I am looking to go into medical school, and I would like to know which colleges offer the best undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry degrees.
Pre-med does not require a specific major.
“Best” in any case depends on more specific needs and wants that you have (e.g. courses offered, faculty research interests, course rigor, grade inflation/deflation, etc.).
@ucbalumnus I am looking for a college with a strong research program, a strong science and math department, and faculty that are willing to do research with undergrads. I know that medical school does not require a particular major, but I want to major in biochemistry or chemistry. The size and setting of the school is not important to me. I just want a school that offers me the best chance of getting into a good medical school.
In terms of a small highly selective schools Bates comes to mind. The Chairman of the main body that accredits college chemistry programs is a Bates professor and the school is known as a top school for chemistry and pre-med.
Large schools, most state schools have well funded chemistry departments especially The Big Ten schools.
The schools on this list are generally strong in biochemistry, chemistry and pre-med and are worth researching further: “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”
Ivies, Duke, Hopkins, Holy Cross, Tufts.
Your title question is the wrong Q for your needs and situation.
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I scored a 1990(740 M/630 CR/620 W 10 Essay
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You have a 1370 M+CR. What is your GPA?
Your stats are almost borderline for someone who wants to go to med school. Not impossible, but you need to choose your undergrad carefully otherwise the stronger students in your classes will get the A’s and your GPA will suffer.
Bio and BioChem are rather staple at any established univ. Nothing special or unique, particularly for someone who is premed.
Large univs will have research opps, but as a premed, you will also need medically-related ECs.
What is your home state?
How much will your parents pay?
What can your family afford?
What state do you live in?
@mom2collegekids I scored that without studying, I doubt many students who are applying to medical school would even come close to that with no studying… Nevertheless, I think I can raise it to a 2250-2300 range, and my UW GPA is around a 3.9(impossible to convert accurately). I will have taken 9 APs by the time I have finished high school. I was just asking for schools that have the best bio and biochem programs in the nation, I wasnt asking for what schools would be good for just me. I dont need to have something unique with my major, I want to do bio or biochem, and most people who have actually been to medical school have done bio or biochem. I think you are assuming that I am not a strong student, but in all honesty, I think I am smarter than 75% of kids who apply to medical school.
@row566 Be careful what you say. You have a 45% chance of getting a lower score or same score next sitting. The average combined improvement is only 40 points. Only 1 in 25 students have a combined improvement of 100 points or more.
Also, 9 APs is nothing special, especially if you are in public school.
And I can tell you a few stories about first time takers from dirt poor families reusing study guides that did much better than you the first time.
@TurnerT I did 1 practice test to study… I am not saying that I am special, I am just saying that I am smarter than my score says I am. Do you have any suggestions about what colleges have good biochem and chem programs?
Eastern schools, I would say Lehigh sort of fits the mold given what you posted.
Even if you get a 2200 next time and decide to try top 25 univ or LAC your chances will be no better than 1 in 5 in terms of acceptance.
But based on where you are now, that Lehigh- University of Rochester bracket looks good.
(1) In what state can your family claim residency for tuition purposes?
(2) What about finances? How much can your family afford, per year? What is your family’s rough income and how much financial aid do you think you will need?
(3) Do you have preferences for:
(a) region of the country
(b) small college, large college, small/medium university, large university
© rural, small town, suburban, small city, large city
In terms of schools, I suggest:
- Your state flagship(s)
- Aforementioned Lehigh and U of Rochester
- Others on that level, like Tulane, Wake Forest, Boston U, NYU ($$$), Case Western
- LACs like Lafayette, Holy Cross, Richmond, St. Olaf, Colorado College, Lawrence, Occidental, Denison. Bates is a bit more reachy, but worth a shot.
- Take a shot at Emory, Boston College, USC… maybe even true reaches like Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Brown. Get that SAT up, of course, but you can’t get in if you don’t apply.
- Apply to a safety: a school you can afford, that will accept you, and that you wouldn’t mind attending.
Check the NPC on your choices to make sure your family can afford them. Adjust your app list until it contains only schools that you can afford.
“and most people who have actually been to medical school have done bio or biochem”
40% of medical school students majored in humanities or the social sciences. The other 60% were distributed between the various sciences and math, with bio, chem and bio chem being the most popular choices.
