Best Colleges for Molecular Biology?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I am a sophomore currently starting to think about what colleges I want to visit and apply to eventually. I am really interested in molecular biology and my goal is to eventually get either a PhD or an MD/PhD and do research and teach in the genetics/biochem/molecular biology field. What colleges have especially good molecular biology programs? I would love to be able to start getting involved in research as an undergrad, and I’d also like to be near a place to ski, although the skiing isn’t as important as the research/Academic part of the college, it would just be a plus. :slight_smile:

A little background on me if you need it:
•I have been a straight A student my whole life and am planning on taking the lost challenging courses I can take at my school. I currently have a 4.3 GPA but it should raise substantially (to around a 4.6 I think) by next year because I’ll be able to take more AP clssses.
•I am a mock trial attorney (not related to my career plans/interests but it has helped my public speaking and writing skills), Academic Decathlon Vice President (will probably be President next year), in my school’s ASB, on the girls’ golf team, and am a member of two science clubs (I have won some regional level awards for projects/competitions I’ve done in these clubs.
•I am from a rural/agricultural area in CA.
•I hope to start doing some research in the field I want to major in this summer at a summer program at UCSD.

What colleges do you think would be a good fit for me? Thanks for any advice!!

2

Oh, and I forgot to include my PSAT score. This year, I scored a 1320 on the PSAT without studying much… I am planning on studying over spring break and this summer to improve my score for next year and eventually for the actual SAT. My goal is to score at the very least a 1500 on the SAT.

3

Biology, and microbiology, is a basic core field offered in all universities. You should first focus on your instate options, and considering it’s California, you have plenty to start with: all the UC’s, the Claremont Colleges, Pomona, Stanford, Santa Clara, etc.

One lesser-known option you could look into is the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. It’s a school-within-a-school for advanced/accomplished undergrads with research opportunities starting in your freshman year.
https://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/

Talk with your parents about finances. Can they afford private universities, where tuition can top $65,000/year? If so, that opens up possibilities at excellent options on the East Coast and in the mid west.

4

Colby, Mt. Holyoke, Reed and Hamilton might offer you a sampling of the types of colleges that would meet your criteria, particularly with respect to opportunities for undergraduate research.

5

there are no “best schools” that are right for everyone, it really depends on knowing yourself. You need to find a college that’s a fit for you in terms of price, type of students it tends to attract, competitiveness, class size, and one where you’ll be applying to grad school with strong recs and some direct research experience.

As a CA resident you have the UC schools that offer a top-notch education and tons of research opportunities. But if you don’t make the effort to go find the research positions, if you don’t get to know some profs thru office hours so you get strong recs, then you’re not going to be a strong candidate for a PhD program.

At a LAC you’re going to get to know some profs because you can’t avoid it :slight_smile: And undergrads find it easier to find research positions because they don’t have grad students. However the amount of research at a LAC is often much less for that same reason (among others).

And you need to think about the other students. I hope this isn’t you, but a lot of “straight-A” students treat their self-worth and their gpa as if they are one and the same. I can almost guarantee you that you won’t be the top student in college. If some B’s are going to be a cause for despair and C’s a reason to give up then applying to the most competitive colleges in the country may not be a good idea.

6

Take a look at Wesleyan (CT) a 3,000 student LAC with a well-funded MBB department that attracts millions of dollars in government research. About three hours from Killington VT although there are smaller ski trails closer to campus:
https://powderridgepark.com/

7

@pupleusa, Some of these schools may be of interest.

Relying on data supplied by the National Science Foundation, the following schools produced the highest percentage of students who went on to earn a PhD.

Reed
Swarthmore
Carleton
Pomona
Haverford
Caltech
Grinnell
Williams
Amherst
Oberlin
Kalmazoo
Wellesley
Vassar
Mcalseter
Allegheny
Bowdoin
Kenyon
Wesleyan
Whitman
Mount Holyoke

Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and Vassar are 1-1:45 minutes away from a ski resort. Although not on the list, Middlebury College owns its own ski resort.

Reed is ~ 2.25 hrs from Mt Hood

8

Hamilton College - another highly selective LAC with very strong STEM programs, including Biology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, amongst others; https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments/Home?dept=Biology, https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments/Home?dept=Biochemistry%2FMolecular%20Biology.

Also lots of great skiing options nearby in the Adirondack Mountans, including Whiteface Mountain which hosted two Oympics.

9

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 sufficient to get you into a great graduate program.

Additionally, keep in mind that it is extremely common for college students to change their majors at least once. Since you’re only a high school sophomore, it is even more likely that you’ll change academic directions. You don’t want to have to draw up a new list every time you decide you want to study something different!

Unless you’re content primarily getting suggestions of colleges that other people liked/attended - which may or may not be good fits for you - you need to rethink your college search method.

(1) Think about what you want in a college. If you don’t yet have preferences about some of the below factors, visit a variety of colleges in your area. As katliamom noted, California has many excellent colleges of all shapes and sizes.

[ul][]What are your stats? (GPA, class rank, ACT/SAT scores, etc.)
[] What can you afford? How much merit or financial aid will you need?
[]Small (<3000 students), small-medium (3000-7000), medium (7000-12,000), medium-large (12-20,000), or large (20,000+)?
[]Big city, small city, suburban, rural…?
[]Which part(s) of the country? (Pacific Northwest? Northeast? California? Southeast?)
[]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][/li]
(2) Use search engines to create a preliminary list of prospective colleges based on qualities you’ve determined are important to you.

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search
[College Finder - College Confidential](https://www.collegeconfidential.com/schools/search)

(3) Narrow down further. Read books like the [Fiske Guide to Colleges](https://www.amazon.com/Fiske-Guide-Colleges-2018-Edward/dp/1402260687) and the [Insider’s Guide to the Colleges](https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2015-Students/dp/1250048060). Your local library should have copies.

(4) Narrow down based on your interests in biology. 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][]How much research funding is available? How competitive is it to get?
[]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.)
[]Have students been published? If so, as what author (1st, 2nd, etc.) and in what journals?
[]What graduate programs do students attend?
[]Does the college offer field and lab-based seminars?
[]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][/li]
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.