Best Research Universities

What are some of the universities with the best and most research opportunities as an undergrad, and preferably with a minimum difference in faculty:student ratio.

<p>what kind of research?? like...lab research as in chem/bio/pharm???</p>

<p>yeah, the natural sciences, I'm thinking of pre-med so...</p>

<p>JaiJai: looking for best research opportunities as an undergrad, you should look to small universities or liberal arts colleges that have relatively few graduate students. In large universities research is allocated to the graduate students as a priority, so undergrads have generally fewer opportunities whereas in liberal arts colleges and smaller universities there are few (or no) graduate students so any research assistance to a professor is likely to be done by undergrads.</p>

<p>Some smaller research universities: Brandeis, Rochester, Lehigh, Carnegie-Mellon, Washington/St. Louis, Tufts, Case-Western Reserve. Many liberal arts colleges have pretty good physical or natural science departments. </p>

<p>Think abut size of the university, location, general atmosphere and cost, then check posts here - or post more information about yourself and your preferences and others will help out.</p>

<p>Note, however, that it's not essential to do research to become admitted to medical school.</p>

<p>Take a look at the University of Michigan's UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program). They have close to 1,000 research projects that are reserved for freshman or sophomore students.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/urop%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.lsa.umich.edu/urop&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>UofChicago fools...</p>

<p>mostly grad students... dedicated undergrad student body... good teacher faculty ratio... and most undergrad students take quite a few graduate level classes before they graduate with a B.A.</p>

<p>best research opportunities for undergrads?</p>

<p>the UC schools are actually known as research schools. At any of the UCs there are many opportunities for undergrad research.</p>

<p>Furman University -<br>
"Ranked No. 38 among national liberal arts colleges, No. 4 in the category of 'Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects' and No. 25 among 'Great Schools at Great Prices.'"
-U. S. News & World Report
<a href="http://www.furman.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.furman.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The UC's are good research institutions, and if you can make it into their honors programs you'll sometimes receive the same kind of personal attention you'd get at a liberal arts college.</p>

<p>I cant speak for all of the UCs though I imagine they are probably all around the same caliber. UCSD offers alot of research opportunities, there are a million different labs, research institutes, etc. Becareful though, two of my friends (one of them my freshmen year roommate) were pre-meds but in the end they enjoyed research so much that they both decided to go on to grad school instead (my friend Judy is at Cal right now and my former roommate at Columbia).</p>

<p>umm... MIT??? they also have UROPS and groundbreaking research</p>