<p>*Which college has better Premed programs, Colby or Connecticut? How are the research and internship facilities, professors, study abroad and career counseling? Which has better biological sciences domination and higher med school placement? *</p>
<p>These are rather fine distinctions to be making about two similar schools. The motivation you derive from being happy with your choice, and your resulting individual effort at either school, is likely to make a much bigger difference than any little edge you get from a slightly better pre-med counseling program at either of them, in my opinion. </p>
<p>Among small liberal arts colleges it is nearly impossible to compare faculty quality across the board in a systematic, objective way. One thing that does stand out in my mind is that Connecticut College seemed to have an outstanding botany program. I don’t know if that translates to high quality in the life sciences generally. </p>
<p>Circa 2005, Colby had a higher endowment per student than Conn College (source: [University</a> Endowment per Student](<a href=“http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=604]University”>http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=604)) . I’ve seen CC postings suggesting that some of the facilities at Conn College may need a little work, so pay attention to this on your visits. Colby spends a little more on research ($1.5 mill vs. $1.1 mill for Conn) and has a higher graduation rate (87% vs. 81%) according to the 2009 Washington Monthly rankings.</p>
<p>A few years back, the Wall Street Journal ranked the top 50 feeders to elite business, medical and law schools. Colby was #46, Connecticut was not on the list (for whatever that’s worth, because for all we know, it was #51 then, and by now has leapfrogged Colby.)</p>
<p>Bottom Line: a number of indicators (USNWR rank etc) suggest that Colby overall is stronger, but not by enough to override if after visiting both you feel much more comfortable at Connecticut (due to weather, social atmosphere, geographic setting, whatever.)</p>
<p>Thanks…but what about med school placements? Do students go to Harvard med school or JHU school of medicine?</p>
<p>I don’t know where to dig for med school placement data relevant to these two schools, beyond the WSJ study I cited. Even if you could find it, the data is likely to be so sparse as to be uninformative for your own situation. Colby made #46 in that WSJ study by placing just 8 students in a basket of 15 select grad programs (including medical, business, and law schools). So let’s say they put 2 into Harvard Med last year and Conn put 1 into Hopkins, or something like that. What kind of conclusions can you draw from such small numbers? You probably cannot even find the number of applicants so you do not know if “2” represents 100% success or a much smaller rate.</p>