Hate to pick a bone with you, but that’s not necessarily a good reflection on those colleges. I’ll take a Reed over a Columbia any day.
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In support of this opinion, a similar category in the Princeton Review, “Best Classroom Experience,” includes only 3 national universities among the 25 schools (link posted again here for convenience).
MS isn’t a worthwhile terminal degree in the sciences, IMO. He should pursue a PhD directly. In the US, PhD in a STEM subject is generally funded, while MS generally isn’t. PhD does take more years on average in the US (than anywhere else). Part of the reason is that a significant portion of PhD candidates with US bachelor degrees (compared to European or Asian university graduates) often don’t have sufficient depth in the subject area to begin their researches immediately. This can be more of an issue with graduates from LACs that don’t offer their students the depth in certain subject areas. So my recommendation would be to prioritize LACs that provide greater depth in the areas your son is interested in pursuing in college.
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INJ- the kid is 17 or so. The likelihood that he’s going to execute a plan he developed when in HS is pretty low. He likes bio- great. He could decide he wants to become a genetic counselor, a lawyer who deals with pharma patents and intellectual property, an occupational therapist who works with kids with autism, a policy wonk on sustainable fishing, or a nutritionist who works with Doctors Without Borders during famines and natural disasters.
I wouldn’t get too worked up over MS vs. PhD right now!
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Some 17yo know what they want to do and some don’t. I haven’t read the whole thread, but from the opening post, it seems to me that OP’s son is one of those who knows what he wants. However, I have to admit that I don’t understand why OP excludes research universities. Because of their perceived lack of focus on undergraduate education?
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Wesleyan’s BA/MA program is another option. It gives seniors an additional two semesters to think things through - and a Masters when they’re done:
BA/MA Program, Graduate Services - Wesleyan University
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I agree. Niche rankings do look quite arbitrary. To be very honest I don’t know what is the big deal about Niche overall. We have been using US News and WS rankings coupled with SAT score range to create an initial short list and then discussions like this to modify/fine tune. US News Reed is a shocker though. Not followed what exactly is the reason but if it is about “getting back” at the school for something they did then it doesn’t speak well about the ranking methodology.
Ok good for the caution. Visiting before applying or final decision is quite difficult for us mainly due to time constraints and exams etc. Will probably have to rely on online reviews to make the decision. Sitting far away one feels for an international non-white student hyper liberal non-sporty, non-frat environment may be better than the other option. However the point well taken.
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With respect to Reed’s U.S. News ranking, this topic may be of interest: Reed's USN Rank Estimated at 54 Places Higher Under a Fair Evaluation.
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That is a very good point and we are doing that with all the help from this thread in addition to the online research. My son says he wants to do a PhD, however that is so far away that decisions may change 
Yes my thoughts exactly. I feel he will prefer some career which uses his love for Bio and Math together. Could be Academic research, applied research or becoming part of some start-up (my secret hope!). Having said that what I thought I would do when I was 17 years old and what I have done over life has hardly any correlation and that is the more likely mode for most 17 years I agree.
We will be applying for a few research Universities. However good public Universities may be a bit of strain on finances due to zero chance of Financial Aid. Good private ones may be hard reach for him. But yes eventually the application list will be a mix of research Universities and LACs.
Will take a look. What would be an advantage of this option vis-a-vis going to a proper research school? Saving of one year?
I think it is not right on USN part to rank them low. They should just give a NA rank with a note that school doesn’t co-operate.
As stated in your earlier topic, I believe your son would benefit from the availability of a data science major for this combination of interests.
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I think the whole program was designed to accommodate seniors who were already involved in advanced research and wanted to put a proper cap on things (e.g., getting published) before leaving for another institution. But I can also see it as a way to earn an extra credential while taking full advantage of the Gordon Career Center, interviewing for jobs etc.
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I agree with dad9000’s points about Reed, it is definitely a ‘fit’ school and not for everyone.
In the absence of a visit to Reed, please make sure your S does a virtual admission session. Reaching out and speaking with students would also be a good idea.
Here is Reed’s virtual programming. Note they also have international student specific sessions. Visit - Admission - Reed College
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Thanks much @dad9000 and @Mwfan1921. Will do the virtual sessions.
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Actually I suspect our opinions are not so dissimilar! I think USNWR offers some useful data points for students and colleges alike, but just some of many that should be considered. I would guess most of the top ranked colleges are mindful of their rank but also take it with a healthy dose of salt and would not consider it the most important metric of their performance.
Imo it is absolutely true that for some students Reed is a better fit than Columbia or, for that matter, any university, if not any other college. As you imply, Reed has, for better or worse, famously shrugged their shoulders over their USNWR rank while Columbia seemed to have an opposite attitude. My sense is most colleges are somewhere in between in their own regard for USNWR.
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Why not both being relevant? You can have a LAC with a student body of a 1,000 and, at least for the hard sciences, if they don’t have a research budget then research opportunities will be slim. We saw this first hand with my Wes kid who did an REU as part of a consortium of highly regarded schools (Midd, Colgate, Haverford, Swat, Vassar, Wellesley, Wes, Williams). The consortium picks one or two kids to spend the summer at one of the other schools. Wesleyan routinely has/had a multiple of the number of independent research projects going on and thus has historically taken on more students than any other consortium member for summer research. In fact, the kid almost turned down the REU offer from the consortium school that had selected her because the option to just summer at Wes (ie outside of the REU program), where there were many more and varied funded research projects happening, was more appealing. She took the REU for the experience of studying at someplace new, but that’s beside the point and I’m not sure she’d do it again if given the choice.
I can’t imagine that consistently appearing among the top small schools in research spending isn’t a material consideration. At least on the science side (and I’d include psychology and neuroscience there), research funding and budgets seem like a good proxy for the overall amount of research happening on a given campus. And Wes, Bryn Mawr and Wellesley, as leading examples of LACs with big research budgets, send plenty of kids on to get their PhDs.
This is without getting into specifically funded programs, like Smith’s NSF funded Math Post-bacc. Like the man said, No bucks, no Buck Rodgers.
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