So sure, if you love bio or biochem, major in one or the other. But it’s not necessary. And most reputable schools offer good basic sciences, which is all you need for the MCAT. (You’re not applying to Phd programs here, so cutting edge research and graduate level coursework isn’t necessary.)
Arguably, the OP is not asking the most appropriate questions with respect to medical school admissions. Nevertheless … how about we try to answer the question (s)he asked, on its own terms? Ultimately, it’s up to him/her to decide how much importance to attach to chem/biochem program quality in weighing his/her college options.
I don’t know the answer to the original question, but can suggest a couple ways to approach it.
First, you could look for bio/chem/biochem department rankings. Unfortunately … there don’t seem to be any reliable rankings for undergraduate programs. There are a few that assess graduate department quality, which may be relevant to instructional quality or research opportunities at all levels. Second, you could look at student outcomes. In my opinion, the best available objective, outcomes-oriented indicator of undergraduate academic program quality is the number of PhDs earned in the discipline by alumni, adjusted per capita (preferably by program size, but if not then by undergraduate population size.)
Graduate Program (/Department) Rankings
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/biological-sciences-rankings (this ranks overall biological science department quality, with breakdowns for several subfields including biochemistry; it is based on “peer assessments”, i.e. opinion polls of college professors/administrators)
http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124707/ (this is a complex ranking with 10 sub-factors; it makes no attempt to aggregate all 10 into a single overall rank.)
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2015/biological-sciences#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search= (this is one of several international rankings; it assesses program quality based on 3 factors, which you can read about here: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/university-subject-rankings/qs-world-university-rankings-subject-methodology)
Students Outcomes (alumni-earned PhDs in the biological sciences
1. Top 20 Carnegie "Baccalaureate/Liberal Arts I" Colleges, by absolute no. of earned doctorates, 2009-13 inclusive
98 … Carleton College
77 … Reed College
76 … Oberlin College
73 … Grinnell College
68 … St. Olaf College
66 … Allegheny College
65 … Swarthmore College
63 … Pomona College
62 … Smith College
60 … Mount Holyoke College
59 … Wellesley College
58 … Williams College, Williamstown
57 … Haverford College
55 … Amherst College
55 … Colgate University
54 … Bucknell University
53 … Colby College
53 … Wesleyan University
48 … Bowdoin College
46 … Davidson College
<ol>
<li>Top 20 Carnegie "Research I" Colleges, , by absolute no. of earned doctorates,, 2009-13 inclusive
550 … University of California, Berkeley
458 … Cornell University
415 … University of Wisconsin-Madison
364 … University of California, Davis
359 … University of California, Los Angeles
340 … University of California, San Diego
307 … University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
286 … Pennsylvania State University, The, University Park and Hershey Medical Center
248 … University of Washington
236 … University of Texas at Austin, The
231 … University of Florida
223 … Massachusetts Institute of Technology
214 … Harvard University
205 … Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
197 … Stanford University
191 … University of Maryland, College Park
190 … Duke University
189 … University of Pennsylvania
188 … Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
182 … University of Chicago, The</li>
</ol>
Source: <a href="https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/webcaspar/index.jsp?subHeader=WebCASPARHome">https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/webcaspar/index.jsp?subHeader=WebCASPARHome</a>
The above lists are unadjusted for population sizes. List #2 appears to favor very large universities over smaller schools of comparable (or perhaps even higher) quality. Here are results of one attempt to rank LACs and universities together for PhD productivity in various disciplines, adjusted for population sizes:
http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html
Schools that do well according to BOTH graduate department rankings AND PhD production per capita include Caltech, MIT, and Cornell. Chicago does a little less well by some of the department rankings, but does well in the PhD rankings. Some of the other Ivies (Harvard, Yale, etc) do a little less well in the per capita PhD rankings, but very well in the department rankings. LACs aren’t ranked for graduate department quality.
If you live in a state with a public university on list #2 above (such as California or Wisconsin), you might want to consider one of those schools for the benefit of in-state tuition rates. If you want a small school that offers relatively good opportunities for student-faculty engagement, consider one of the LACs on list #1 above (I don’t think the order within these lists is too significant.)
Keep in mind that many students who start out as pre-meds don’t wind up in med school. Many students who do wind up in med schools don’t start out at any of the above-listed colleges.