I am a rising senior who is trying to put together a list of colleges to either tour this summer or look into and possibly apply to.
Intended major: biology (but I have no intention of a med school track)
GPA: 100.7 (4.6) weighted
ACT: 35
SAT: 1560
ECs: varsity sport, worked as peer tutor and at a part time job, play in concert band (but I am not particularly good), I am in a science “competition” league (but it is not really competitive)
I live in New York and attend a pretty good public schools. I think I prefer slightly larger schools with more developed research departments than most LACs offer.
Any suggestions for schools in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
MIT, Brandeis, Cornell, Harvard, JHU, Tufts, URochester. I’d highly recommend appropriate LACs as well for their enhanced undergraduate research opportunities.
Why do people have that intention of avoiding State schools? You have UB, Albany, Binghamton, Stony Brook and SUNY Geneseo. I would add Oswego too.
These schools provide undergraduate research opportunities. The only way you are going to do research is by asking and connect with professors. Going to an expensive won’t give you a higher percentage because there are many other great students.
Is there a particular area of biology that interests you? Of the suggestions in @merc81’s list above, it should be noted that Brandeis, Hopkins, and to an extent MIT focus almost exclusively on cell/molecular biology to the detriment of ecology and evolutionary biology – they are not necessarily great places for all prospective biology majors. Cornell, on the other hand, is extremely well-rounded in all subdisciplines of biology, including its notable strengths in organismal biology (e.g. ornithology and marine biology).
It’s a bit further souther than what you’re looking for, but Duke is very strong in almost all subdisciplines of biology; it’s particularly strong in botany, primatology, marine science, and ecology. (I studied oceanography at Duke, so I’m admittedly biased.) Realistically, however, virtually all of the top universities have biology programs that are perfectly adequate for your purposes. Tufts is a very good option if you’d like to stay in the northeast. I agree with @NASA2014 that you have many excellent in-state options as well.
You have stellar stats, but your EC’s aren’t eye-catching (though I’m sure you’ll express them in a less self-deprecating way in your apps ) It may be tough to crack the super-elites without impressing them more on the non-academic side of things. (This isn’t criticism, just the reality of the very most competitive schools.)
You’re also not describing your financial situation, so it’s hard to tell whether you should go for schools with good need-based aid, or schools with good merit aid (which you’re extremely well qualified to attract!), or if you’re a full-pay student who doesn’t care about cost.
Are you female, and if so would you consider single-gender schools? (Smith, for example, is extremely strong in the sciences, and Barnard has access to all of the research opportunities of Columbia.)
Top STEM schools like RPI and Georgia Tech might be a good fit. Case Western Reserve would give you beaucoup merit $$, and research there is excellent. As warblersrule says, bio covers a lot of territory; if you can narrow down your interests more, that will help bring things into focus.
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) It may be tough to crack the super-elites without impressing them more on the non-academic side of things. (This isn’t criticism, just the reality of the very most competitive schools.)