I am looking to major in biology in college. I’m not sure exactly which area of biology, but I know I want to be able to do research while also working with animals. I am looking for a school that offers a strong biology program, but I am not sure where to start. I am from New England, and I am planning on taking a trip down to Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina this fall. Does anyone have any suggestions for schools with strong biology programs in these areas?
Depends on your stats…
Would you provide more specifics - large research U or LAC? Urban, rural, doesn’t matter? Stats? Affordability - do you need FA or merit aid?
Not in the area you mentioned, but Rhodes in TN has a strong biology department and is located near the Memphis zoo.
Here they are! @BatesParents2019
Race: White
Gender: Female
SAT: 1940 M-670 CR-670 W-600
SAT II: Biology M 610, Math II 640 (definitely not sending, these are awful!!)
ACT: 33 (english 35, math 28, reading 34, science 33, english/writing 32)
GPA: 3.53 unweighted, 4.1 weighted
Rank: school very competitive and doesn’t rank, only uses deciles. I am in the second decile.
AP’s by end of snr year: Ap European History (3), AP Statistics (4), AP Biology (4), AP Language and Composition (4), AP Literature and Composition, AP Calculus AB AP Psychology (might switch out), AP Chemistry, and AP Environmental Science
Extracurriculars :
- National Honors Society: 2 years
-Ski and Snowboard Club: 3 years
-Soccer Team: 4 years, 3 varsity
-Indoor/Outdoor Track Team: 4 years, all varsity, 1 year captain
-Math Team: 2 years
-Community Service Club: 2 years, over 70 hours of service
-Worked at Subway for 2 years (15 hours per week during school year, 30 per week during summer)
-Volunteer at local animal shelter 2 hrs per week
-Summer Undergrad Course at Brown: Physics 0030 (equivalent of AP Physics C)
Thank you @Overtheedge! I will definitely look into Rhodes.I think I am looking for a large research university rather than an LAC, only because I want the student body at my school to be somewhat big. I would be happy with anything over about 5,000 students. I would love a suburban school that is close to a city for internship opportunities. I want a campus so I would only want an urban college if there was some sort of campus feel. My parents don’t seem to think that I will get much financial aid, even though they can’t pay 60k+ for college. I’m still going to apply and see what happens. So, yes, I would be looking for either some merit aid or a public university with lowish out of state tuition prices.
Wake Forest looks good. William and Mary tough as out of state. Virginia Tech looks promising. Washington & Lee would be a Reach. Davidson a Reach. Elon looks good. University of Maryland looks good. Hopkins a big reach. UVA and UNC a reach as out state.
Your ACT score should be submitted.
You won’t find the same number of good prospects down there as you would in PA, NY or New England.
Though it’s a bit more south, I’d look into Georgia Tech because of its emphasis on research dollars in the field…your chance to do hands-on work would increase http://www.biology.gatech.edu/ While you’re there, it’s a 15 minute drive to Emory http://www.biology.emory.edu/
Where are you from?
Elon has over 5000 students and is about 10 minutes from Greensboro which is a pretty decent sized city. I’m not sure about their bio department though
It’s tough for OOS students to get significant merit aid at UNC or UVA without tippy top stats. UMD may be different. You sound like you are interested in pre-vet instead of pre-med. Check out NC State and Clemson in SC.
For colleges with strong bio programs and animals- look at NCSU, Virginia Tech and don’t stop there on your southern trip- further south are Clemson and UGA.
Thanks for all of the feedback! It sounds like there are some good options further south, so I am going to look into making my trip a little longer. @BatesParent2019, I am from a medium sized public school in Rhode Island. @Overtheedge and @Pennylane2011, I was considering NCSU, but I have heard it is a huge party school and that students don’t take their academics seriously at all. I know college is what you make of it, but I don’t want to be surrounded by people who are just there to party. Do you know if there is much truth to this rumor?
I agree with @ pennylane2011 and @overtheedge. Clemson has quite a few majors or minors that you may be interested in and some of the programs allow you to start research as a freshman and complete masters programs in 5 years instead of 6. I don’t know if this would interest you or not , but College of Charleston has a strong marine biology program that works closely with the aquarium in Charleston.
@rebecca4141 We are both Northeastern people and a party school up here would be considered a convent down south, especially the bigger state schools.
My suggestion would be to visit schools to see where you would best fit in. I live in the south , but attended college in Maryland and Pennsylvania and can say that every school has the potential to be a party school. I can’t speak about Northern schools specifically as I did not attend them ,and I would be hesitant to speak about them for fear of giving you inaccurate information . Good luck in your college search. I’m sure you’ll find just the right fit for you.
BatesParent2019 - Where do you get this stuff? Football weekends tend to be big party weekends at many Southern schools as they are at places like Penn State, UMich, etc. I went to college in the NE - at a school with a work hard play hard reputation. No more partying at Clemson than I saw in my day. In some ways less. Any big State U is going to have its share of parties and partiers - as well as its share of serious, non-partying students. @rebecca4141 - check out the Honors Colleges at some of the school’s mentioned. I missed VA. Tech and UGA - good suggestions by @Pennylane2011.
Emory is strong in bio and presents excellent research opportunities, but affordability may be an issue.
In addition to the schools that you all have listed, I was thinking about visiting Loyola University Maryland. Would this school align with my interests?
I don’t know much about Loyola. Maybe someone else will chime in. You may get a better response if you post on the school’s thread in the Colleges and Universities section of the forum.
@Overtheedge You correctly mentioned Penn State but you do realize that is the only school in the Northeast with a national football program. Michigan is not in the Northeast last time I checked. The OP is from Rhode Island and is concerned about a party culture.
The Northeast has changed a lot insofar as partying is concerned.
I didn’t say kids don’t party in the Northeast its just not the same scale as down south not even close.
This is one of the reasons many kids migrate south.
I mentioned these colleges for a couple of reasons- they are less expensive than the private colleges for a student whose family does not qualify for need based aid, and for animals- and animal science courses- there has to be room on campus for animals- so most animal science departments are located on large land grant state universities. As far as merit aid, there may be the possibility of some of that for good students and an ACT score of 33 at them. To qualify, one has to apply at the earliest deadline and see what happens as one can not know the amount ahead of time as it is competitive with the application pool.
Every large state U has students who are partiers. There is no getting around that, but if you want good research, access to animals, then these are the campuses that have that. However, there are excellent students there too. All of them have honors colleges that you can apply to. For information on these,this site can be helpful : http://publicuniversityhonors.com/
Elon is strong in bio, and less costly than some other private colleges. There isn’t an animal science department, but because it is relatively rural, there may be animals to work with in terms of internship and as a volunteer - something to look into.
A private college in GA with an animal science program is Berry College.