undergradly.
Major · Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Reading the genome, but not yet running it

Genetics, General studies how heritable information is organized, replicated, regulated, and recombined across living organisms. About 448 students complete this bachelor’s each year across 14 institutions, and the realistic question is rarely whether to study it — it’s which graduate ramp comes next.

Schools offering
14
Annual completions
448
Typical degree level
Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$68k

About this major

Genetics, General focuses on the scientific study of how heritable information is organized, regulated, and transmitted in biological organisms — from Mendelian inheritance through chromosome structure, DNA repair, recombination, gene regulation, epigenetics, and molecular evolution. The CIP definition deliberately spans all levels of complexity: single-gene traits in fruit flies, regulatory networks in bacterial colonies, population-scale variation in human disease cohorts, and increasingly the genome-scale variation that powers modern clinical and agricultural genetics. Coursework typically pairs molecular and population genetics with required biochemistry, cell biology, statistics, and organic chemistry, alongside a multi-semester lab sequence covering PCR, sequencing, gene editing, and bioinformatics analysis in R or Python. Upper-division work usually involves a faculty-mentored research project.

The major fits students who like biology but want a tighter zoom on inheritance and mechanism — the kind of curiosity that asks why a single mutation produces disease in one family but not another, or how a beneficial allele sweeps through a population. Comfort with chemistry and statistics matters more than in adjacent biology majors, and patience for slow, ambiguous experimental work is essential. Many programs have agricultural, plant, or animal-genetics tracks layered on top of the biomedical core, which reflects where the major lives institutionally.

The scale of the major reflects how universities sort students. Just 448 bachelor’s graduates complete the genetics CIP each year across 14 institutions, well below the 83,027 completions in Biology, General — most students with similar interests are administratively grouped under broader biology programs. Top-volume programs cluster at land-grant flagships like the University of Wisconsin-Madison (92 completions), UC Davis (79), and the University of Georgia (46), where genetics doubles as a feeder into PhD tracks, MD and MD-PhD pipelines, and master’s programs in genetic counseling. Career data points to the same pattern: biological-technician roles sit around $52,000 at the bachelor’s level, while the higher-paying geneticist, faculty, and genetic-counselor tracks all require graduate credentials — a doctorate, an ACGC-accredited master’s, or both.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Biological technicians $52k +3.5% Bachelor's degree
Biological science teachers, postsecondary $83k +7.3% Doctoral or professional degree
Biological scientists, all other $93k +1.2% Bachelor's degree
Genetic counselors $99k +9.3% Master's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$68k

Who this major is for

This major fits you well if mechanism interests you more than memorizing systems, if running PCR or aligning sequencing reads for the third time without flinching sounds satisfying, if statistics and probability feel like tools rather than obstacles, and if you can imagine continuing into a PhD, an MD-PhD, or a master’s in genetic counseling rather than stopping at the bachelor’s. Strong fit signals include curiosity about how genetic variation gets translated into clinical decisions, an interest in agricultural or plant genetics if you’re landing at a land-grant program, and a willingness to layer bioinformatics onto the wet-lab core — R, Python, and statistics turn this degree into one of the more flexible biology majors on the market.

Reconsider this route if you want a four-year degree that lands you at a research-scientist wage straight out of school. The bachelor’s-only ceiling for most tracked roles sits closer to the $52,000 biological-technician range, and the named six-figure careers — geneticist, biological-science faculty, genetic counselor — each demand a doctorate or an ACGC-accredited master’s. Pause if you dislike chemistry or statistics, if repetitive lab procedure drains rather than centers you, or if you’re hoping to skip graduate school entirely. The genetic-counseling ramp is real and well-paying — about $98,910 starting with 9.3% projected growth — but it requires a master’s from one of 51 ACGC-accredited programs and ABGC certification. Treating this as a terminal bachelor’s leaves the wage ceiling firmly on the table; treating it as a pre-graduate-school launch pad is where the math actually works.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Genetics, General

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 0 92 92
University of California-Davis Davis, CA 0 79 79
University of Georgia Athens, GA 0 46 46
Iowa State University Ames, IA 0 36 36
Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN 0 33 33
North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC 0 30 30
Washington State University Pullman, WA 0 29 29
University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL 0 24 24
Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX 0 21 21
University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH 0 20 20
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Biology/Biological Sciences, General

