<p>I was wondering what liberal arts colleges had the best biology departments. I want to go to medical school, so I need a liberal arts college that will prepare me well. I know you don't have to major in biology to go to med school, but I have a passion for biology and it is my favorite subject.
I would prefer liberal arts colleges that are fairly generous with financial aid. Our annual household income is about $85,000/year. However, this will not be the deciding factor.
Some colleges already on my list include:
-Williams
-Swarthmore
-Grinnell
-Pomona
-Vassar
-Reed
-Whitman
-Carleton
-Amherst</p>
<p>Every liberal arts college offers biology as a major. If you truly want to go to med school, focus on the following:
- Attend a college where you can get a high GPA, which is critical to admission to med school.<br>
- Focus on preparation for the MCAT. Also very important.
- Participate in some medical-related ECs during the school year or the summer.
- Minimize your undergraduate debt. Medical school is very expensive, and you will need to take out extensive loans to attend. An option that allows you to come out with NO undergraduate debt is best if you can find one.</p>
<p>Biology majors are a dime a dozen (I believe the last statistic I saw was that we graduate about 60,000 of 'em per year in the US right now). Jobs are scarce and low paying if you don’t go on to a higher level degree or med school. Competition for med school is very, very tough. Focus your search on satisfying the criteria I just listed – don’t go to a school with bruising competition for GPA among the pre-meds and where you will have to take out loans.</p>
<p>You might also look at Lafayette, Union, Franklin & Marshall which are particularly good in the STEM fields.</p>
<p>My impression is that most colleges have fantastic biology programs because there are lots of pre-meds/biology majors everywhere (at least initially). Even Sarah Lawrence, noted for its writing and humanities programs, has a wonderful biology/biochemistry program. What I find to be usually lacking at many liberal arts colleges is the strength of the physics program (Vassar’s physics program isn’t all that good, for instance. It’s OK. Other schools on your list have wonderful physics programs.) But I digress.</p>
<p>All schools on your list should prepare you well for med school, but it is important to note that the lack of grade inflation at some of those schools may serve as an impediment when you apply to medical schools. It’s worth looking into F&M, Mount Holyoke (if you are a girl), Saint Olaf, Hamilton, and Haverford.</p>
<p>I agree with <em>almost</em> all the preceding posts. If liberal arts colleges are your preference, I wouldn’t sweat the particular department. Focus on fit and where you think you’ll be able to thrive inside and outside the classroom. Obviously, you don’t want to go someplace so isolated that there are no hospitals nearby where you can volunteer.</p>
<p>I would avoid applying ED anywhere, just in order to have more than one financial aid package to compare once the RD decisions are made. I disagree a little bit with the idea of avoiding all debt from undergrad. Compared with what you will rack up in medical school, a $20,000 stick after four years of undergrad is not that much. We’ll talk more after you get a few acceptances.</p>
<p>Notice that no one is giving you a simple, straight answer to the topic question.
That’s because it is difficult to compare the strengths of individual departments at the undergraduate level. For a popular major like biology, among peer LACs, it is nearly impossible. About the best you can do is to look carefully at the number of courses, descriptions, faculty bios, and class sizes (if that information is available). Chances are, you won’t see differences among most of these schools that are big enough to override significant net cost differences or non-academic personal preferences. </p>
<p>For a few majors, some LACs do have very strong reputations (e.g. Williams for art history, Bryn Mawr for classics, Beloit for anthropology). I’m not aware of any that stand out above the rest for biology, unless you are talking about certain subfields, perhaps. Connecticut College seems to have a very strong botany program, for example. </p>
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<p>Actually, biology is such a broad field that browsing the course offerings can give you an idea of what each biology department emphasizes, based on its upper level course offerings. Strictly for pre-med purposes, such differences are less relevant, since the pre-med courses are common frosh/soph level courses, but if you major in biology, you may want to check which biology departments have the subarea emphases that you are most interested in.</p>
<p>Note that this is not about ranking to find the “better” school, but is about finding the better academic fit for the specific student.</p>
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<p>Medical school is expensive, so you do not want to add a lot of undergraduate debt to the total debt you will end up with after medical school.
<a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/”>https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/</a>
Also, if you do not go to medical school, biology majors do not have the strongest or well paid job prospects, so taking on a lot of debt as a biology major is not a good idea.</p>