Best Institutions for Undergraduate Education

I know I just posted a similar question, but I wanted to rephrase it. I’m interested in a variety of subjects, and I definitely see myself pursuing a graduate degree (likely a doctorate). Therefore, one of the most important aspects of a college for me is the quality/focus on undergraduate teaching. I want to go to an institution that will prepare me very well for further education. Some of the places I have heard about and like are Pomona, Swarthmore, and Yale, for example.

With this being said, what are the colleges that (a): prioritize undergraduate education, and (b): prepare undergrads well for graduate school, particularly PhD. candidates?

If responses could be presented in a list of schools, that would be greatly appreciated.

(I’m male by the way, so even though I think places like Smith/Wellesley are great schools, they don’t apply to me)

Well, LAC’s only do undergraduate will always prioritize undergrad…

You need to do more of this work yourself. The vast majority of colleges and universities will prepare you well- or more accurately, will give you everything you need to prepare yourself- for graduate school. HS is not 3rd level, and you are not a passive element in the process. It’s your turn to step up and shape your education towards the future you want.

One of my collegekids was never a fan of competing with anybody but herself. She went to a small, collegial, modestly selective LAC- and thrived there. Another student loves to challenge herself against the best, and chose a famously competitive (considered cutthroat by some) highly selective national research university. Both had great undergraduate experiences right the way through, and they are now in the same top 5 PhD program. Their classmates come from colleges and universities of every size, type and shape. You need to find the one that works best for you.

Any of the names you have heard of will be more than “good enough”- and so will at least 100 of those you haven’t heard of.

Two years ago, that was the criteria that my son and I went about in selecting which colleges to choose to make the list for his college applications. By “best undergraduate education,” my son and I wanted those colleges that emphasize more on undergrads, including the share of resources. The way we went about was to look at:

** Pedagogical system (such as Oxford-style tutorial at Williams, Preceptorial at Princeton, etc), if any
** Teacher to student ratio
** Quality of faculty teaching (direct teaching vs. indirect teaching via TA’s)
** Number of undergrad population vs. grad population
** Endowment per student (as opposed to total endowment)
** Pipeline to good grad schools
** Availability of particular majors/minors and pre-Med courses
** College environment, including residential system, diversity and location
** Instructional and EC resources, e.g., tutoring centers, counseling availability and facilities, such as music and sports related

Each and every applicant family has its own unique understanding of what constitutes the “best undergraduate education,” so the criteria above was what we felt were important to our family in our search strategies. For many other applicant families, none or most of these might not even matter or something else not listed might be critically important to them.

Based on the criteria, we picked three LAC’s and eleven out-of-state National universities. Of these, all three LAC’s met the criteria to our satisfaction while only three out of eleven National universities pretty much satisfied our needs. The rest were as backups.

I don’t think anyone can (or should) generalize about colleges and placement into PhD programs. This is something that varies much more between departments than between colleges. It’s not unusual for some of the best programs in a field to be at less selective colleges (e.g. classics at U Cincinnati, philosophy at Rutgers, anthropology at U Arizona, geography at Clark, etc.).

I recommend focusing on figuring out what you want in a college in terms of size, location, setting, selectivity, affordability and so on and then drawing up a tentative list based on those criteria. You are most likely to succeed and get into a good graduate program when you’re at a school that’s a good fit.

Sufficient depth and breadth of upper level offerings in the subjects to be taken as an undergraduate to prepare for PhD study would be one criterion to consider. Undergraduate research opportunities would be another.

Take a look here for some Doctoral Productivity info on colleges
https://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html

It is helpful to remember that some pre-PhD powerhouses are highly selective institutions. The students who end up in those places tend to be smart, well-prepared in high school, and reasonably driven. Their peers who never through to apply to those places, or were rejected for some random reason, or didn’t have the money, or who needed to stay closer to home, or who followed the big aid package to not-so-famous-U end up in PhD programs because they also are smart, well-prepared in high school, and reasonably driven.

Which is a rather long way to say that the onus for PhD admission really is on you, not on the college/university you land at. The extra hand-holding of an LAC really is nice to have, but if you aren’t accepted or can’t afford it, you can make a big, cheap, public university work if that is where you end up.

Honors programs at large state schools can be option. They vary in quality but my D went to a great one. Only one Doctoral student TA the whole time and had close relationships with head of two departments she was studying in. Students actively encouraged and assisted in undergrad research and fellowship applications. Actually more hands on than other D at top LAC. Excellent results for her and friends in med school and grad school app.

I would think that the volume of data that goes into the USNews Best Undergraduate Teaching rankings would be richer than any individual person here.

You also may want to consider Princeton Review’s “Best Classroom Experience,” a ranking based on student surveys. One or more of the listed colleges — such as Reed, Grinnell, Williams, or Hamilton — might suit you.

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=best-classroom-experience