes through time (evolution). Because we study all aspects of humans, anthropology is said to be holistic and inter-disciplinary, that is anthropologists work hand-in-hand with other sciences such as biology, physiology, sociology and psychology—just to name a few.

At the University of Utah, the Anthropology Department is divided into four main divisions: Cultural, Biological, Evolutionary Ecology, and Archaeology. Cultural anthropology focuses on human cultures and how they vary through time and space—around the world and back through pre-history. Biological anthropology focuses on ancient and modern human anatomical, physiological, and biological variability. Biological anthropology also concerns itself with non-human primates like chimpanzees and gorillas—by studying them, we hope to learn more about ourselves. Archaeology is the excavation and interpretation of what humans leave behind in order to infer how and why humans have evolved. Evolutionary ecology (sometimes known as behavioral ecology) examines human (and non-human primate) behavior and life-history—why did human beings evolve the way they did?

Ultimately, anthropologists use all four sub-disciplines to describe and explain past and present human diversity. The Department takes a theoretically-driven, empirically-informed perspective focusing on the following specific areas of expertise: archaeology, genetics, behavioral ecology, paleoanthropology, hunter-gatherer behavior, and human and non-human primate behavior.

Urban Ecology is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the interrelationships among social, environmental, and economic systems, with the goal of enhancing the vitality and sustainability of places and communities. The University of Utah’s Urban Ecology program is designed to respond to problems and opportunities that exist in cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural places for example, environmental management, fragile landscape protection, recreation and tourism, public lands planning, rapid population growth, regional transportation, energy production, and sprawl. As a student of the Urban Ecology program, you will take classes in urban ecology, planning, field studies, economics, law and social justice; you can also choose from a variety of electives topics, such as green infrastructure, sustainable development, community leadership and cities in literature. In your senior year, you will do an internship and take on a real world problem in the Ecological Planning Workshop.

Students with interest in severe weather, climate change, forecasting, broadcast meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, remote sensing, and many other areas may find a home in the Atmospheric Sciences. Study in this field seeks to understand the behavior and predictability of the earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric scientists need a good foundation in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science, and the University of Utah’s program offers training in these areas and others, such as meteorology and climate. As a natural extension of the geographic setting of the university, the atmospheric sciences degree uniquely emphasizes mountain weather and climate. Ultimately, this program provides the knowledge and tools needed to address the challenges posed by hazardous weather and climate change in the 21st century.

The French program at the University of Utah is intended for students wishing to gain a deeper understanding of French and Francophone (French-speaking) cultures through the study of French language, literature, and society.  The program, housed within the Department of World Languages & Cultures, caters to individual student needs and fosters forward thinking and intellectual freedom. This freedom is reflected in program coursework: the program curriculum begins with intensive grammar and progresses through the cultural history of France and the more than 50 French-speaking nations in the world, covering topics such as French film, fashion, romance, art, nationhood, otherness, and identity. The U’s French program provides excellent preparation for pursuing graduate work and entering a variety of professions where critical reading, writing, and thinking skills are paramount.