Biology students must declare their major by the time they have taken 60 semester hours. A minimum of 36 hours of biology must be completed, of which 18 hours are at the upper-division level and taken in residence with UC Denver Downtown Campus biology faculty. Included in the 36 hours are 22 semester hours of biology core courses, required of all majors. At least 14 hours of upper-division biology elective courses beyond the core are required to fulfill the remaining hours, including one 4000-level lecture course. A maximum of 6 semester hours of independent study (BIOL 3840/4840) or a combined maximum total of 6 hours of independent study (3 hours) and internship/cooperative education (BIOL 3939) (3 hours) can be counted toward the 14 hours of upper-division electives in biology. The minimum grade in each CU Denver biology course is C- (1.7). However, a GPA of 2.5 in biology courses taken at CU Denver is required to graduate. All biology courses applied to the undergraduate biology major must be completed within 10 years of graduation.

To ensure a proper background for the study of biology, majors are required to pass 31-33 hours of course work in ancillary disciplines. The following biology and ancillary courses are required and must be completed with a letter grade of C- (1.7) or higher: