This is the preliminary (or launch) version of the 2024-2025 VCU Bulletin. We may add courses that expose our students to cutting-edge content and transformative learning. We may also add content to the general education program that focuses on racial literacy and a racial literacy graduation requirement, and may receive notification of additional program approvals after the launch. The final edition and full PDF version will include these updates and will be available in August prior to the beginning of the fall semester.

This bioinformatics program consists of a core curriculum that provides immersion in the field of bioinformatics as well as foundational courses in biology, chemistry, computer science and statistics. The bachelor’s program in bioinformatics requires breadth of training via the VCU ConnectED general education requirements, a bioinformatics core with ancillary scientific course work and focused training in the areas of biological/genomic sciences, computational sciences or quantitative/statistical sciences through the concentration-specific courses.

Students wishing to pursue the bioinformatics major must apply for admission into the program. High school seniors as well as students transferring to VCU should follow the regular VCU admissions process and deadlines, being sure to indicate clearly in their application that they wish to apply to the bioinformatics program. Continuing VCU students wishing to apply to the program may contact the bioinformatics academic adviser at (804) 828-0825.

Transfer students and continuing VCU students with at least 15 college credits should present a suggested college GPA of 3.0 including relevant course work in science, math or computer science.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing this program, students will know and know how to do the following:

  • Present scientific results, both orally and in writing, in a way that makes clear to an appropriate target audience the distinction between what is known (and how) and what is merely suspected between an observation and a conclusion in a way that tells a compelling story
  • Will have demonstrated fundamental knowledge of the basic concepts of biology (particularly molecular biology), the physical sciences, mathematics, statistics and computational science and the ability to apply that knowledge within the context of bioinformatics
  • Will have demonstrated an ability to identify and analyze bioinformatics problems and strategies to solve said problems
  • Will possess an appropriate level of technical knowledge and ability necessary to address a scientific problem by exploiting biological software and datasets and creating simple bioinformatics tools
  • Will have demonstrated an ability to identify and access relevant scientific literature and draw from it in a meaningful and critical manner