DIFFICULT BIOCHEMICAL FIELD HAS EXCELLENT TUTOR STAFF

A combination of Chemistry and Biology, Biochemistry is a tough field but better for general medical preparation than either Chemistry or Biology.

The courses and instructors are those listed under Departments of Chemistry and Biology, and the opinions of students are very similar to those of students concentrating wholly in one or the other Departments in Biology. Fieser and Hisaw are perhaps the most popular and humorous, although the former is better organized. The caliber of men is consistently high, from Lamb in the Freshman year to Wald in the Senior year.

Romer on anatomy is considered quaint and, in 1941-42, difficult to follow, due to sacrificing organization to speed in cutting a full year course down to a half. Redfield on physiology is comfortably slow and a "swell fellow" and the course is well worth taking after anatomy.

On the chemical side all the men are popular, with the possible exception of Forbes, and Fieser is probably one of the best in the University. Physical chemistry, required for honors, is populated by geniuses and marked on a sliding scale. The analysis courses are tough, long, dull, have little purely educational value, and are best only taken by men going into research or to medical schools requiring it.

The field has its own tutorial staff, which is one of the strongest hereabouts. All its members are M.D.'s or Ph.D.'s or both, and all take an interest in their students and know their stuff. Theses may be either on library or laboratory research. The former are less valuable, but the latter are getting scarce for the duration, because the Biochemical Tutorial Board lags far behind the Biology Department in ability to find laboratory space and Faculty supervisors for its undergraduate research men. If you want to do a lab thesis, it is best to enroll in Biology 40.

Competition from pre-meds, who have to get good marks, makes this a tougher field than Biology. But much of the reputed toughness, is due to the fact that many would-be beside-manner doctors just lack a skill in science, and consequently complain. Nevertheless this is a better choice for the pre-med than Biology in most cases, since it levaes more courses open for distribution, and yet covers everything needed for a thorough understanding of human physiology. It is better avoided, though, by men who can't do math. For the man who intends to do no graduate work, Biochem is useless professionally, but provides a good, liberal survey of general science. For men going into psychology or physiology in Graduate School, it provides at least as good, and probably a better, background than undergraduate concentration in psychology or biology.