<p>I am currently a junior and am planning to attend college in fall of 2014. I want to major in biology or chemistry and then go to medical school. There are a couple Liberal Arts Schools that are on my list and I would love a liberal arts schooling experience. Any suggestions??</p>
<p>You’ll need to give us more information if you want helpful feedback. In any case, you’re going about the process entirely backwards. </p>
<p>Dozens if not hundreds of colleges fit your vague parameters. Biology is one of the most popular majors everywhere, and any decent school will have an above average program. Allegheny, Franklin & Marshall, Rhodes, Bucknell, Hamilton, Union, Whitman, Middlebury, Cornell, COA, Colby, Wesleyan, Reed, Davidson, Oberlin, Colgate, Bates…the list goes on and on. Many lesser known LACs like Hope have absolutely superb track records in biology and can match any elite college. Excellent chemistry programs are slightly more difficult to find, but there are still many, many good ones available. </p>
<p>(1) Think about what you want in a college.
[ul][<em>]What are your stats? (GPA, class rank, ACT/SAT scores, etc.)
[</em>] What can you afford? How much merit or financial aid will you need?
[<em>]Small (<3000 students), small-medium (3000-7000), medium (7000-12,000), medium-large (12-20,000), or large (20,000+)?
[</em>]Big city, small city, suburban, rural…?
[<em>]Which part(s) of the country? (Pacific Northwest? Northeast? California? Southeast?)
[</em>]Co-ed or single-sex?
[li]Any other factors you deem important - must offer a particular language, offers LD support, has gender-neutral housing, big Greek scene or no Greek scene, DI or DIII athletics, etc.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>(2) Use search engines to create a preliminary list of prospective colleges based on qualities you’ve determined are important to you.</p>
<p><a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search</a>
[College</a> Finder - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search)</p>
<p>(3) Narrow down further. Read books like the [Fiske</a> Guide to Colleges](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Fiske-Guide-Colleges-2013-29E/dp/1402209630]Fiske”>http://www.amazon.com/Fiske-Guide-Colleges-2013-29E/dp/1402209630) and the [Insider’s</a> Guide to the Colleges](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2013/dp/0312672969]Insider’s”>http://www.amazon.com/The-Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2013/dp/0312672969). Your local library should have copies.</p>
<p>(4) Narrow down based on your interests in biology and/or chemistry. No college, even among major research universities, excels in all areas of biology. Haverford is excellent for biochemistry, for example, but it’s much weaker in anything else. Other examples of LACs with particular strengths include Amherst (neuroscience), Conn College (botany), Ohio Wesleyan (zoology), and Eckerd (marine science). Check course schedules - NOT the course bulletin, which includes courses that haven’t been taught in years - to see if courses in your areas of interest are taught regularly. Other things to look for:
[ul][<em>]How much research funding is available? How competitive is it to get?
[</em>]How good are the college’s research opportunities? Are freshmen encouraged to participate in research? (Be wary of people who talk about freshmen “working in labs.” Too often this is simple grunt work.)
[<em>]Have students been published? If so, as what author (1st, 2nd, etc.) and in what journals?
[</em>]What graduate programs do students attend?
[<em>]Does the college offer field and lab-based seminars?
[</em>]Are there faculty members in your area(s) of interest?
[li]What special facilities does the college have? Herbarium, vert/invert research collections, SEM, phytotron, mass spec, flow cytometry…?[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Once you’ve done all of this, you should have a list of reasonable length - 20 or 30 colleges. College visits can help you cull the list further.</p>
<p><a href=“American Chemical Society”>American Chemical Society; can help you find decent chemistry degree programs (which are not that hard to find, but the ACS list can help you screen out those that are too limited).</p>
<p>You do not have to major in biology or chemistry to go to medical school. If you are merely looking for pre-med courses, those are very commonly offered even at schools which do not have much in the way of upper level courses for biology and chemistry majors.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214382-coursework.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214382-coursework.html</a> can help you check course catalogs for the pre-med courses. However, the MCAT and medical schools seem to be adding additional requirements, such as upper division biochemistry and introductory psychology and sociology, to the “traditional” pre-med course list.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1486654-premed-resources-thread-start-here-first.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1486654-premed-resources-thread-start-here-first.html</a> has more useful information.</p>