<p>Does anybody know some good LACs for science? I'm thinking about doing a science major for pre-med. However, I don't want to go to a huge university with lots of large classes. I prefer small classes. I want to major in something like Neuroscience, Biology, Chemistry, or Biochemistry. Which liberal arts colleges have good programs for these? Having an established pre-med program would be helpful but not necessary.</p>
<p>If the geography is conducive, Wittenberg has strong science departments with a robust neuroscience minor. Evansville has a strong neuroscience major. Both, while nominally universities, are really LACs with a few graduate and professional programs. Wittenberg has good financial aid.</p>
<p>Pomona and the other Claremonts</p>
<p>college of wooster, muhlenberg college , laffeyette college , hendrix college</p>
<p>Strong premed program at Rhodes College.</p>
<p>[REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>
<p>FXtrader, it would be helpful to know more information about you. As just one example, someone interested in city life may be bored to death at Hendrix, and someone who likes nature may be turned off by Barnard. A few things to consider:</p>
<p>[ul][<em>]What are your stats (grades, SAT scores, etc.)?
[</em>]What can you afford? Will you need a lot of financial or merit aid?
[<em>]Which part(s) of the country (northeast, southeast, west coast, midwest, etc.) are you interested in?
[</em>]What type of location - rural, suburb of a city, small city, big city…?
[<em>]Co-ed or single-sex?
[</em>]Greek life - love it, hate it, or no opinion?
[<em>]Do you care about athletics? Would you prefer to watch athletics (perhaps at a DI college) or play a sport (perhaps at a DIII college)?
[</em>]Do you have special needs in a college? LGBT friendly, LD friendly…?[/ul]</p>
<p>For neuroscience, I like the recommendations of Pomona and Rhodes. I would add Amherst, Franklin & Marshall, Carleton, Allegheny, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Oberlin, and Trinity (CT).</p>
<p>Many, many LACs are good at biology and chemistry. A while back I calculated the percentages of students majoring in the natural sciences at LACs. While it is not necessarily indicative of quality, it gives you some idea of where you’re most likely to find like-minded students.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14938541-post6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14938541-post6.html</a></p>
<p>As LACs with graduate programs in the sciences, Wesleyan and Bryn Mawr are rather unusual. While this can be attractive to some, it is a turn off for others. </p>
<p>I would like to draw particular attention to Hope and Earlham. Both tend to get overlooked on these forums in favor of the flashier schools in the Midwest, but they provide absolutely superb training in the sciences. Hope impressively had the highest undergrad publication rate of any LAC in the country a few years ago. </p>
<p>Any decent college can be good for pre-med. As Amherst says in its excellent premedical guide,
</p>
<p>-I don’t feel comfortable sharing my stats on the internet, but around ~3.3 GPA and ~1800 SAT. My school doesn’t rank students and there is no “weighted GPA”. My school is also highly reputable. Business Week ranked it top in my state. </p>
<p>-Cost doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>-Location doesn’t really matter. It would be cool to live on one of the coasts, but I prefer academics rather than location.</p>
<p>-Size doesn’t matter per se, but the class sizes should be small which often means smaller total enrollment.</p>
<p>-Co-Ed 
But the ones that were all female or all male at one point and are now co-ed are fine too. I am a male.</p>
<p>-I have no intentions of participating in Greek life, but it’s okay if the school has them.</p>
<p>-I wouldn’t mind watching sports, but I don’t play any team sports.</p>
<p>-I have no special needs.</p>
<p>Centre College (in KY) offers a behavioral neuroscience major. It’s a bit more selective but also a bit less expensive than Wittenberg or Wooster (two schools, recommended above, in neighboring Ohio).</p>
<p>With a 3.3 and an 1800, I would look at LACs ranked roughly 20-50 on the USNWR list. The selectivity of the LACs in the top 20 makes all of them reaches - some are very high reaches. That doesn’t mean that the bio and chem won’t be good at those schools which are somewhat less selective - at many, it will be absolutely fine for the purposes of a future pre-med. As for how to narrow that list down, a lot depends on how you answer the questions posed by warblersrule - and not all of them will have much by way of neuroscience.</p>
<p>I would ignore the USNWR list, since the factors it uses to rank colleges have zero proven correlation with educational outcomes. Select a school based on cost, location, availability of programs, and whether it appeals to you.</p>
<p>Another vote for Carleton’s science program here. As a pre-med bio major here, we have sa great pre-med advisor and a pretty nice acceptance rate to med school (on average, 75 percent of applicants are accepted on their first try, and I think it’s something like 90 percent of applicants with a 3.7 or over). Obviously, as the Amherst program says so well, a lot depends on the student as well. But I really like the science departments here and have found my courses to be both challenging and interesting. The biology department in particular has some really awesome professors, and my organic chem professors are some of my favorite that I’ve had at Carleton.</p>
<p>Realistically, this student is not going to get into Carleton with those statistics… I agree with M’s Mom, given that cost is not a factor. But you might go down further than 50, there are some pretty good choices down to about 70, IMHO.</p>
<p>^My bad - I had the page up before the OP responded (was doing other work and then took a break to answer it - but warbler’s rule was the last post I saw). </p>
<p>That being said, I will still second the opinions of many others in saying that wherever you go, from my understanding, you will have a decent shot at med school as long as your grades and MCAT are good, and you have decent medical experience.</p>
<p>
The OP has noted that location and cost are not factors. According to IPEDS, more than 500 colleges have fewer than 3000 students and offer biology and chemistry. Likewise, College Board reports 562 LACs with biology and chemistry where the OP is at or above their average test scores. I suppose it’s technically possible to examine each to see if “it appeals to him,” but it is hardly a time efficient process. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>The US News rankings are not gospel, but they are a good starting place and provide a rough measure of selectivity. I agree with intparent about going lower in the USNWR list; some of the lower ranked LACs like Lewis & Clark (#70), Reed (#75), and Allegheny (#82) have rather strong science programs.</p>
<p>I also recommend acquiring 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/or the [Insider’s</a> Guide to the Colleges](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2013-Students/dp/0312672969]Insider’s”>http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2013-Students/dp/0312672969). Many public libraries have copies.</p>
<p>Reed, Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>The only thing they measure accurately is prestige, because they define prestige. They say absolutely nothing about the quality of the education available at an institution. A much better way to start narrowing down choices is the college selector available on this site, or one of the similar ones offered elsewhere.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendations. I am looking at Centre and some others.</p>
<p>Consulting USNWR (not as Gospel but as one of several useful reference tools) can help you quickly isolate groups of schools that tend to have the best aid, highest faculty salaries, smallest classes, and highest 4 yr graduation rates for students with qualifications similar to your own. US News attempts to identify schools that best meet such standards, without taking on the very hard problem of defining and measuring “educational outcomes” (as Forbes tries to do).</p>
<p>I agree that the OP’s sweet spot might be somewhere in the USNWR 50-100 range. A college selector might help, too.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with using the data that USNWR collects, as long as you ignore the rankings, which are complete nonsense.</p>