<p>What are some top bio LACs, especially those in the north east?</p>
<p>Based on NSF data on the top LAC producers of Ph.Ds in the life and physical sciences (per student basis) I think you should be sure to consider: Harvey Mudd, Carleton, Swarthmore, Haverford, Reed, Williams, Grinnell, Wesleyan, Amherst, and Pomona. Clearly, five of the ten are in the northeast.</p>
<p>In the NE area, its usually the little three: Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams. Then I would go with Carleton, Grinnell, and Macalaster in the MW. Haverford and Swarthmore in the East Coast. Reed, Harvey Mudd, and Pomona in the West Coast.</p>
<p>For a safety (or match, depending on you) consider St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
This is Maryland’s public “honors college”, similar in concept to Virginia’s William and Mary.
It has a beautiful campus in a gorgeous waterfront setting. Many new buildings, nicely interconnected, with a consistent architectural style. Faculty appears to be very strong (many Ph.D.s from top universities). My S has a friend who was WL’ed at some top schools (Amherst, Haverford) and plans to attend SMCM.</p>
<p>Biology and Environmental Science seem to be two of their strongest majors. They really take advantage of that Chesapeake Bay / Potomac River location. Has one of the best sailing teams in the USA and a nice new boat house facility. All students can take sailing lessons and use the boats. So especially if your idea of Biology does not necessarily mean being cooped up in a lab all day, if you want to do field work, this school would be a good choice.</p>
<p>Another distinctive feature of this school: it appears to be one of the more racially and economically diverse of the many schools we considered (which were mostly top LACs like the ones mentioned above).</p>
<p>Another good LAC that is in the midwest (sorta): Colorado College.
This is the best LAC (the only top LAC really) in a vast region between California/PNW and Minnesota. It is less selective than the top NE LACs so it might make a good “match”. </p>
<p>For Biology or Environmental Science, it is special for 2 reasons: first, its distinctive “block plan” allows you to go off and do field work without worrying about conflicts with other classes. Second, the Rocky Mountain mountain location, not too far north and not too far south, offers an extremely diverse assortment of ecological zones. Put these two features together, and you get opportunities to observe flora, fauna and habitat that may be unequaled anywhere else.</p>
<p>It probably has the best opportunities for outdoor recreation of any US school. Division I ice hockey. Unbelievably good accommodations for students with disabilities (e.g. Kurzweil 3000 reading machine,paid student note-takers,“smart pen” devices to record lecture notes,LiveScribe).</p>
<p>Wesleyan :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/federal_2001-2003.gif[/url]”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/federal_2001-2003.gif</a> </p>
![http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/federal_2001-2003.gif[/url]](http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/federal_2001-2003.gif%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p><a href=“http://frontpage.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/publications_1994-2004.gif[/url]”>http://frontpage.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/publications_1994-2004.gif</a></p>
![http://frontpage.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/publications_1994-2004.gif[/url]](http://frontpage.wesleyan.edu/sciences/images/publications_1994-2004.gif%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Holy Cross (MA) just opened a brand new 60 million dollar science complex in January and has a solid reputation in premed and biology.</p>
<p>Do any of the colleges mentioned above have a strong neuroscience/neurobiology program?</p>
<p>Many schools have added neuroscience majors in recent years. Pomona, Harvey Mudd … Middlebury, Bowdoin, Wesleyan … Oberlin,Colorado College, Dickinson, New College (FL) … SMCM. But when you start trying to compare academic strengths of specific departments at these schools, in traditional fields such as biology let alone interdisciplinary or sub-fields, things get very difficult.</p>
<p>There are peer assessments of graduate departments at national universities in many fields, but as far as I know there is no such thing for LACs. About the closest thing to something half-way systematic would be Rugg’s Recommendations. For Biology, his recommendations for strong departments at selective LACs include:</p>
<p>NE: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Connecticut College,Smith,Hamilton
MidAtl: Dickinson, Gettysburg, Haverford, SMCM
MidW: Grinnell,Carleton, Colorado Coll., Macalester, Oberlin, St. Olaf
S: New College (FL), Davidson
PNW: Reed, Whitman
Cal: Pomona, Pitzer</p>
<p>In other words, pretty much all the usual suspects among top LACs can be expected to have decent biology departments. One metric you can look at, though, is Ph.D. productivity. Where do Ph.D.s in Biology get their undergraduate degrees? Among LACs, the biggest per capita producers of graduates who go on to earn Ph.D.s in Bio include Reed, Swarthmore, Harvery Mudd, Kalamazoo, Earlham and Grinnell (in that order, i.e. most productive LAC is Reed). Among those, Swarthmore would be the most selective, Earlham the least selective.</p>
<p>Holy Cross, Bowdoin.</p>