<p>The percentage of Haverford Biology Majors going to med school is like 80% while grad school is about 15%. Why the huge difference? Is it because of the biology department's reputation for med school preparation, is the department better suited to prepare students for med school rather than grad school? I'm considering going to grad school after haverford.</p>
<p>"The percentage of Haverford Biology Majors going to med school is like 80% while grad school is about 15%. Why the huge difference?" </p>
<p>I think it reflects the kinds of students HC attracts. HC CAN be a very touch-feely place and, given its Quaker heritage of activism and community involvement, seems to enroll students who like personal interactions (the close student/prof relationships) and using knowledge to directly make other people's lives better (the community service stuff I posted earlier). These things also describe the medical profession. </p>
<p>HC is also one of the best places to go for pre-med, especially if you don't want the "pre-med" mentality. HC is very highly regarded among top med schools and this fact draws some student to HC (Most other top LACs have PhDs as pre-med advisors while at HC, the advisor is a clinical professor at Penn and also the daughter of the former chair of the Hopkins Dept of Medicine (a very big deal)... she has built a reputation for HC among top med school adcoms above and beyond... from my experience, she's on 1st name basis with the head of admissions at HMS and Hopkins to name a few). </p>
<p>"...is the department better suited to prepare students for med school rather than grad school?"</p>
<p>Absolutely not. When I applied to colleges, I was very interested and had some experience with protein chemistry research and molecular bio... and wanted to pursue that. Only 2 LACs at the time taught immunology and gave students hands on experience with the production of monoclonal anti-bodies which I'm sure you know is a basic staple for biomed research (HC and williams). I believe that's still the case. Other top LACs did not offer as strong a training in molecular research because their bio departments are general and many of their profs teach about fish or birds instead of specializing in molecular research. The ivies I looked at either didn't (it's really too time intensive and expensive) or only offered it to immunology majors). HC now has this nano emphasis which is even more geared to research. </p>
<p>Why students do well with med school is because the academic/research training you get at HC (in most departments such as english...) teaches the most important assets for med school... critical thinking, time management, teamwork, sleep deprivation, integrity...</p>
<p>if you google "haverford and molecular bio" there are many interesting links... these are a few from the 1st 3 pages. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegenews.org/x1271.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegenews.org/x1271.xml</a>
<a href="http://www.collegenews.org/x5463.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegenews.org/x5463.xml</a>
<a href="http://www.haverford.edu/newsletter/may04/hhmi.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.haverford.edu/newsletter/may04/hhmi.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2003/10_25_03.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2003/10_25_03.html</a>
<a href="http://www.michaeljfox.org/research/researcherbio.php?id=54%5B/url%5D">http://www.michaeljfox.org/research/researcherbio.php?id=54</a>
<a href="http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v11/n1/full/nsmb0104-16.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v11/n1/full/nsmb0104-16.html</a>
<a href="http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:gH13NAO1FowJ:commprojects.jhsph.edu/sommerscholars/scholar_detail.cfm%3Fscholar_id%3D46+haverford+molecular+research&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10%5B/url%5D">http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:gH13NAO1FowJ:commprojects.jhsph.edu/sommerscholars/scholar_detail.cfm%3Fscholar_id%3D46+haverford+molecular+research&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10</a>
<a href="http://www.mgb.pitt.edu/personnel/view.asp?uid=probb%5B/url%5D">http://www.mgb.pitt.edu/personnel/view.asp?uid=probb</a>
<a href="http://www.haverford.edu/newsletter/june06/kaback.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.haverford.edu/newsletter/june06/kaback.htm</a></p>
<p>Actually a good question. I think the answer comes from looking at the number of H'ford kids who go to med school from Bio, on top of those who go to grad school. So it's not that the number of kids going to grad school is low, it's that the place is very friendly to, and successful with, pre-med kids. Excellent training--not redundant with 1st 2 year med school courses, instead all cell and molecular biology--non-cutthroat. Another index of this is the numbers of m.d.-ph.d. students who come out of H'ford, and the number of H'ford grads on grad school and med school faculties, both of which are very, very high.</p>
<p>If you're still feeling unsettled, check out the web sites of individual H'ford faculty and see what their senior research mentees go on to do post-grad-e.g. Jenny Punt.</p>
<p>oldcrs,
From this post and, more importantly, from your other one on the campus culture and honor code of HC a while back, you seem to possess a personal knowledge with the college that goes far beyond college guide books and 1/2 hour tours… my guess is that your dad, or brother, close family member, a best friend or respected colleague went here? </p>
<p>Vassily,
I hope you feel more confident with your choice. Also, in addition to the already exceptional research opportunities at HC, kids often are connected to do research at Fox Chase and Penn as well. </p>
<p>Also, you really can’t talk molecular bio and HC without mentioning the tremendous work from the Koshlands…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfjcf.org/endowment/profiles/koshland.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.sfjcf.org/endowment/profiles/koshland.asp</a>
<a href="http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/erg/Pages/koshland.html%5B/url%5D">http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/erg/Pages/koshland.html</a>
<a href="http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/news_970519.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/news_970519.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>
[quote]
The percentage of Haverford Biology Majors going to med school is like 80% while grad school is about 15%. Why the huge difference?
[/quote]
My impression is that you would see similar patterns at many other top schools. The job market for PhDs has been generally perceived as poor in recent years, and interest in graduate school has declined accordingly.</p>
<p>For example, consider the following description of Princeton, as reported in The</a> Scientist in October 2000:</p>
<p>
[quote]
At a meeting right after Labor Day, Princeton University's molecular biology department surveyed the plans of its recently graduated seniors, and professor Shirley M. Tilghman wasn't happy with the results. Thirty-one out of 72 students awarded bachelor's degrees last June were going to medical school, eight planned to do community-service work--and only three were heading directly for Ph.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. programs.
Recalling the meeting, Tilghman notes that the cohort of doctoral wanna-bes has never topped 10 percent of graduates. But she describes this year's yield as the worst ever.
[/quote]
</p>