83,027 completions/yr

Neuroscience

9,625 completions/yr

Biochemistry

8,736 completions/yr

Biomedical Sciences, General

6,553 completions/yr

Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology

3,392 completions/yr

Nutrition Sciences

3,240 completions/yr

Microbiology, General

2,120 completions/yr

Human Biology

2,094 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do genetics majors actually study day-to-day?
Coursework moves from Mendelian genetics into molecular and population genetics, with required courses in biochemistry, cell biology, statistics, and organic chemistry. Lab time covers PCR, gel electrophoresis, sequencing prep, CRISPR-style editing protocols, and increasingly bioinformatics work in R or Python on real sequencing data. Upper-division terms typically include a faculty-mentored research project. Programs at land-grant universities like UW-Madison, UC Davis, and Iowa State often add agricultural, animal, or plant-genetics tracks alongside the biomedical core.
Do I need a bachelor’s, or will an associate’s get me started?
The data packet only reports bachelor’s-level completions for genetics. There is no associate’s pathway in this CIP, and lab-tech roles that don’t require a four-year degree usually draw from broader biology or biotechnology programs. The bachelor’s functions as the entry credential to clinical-genetics labs, biotech R&D, and — most importantly — to the graduate programs where the wage curve actually bends upward.
What kinds of jobs do genetics graduates land with just the bachelor’s?
Realistic starting roles cluster around biological technician at about $52,000 — research associate at biotech firms like Genentech, Vertex, Regeneron, or Moderna; clinical-genetics lab technician at companies like Invitae, Natera, GeneDx, Ambry, or LabCorp Genetics; quality-control technician in pharma; or forensic-DNA analyst at state crime labs. Five-year median earnings for this CIP sit around $67,500, which suggests the cohort skews slightly above the technician baseline — consistent with a meaningful share entering bioinformatics or moving into industry research-associate roles before grad school.
Do I need a graduate degree to make this major pay off?
For the named six-figure paths, yes — explicitly. Geneticists and biological-science faculty roles list a doctoral or professional degree as the typical credential, and the highest-growth career on this list, genetic counselor at $98,910 with 9.3% projected growth, requires a master’s from one of the 51 ACGC-accredited programs and ABGC certification. Most undergraduates here are pre-PhD, pre-MD, or pre-genetic-counseling whether they say so out loud or not. Treat the bachelor’s as a floor that opens those doors, not as a finish line that delivers research-scientist wages.
What does the genetic counseling path actually look like?
It’s the most well-defined, fastest-growing graduate ramp out of this major. After the bachelor’s, most successful applicants take one to two years of clinical or laboratory experience — crisis-line work, genetic-testing-lab tech roles, or research-coordinator positions — then apply to ACGC-accredited master’s programs at schools like Sarah Lawrence, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA, Pittsburgh, Long Island University, Boston University, Cincinnati, Brandeis, or South Carolina. The two-year master’s leads to ABGC board certification (CGC), and starting salaries land around $80,000–$100,000 with 9.3% projected growth — one of the faster-growing health professions tracked by BLS.
How is this different from molecular biology, biochemistry, or biology general?
Biology, General (CIP 26.0101) is the broad umbrella with about 83,027 completions a year. Biochemistry (26.0202) leans into chemistry, metabolism, and protein structure. Molecular Biology (26.0204) drills into DNA, RNA, and protein-level mechanisms. Genetics, General narrows further onto inheritance, gene regulation, recombination, and genome-scale variation — with a stronger foothold in agricultural, plant, and animal genetics at land-grant flagships like UC Davis, UW-Madison, Texas A&M, and Iowa State. Career destinations overlap heavily, so the choice mostly reflects which courses and which faculty research labs you want to spend four years inside.
What’s the AI and bioinformatics angle students should plan for?
It’s the single best wage-growth move available inside this major. AlphaFold, ESM, and related protein-language models, plus AI-driven drug-discovery firms like Recursion, insitro, Genesis Therapeutics, and Isomorphic Labs, have made computational genomics one of the fastest-paying lanes in biotech. Routine wet-lab roles are durable but compressing as automation and AI-assisted analysis spread. Stacking statistics, R, Python, and a bioinformatics minor or capstone alongside genetics coursework is the cleanest way to lift the bachelor’s ceiling without a graduate degree — and it dovetails directly into computational-biology PhD applications.