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<p>Here are per-capita rates of PhD completions in 2006-2010 for biology/life science majors only from several LACs and research universities:</p>
<p>Institution …5 yr. BioPhDs …Est. Annual BioGrads …Est.PerCapita
Carleton College… 79…43…37%
Reed College…62…35…35%
Swarthmore College…65…48…27%
Harvard University…222…202… …22%
Cornell University…412…432…19%
Berkeley…477…971…10%
Michigan…228…534…9%</p>
<p>Sources & Calculation Methods</p>
<p>Column 2 contains NSF-compiled numbers of PhD completions in 2006-10 for the biological sciences (<a href=“https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/[/url]”>https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/</a>)</p>
<p>Column 3, for all but Reed College, is calculated from the percentage of degrees conferred in “biological/life sciences” shown in a recent Common Data Set for each school (Section J), multiplied by the total number of undergraduate degrees conferred (as reported in individual college announcements). For Reed College, “35” is the actual number of biology degrees conferred in 2011-12 according to [REED</a> COLLEGE BACCALAUREATE DEGREES BY DEPARTMENT](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/gradbydept.html]REED”>Baccalaureate Degrees by Department - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>
<p>Column 4 shows the 5-year number of BioPhDs divided by 5 times the estimated annual number of BioGrads.</p>
<p>These numbers will of course fluctuate from year to year. However, if this small slice of data is any indication, the comparatively high PhD production rates of LACs would not be attributable to their lack of pre-professional majors (since it’s a head-to-head comparison only of biology majors). It does appear that biology majors tend to have much higher rates of PhD completions than the overall averages.</p>