<p>The main question I’m asking is this: If the OP’s family spends an extra $50,000 to attend Johns Hopkins instead of Colgate, are they getting what they think they are getting? This is a real question, not a rhetorical question in a game of “gotcha”. </p>
<p>If you think Hopkins would give you a superior classroom experience in your major, look at the class sizes in that major. In the ISIS listings, I see many very large classes. If you doubt my qualifications to look up class size information in ISIS, look it up for yourself (I provided a link above.) In the ISIS listings, I also see many instructors whose names do not show up the list of Tenured & Tenure Track Faculty. Of 55 unique courses offered by the biology department in 2013-14, I count 27 taught by at least 1 professor whose name is not on that list. That’s 49%. If you doubt my qualifications to look up and aggregate this information (which you should, because after all I’m just a random poster on the Internet), look it up for yourself (I provided links). </p>
<p>The OP might want to search ISIS for undergraduate biology courses taught in Spring 2014 by the professors on that Tenured & TTrack list.Let’s try the first few:
Beemon: 0 hits
Chen: 1 course
Cunningham: 0 hits
Edidin: 0 hits
Freire: 0 hits
Hattar: 1 course
Hedgecock: 1 course
Hilser: 0 hits
That’s 3 for 8 so far. If you doubt my qualifications, check my count. Search for yourself.</p>
<p>Famous research universities, understandably, like to crow about their famous faculty. My own alma mater is no exception, with its continual bragging about all its “affiliated” Nobel laureates. In reality, the odds of an undergraduate being taught by a Nobel laureate at Berkeley, Chicago, or Columbia are better than zero … but not by much.</p>
<p>Now, if many of JHU’s marquee faculty are too busy to teach undergrads, do you think that’s because they are busy mentoring undergrads on research projects? I doubt it. On the other hand, I believe there truly must be more research opportunities at Hopkins than at Colgate. Even without close mentoring, some of them must be very worthwhile. If the OP can afford the extra $50K, this may be one good reason to choose Hopkins. </p>
<p>My reason for bringing in all the remarks about other LACs, and the PhD production data, is to support the following argument (which more of a hypothesis than a “claim”):
- The presence of bleeding edge research and famous faculty on a campus is not necessary and sufficient to ensure good grad school outcomes (as indicated by PhD production rates.) I don’t need to cite JHU’s rates to support this argument. The fact that any other national university with a renowned life science program nevertheless has relatively low PhD production rates would be enough (case in point: WashU).</p>
<ol>
<li>The absence of bleeding edge research and famous faculty on a campus does not preclude good grad school outcomes (as indicated by PhD production rates.) I don’t need to cite Colgate’s rates to support this argument. The fact that any other equally selective peer LAC nevertheless has relatively high PhD production rates would be enough (case in point: Grinnell, Oberlin … or a less selective school like Earlham). </li>
</ol>
<p>Now if we want to talk specifically about Colgate’s and JHU’s rates, in fact neither one of them has especially good PhD production rates in the biological sciences (or overall). I can think of 2 possible reasons (and yes, this is speculation and conjecture … which is what one sometimes does to avoid making sweeping claims from limited evidence, and to set up follow-on investigations.) First, maybe they have weak departments. Second, maybe the majority of their good students are choosing other paths (like med school or employment). Well I don’t think the first is true of JHU’s biology department. It might be true of Colgate’s. I doubt it, but that would be something for the OP to investigate.</p>
<p>Look, I can think of good reasons to choose Hopkins, if the OP can afford the extra cost. But I also think he should go into this choice with eyes wide open so he does not feel he’s been the victim of a bait-and-switch when he sits down in a 400-student lecture or gets stuck with an indifferent TA in a discussion section. For better or worse, I would expect JHU to be a more challenging environment that Colgate. If the OP is willing to work harder to seek out the best professors and other good opportunities, he might get more out of JHU. $50K more? Hard to say.</p>