If you’re interested in chemistry…
https://www.bates.edu/news/2015/07/23/bates-is-a-distinctive-presence-at-international-chemistry-conference/
As someone has pointed out, each college tends to be strong in one field but weak in another. If you are looking for the one school that offers the most of what you need, then CalTech is a no-brainer. While Cal is not technically an LAC, it does notoriously require its students to take classes in many disciplines.
If CalTech is too off-putting for you, then you should consider Pomona or Harvey Mudd, both of which belong to the Claremont Consortium and have very strong science departments. Harvey Mudd is stronger at Physics, Engineering and the high-tech, while Pomona leans more toward the traditional Math/Biology/Chemistry.
@tk21769 wrote:
Couldn’t help but notice that Wesleyan is the number one LAC on that list (I’m not including the University of Hawaii.)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2013/liberal_arts_research.php
People don’t generally think of Wesleyan as a science powerhouse; I think it’s the only NESCAC college where twice as many people major in the visual and performing arts as in STEM subjects. But, it’s also rumored to have the most square footage of lab space per student in the country. The faculty/student ratio for science majors is off the charts, in large part because so many professors are engaged in government research that their individual teaching loads tend to be lighter.
Wesleyan is also technically a university, since it awards doctoral degrees of its own in many scientific disciplines. It has beaten such powerhouses as MIT, Caltech, and Stanford twice in the past four years for the coveted Apker Prize for physics.
Certainly from a pure LAC perspective, Claremont Colleges and Reed are near the top of every legitimate list.
^According to one legitimate list, if you combine all the research money spent at each Claremont College, it equals $14 million. But, of course, at that point, you’re no longer talking about a “pure LAC”, but rather, a 6000 student undergraduate oriented institution:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2013/liberal_arts_research.php
Wow, $14 million is much less than I would have anticipated. Johns Hopkins has about 6000 undergrads and over $2Billion in research funding. JHU is the extreme, of course, but Brandeis, with fewer than 4k undergrads spends $75 million on research, Princeton (5K+ undergrads) spends $263M, Brown (6K+ undergrads) spends $344M, and Chicago ( 5K+ undergrads) $454M.
^I highly doubt the statistics you have there. Are these figures exclusively for undergraduate research? Or do they include graduate fundings?
^^ Same question for Wesleyan.
Regarding research funding, I’d be much more interested in the source of the dollars, and in whether the respective institutions have strong policies in place to avoid conflicts of interest, than their amount.
Same source as for the LACs – see previously posted URL. In neither case would I characterize the research expenditures as “undergraduate.” Research $$ typically fund projects/labs and the money spent includes salaries, equipment/supplies, expenses, etc. So even at an exclusively undergrad institution, only a small fraction of the research expenditures goes directly to undergrads or undergrad education. But in terms of numbers of labs, projects, facilities, equipment, there’s a huge difference in resources available. Access is a separate issue – depends on student, university, field, etc., but it’s clearly the case that, for example, med school research money creates jobs and opportunities for undergrads at some schools. And while LACs may have no grad students, that doesn’t mean that the faculty member/PI relies exclusively on undergrads for research assistance. Post docs and staff are often in the mix as well.
Wesleyan is a 3,000 student undergraduate-oriented institution that, according to easily verifiable data, funnels approximately $10 million into research each year. The overwhelming majority of it comes from federal research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is the only LAC member of the NIH’s Molecular Biophysics Predoctoral Training Program:
http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/multimedia/map/molecular/
Wesleyan does not differentiate between “undergraduate” research and “graduate” research. A professor submits a proposal; the grant is awarded to that professor. Every Wesleyan professor teaches undergraduates.
Some proposals are funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) which tends to mandate undergraduate participation. But, that is in addition to an awful lot of other basic STEM research being done on campus for which qualified undergraduates may have the chops. The word on the ground is that the opportunities are quite excellent.
Great suggestions. Although they are not as high ranked, but you may also want to read up on Bucknell and Lafayette in PA and Union in NY. All of these LACs offer engineering and are strong in the sciences as well. Also Franklin and Marshall is worth looking into. These might be good as kind of low match/safetys or schools to consider if you are looking for merit aid.