General Biology II completes the majors sequence, and it changes scale. Where the first course is molecules and cells, this one is organisms, populations and the history that produced them. The statewide description covers regulation of cell metabolism, comparative plant and animal physiology, developmental biology, population biology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and applications to the clinical sciences.
Carried by 21 Florida public institutions, every one of them at 3 credits.
⚠ Students who did well in the first course sometimes do worse in this one, and the reason is worth knowing in advance: the first term rewards mechanism and problem-solving, and this term rewards breadth, comparison and synthesis across a very large amount of material. It is a different kind of studying, not an easier or harder one.
Completing the full year is what actually satisfies the requirement. This course is named on the Biomedical Engineer career path, and the sequence gates medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant and nursing programmes, and degrees in biology, biochemistry, microbiology, marine science and environmental science.
⚠ In Florida this is also the term that connects directly to the state’s largest research and employment sector in the life sciences. Ecology, marine biology, fisheries, wetland science, invasive species management and conservation are unusually large employers here, and this is the course where a student first finds out whether that work interests them.
This is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone transferring, dual-enrolled, or simply trying to find their own course in a catalogue.
| Family | Institutions | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
BSC1010 / BSC1011(or the C forms) | 16 | Daytona State, Eastern Florida State, Florida A&M, FAU, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Keys, Florida SouthWestern, Lake-Sumter, North Florida College, Northwest Florida State, Palm Beach State, Pensacola State, Polk State, South Florida State, UNF and Valencia |
BSC2010 / BSC2011(or the C forms) | 23 | Broward, College of Central Florida, Florida Gateway, FIU, Florida Polytechnic, FSCJ, Florida State, Gulf Coast, Hillsborough, Indian River State, Miami Dade, New College, Pasco-Hernando, State College of Florida, Santa Fe, St. Johns River State, St. Petersburg, Seminole State, Tallahassee State, UCF, UF, USF and UWF |
⚠⚠ Zero institutions carry both first courses. Same subject, same lower-division level, same majors sequence, and the credit articulates either way — but the other number does not exist at your school, so a student searching a catalogue or a degree audit for the wrong one finds nothing and concludes something has gone wrong.
⚠⚠⚠ And this is not a quirk of biology. Florida’s other gateway science sequence does exactly the same thing: general chemistry runs as CHM1045/CHM1046 at nineteen institutions and CHM2045/CHM2046 at twenty, again with no overlap. Two of two. If you are planning a science-heavy first two years, expect to look up the local number for every gateway sequence rather than assuming the one you have seen quoted.
Florida Gulf Coast University runs the first course as BSC1010C, integrated, 4 credits, one registration — and the second as BSC1011 at 3 credits with a separate 1-credit BSC1011L.
⚠ A student who needed one registration in the autumn needs two in the spring, and nothing announces the change. It is a small thing that costs a term when missed, because the laboratory is required and fills early. Check the packaging of the second course separately from the first, at any institution.
All 21 carriers run this course at 3 credits — worth stating plainly, because it is unusual in this catalogue and because the first course of the same sequence is not uniform (New College and UCF carry it at 4). Most carriers add a separate 1-credit BSC2011L.
The first course of the sequence does; this one does not, and the same is true of general chemistry. Do not read that as a warning — fifteen of the 21 carriers record a natural-science general-education designation on it. What it means is that the statewide core protection attaching to the first course is not automatically inherited by the second, so check your own institution’s list rather than assuming the sequence travels as a unit.
General Biology II, Integrated Principles of Biology II (UF, College of Central Florida), Biological Science II (Florida State), Biology II Biodiversity (Hillsborough), Biodiversity (USF), Biology II — Organisms and Ecology (St. Petersburg), Principles of Biology 2 (Miami Dade). ⚠ Branding, not divergence, and several of the titles are more informative than the state’s own General Biology (cont.). Register by the number.
Majors Biology I (BSC2010 / BSC1010) | ⚠ ELECTIVE |
Majors Biology II (BSC2011 / BSC1011) | SCIENCE |
⚠ The college credit is unaffected. What differs is the high-school requirement it fills — so a student taking the first course expecting to clear a high-school science requirement may receive elective credit instead. Across the 63 active lower-division BSC numbers the field splits 40 elective to 23 science, so it genuinely discriminates and is worth checking rather than assuming.
⚠⚠ And general chemistry does exactly the same thing — CHM2045 elective, CHM2046 science. A dual-enrolled student taking the first half of both gateway sequences may earn no high-school science credit from either. Confirm with your counsellor and your district’s articulation agreement before you enrol, not after.
Fifteen of the 21 carriers record a natural-science general-education designation on this course. The state file’s flags reliably say that a designation exists without reliably saying which, so read your own institution’s general-education list. Where a Gordon Rule designation applies, a grade of C or higher is required for it to count and a C− is not enough at most institutions.
Generated September 19, 2026 · Updated September 19, 2026