<p>I am a junior in highschool looking at colleges. I want to major in biology or zoology but I am looking for a small college close to PA or DE. I was wondering if anyone could help me find a small college that has a strong biology or zoology program and is in the New England or PA/DE area. I need to stay close to this area for personal reasons and I don't know how strong the biology programs are compared to other top colleges like cornell. So far I am considering Bucknel and Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Haverford - like Hopkins, CMU, Brandeis, MIT, and a few others - narrowly focuses its biology department on molecular and cellular biology. It does share cross-registration with Bryn Mawr, however, so it should work well. </p>
<p>A few other suggestions, of varying selectivity:</p>
<p>Allegheny
Bowdoin (strong marine science)
College of the Atlantic (very small)
Connecticut College
Hartwick
Juniata
SUNY ESF (professionally oriented)
Wheaton</p>
<p>Bates, Colby, Franklin & Marshall, and Hamilton have more offerings in ecology than in organismal biology proper, but they may be feasible options as well.</p>
<p>So can your parents afford these $50,000 plus colleges for all 4 years? </p>
<p>Have you calculated your EFC on the CollegeBoard website? Choose both IM and FM & keep hitting “Save” so you can refer back to the numbers. </p>
<p>Bear in mind your family will no doubt have to pay more than the EFC calculated.
It is best to have this financial discussion now, before you visit & fall in love with a school your family cannot afford.</p>
<p>Think about what kind of biology/zoology you want. Would you be happier spending more time out in the field studying animal behavior (or plant ecosystems), or indoors in a lab? Not that you won’t do some of both. </p>
<p>For field work, Connecticut College, Middlebury, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland all seem to take good advantage of local ecosystems (Long Island Sound, Lake Champlain, and the Chesapeake Bay respectively). Go visit schools to check out local settings and lab facilities. Don’t get so caught up in rankings (or small differences in department strength) that you fail to consider your own personality and “fit”.</p>
<p>No I would most likely fit in a small peacful little college with more individualized teaching and I would die if I had to stay in a lab all day. I would love to work out in the feild most of the time</p>
<p>Alfred University, (NY) established in 1836, close to the PA border.
About 2300 undergrads, small classes with lots of individual attention, Division III Athletics, No Greek Life, Merit Aid, Need-Based Aid, shuttles to Rochester Aiport & buses to NYC at peak break times. Small charming village of Alfred, NY. All students may own cars. </p>
<p>College of Liberal Arts - COA is about $38,000.00/year
School of Art & Design
School of Business
School of Engineering </p>
<p>USNWR’s Great Schools Great Prices
Fiske Best Buy
Fiske Small Colleges & Universities Strong in Engineering
Fiske Small Colleges & Universities Strong in Art & Design
Princeton Review’s Best 373
Princeton Review’s Best 300 Business Schools
Fiske Guide 2011 </p>
<p>For merit aid in the C.O.L.A. awards are $14,000/year, $12,000/year or $10,000/year. </p>
<p>You have not stated how much your parents can afford.</p>
<p>I am not looking for colleges based on money right now I will do that once I figure out a list of colleges I would be interested in first. Thank you for your help though :3</p>
You have to start somewhere, agreed. But if your family isn’t rolling in money, this should be one of the first criteria to use for eliminating schools. 1 - does your official EFC match what your parents Expect they can Contribute? 2 - Does the school “meet need”, and if so, how much of the need is met with loans? 3 - Does the school offer hefty merit scholarships that you could have a shot at?</p>
<p>The reason this is important is that you might, out of your list of 30 schools, decide that school X is the perfect place and you can’t live without it. If that perfect place isn’t going to give you needed money, you’re setting yourself up for (best case) disappointment in a year when you realize you can’t afford it or (worst case) you go and have the debt the size of a mortgage when you’re 22 years old. If you eliminate school X from the beginning, you can’t fall in love with it and you can fall in live with Y instead.</p>
<p>Now you may think “but what about X? It’s perfect and these rotten parents are making me not even know that!” Thing is, there are a lot of schools that could work for you - look at all the suggestions you have already! You can’t really know that one is that much better than the other without a time machine and repeating college.</p>
<p>okay thank you. I understand. I have gathered a list of the colleges I am interested in and I am wondering which of these has the best Biology program. I have a couple scholarships already and other means of paying for college. If I get into any of these colleges my family said they would find some way to pay for it. Now I am not sure what that means but My grandparents what to help pay for college and they are rather well to do. These are the colleges I am considering</p>
<p>Swarthmore
Haverford
Upenn
Franklin & Marshall
Bucknell
Juniata</p>
<p>I live in Colorado, so may not have the same ideas of “close” as Easterners… These are good small schools to look at, though - Case Western (OH) and Rose Hulman (IN). They would both have excellent biology programs. Given the schools you’re considering, you should look at “Colleges that Change Lives” for a good starting point. (I can’t answer which of those schools has the best bio program - sorry!)</p>
<p>“I need to stay In the PA/DE area because my therapist and psycologist are here. being a really shy person, finding a new therapist and what not isn’t really an option.” </p>
<p>Poster has stated on another thread wants to stay in specific geographical area for the above reason.</p>