<p>My daughter THINKS she wants to major in Biology. She really wants a smaller liberal arts school, and is not interested in an urban campus.</p>
<p>HER SCORES:
PSAT:
80 Reading
77 Math
75 Writine</p>
<p>SAT:
800 Reading
710 Math
780 Writing</p>
<p>SAT subject tests
800 MATH Level 2
770 MATH Level 1
790 Biology</p>
<p>5 on all AP tests taken thus far (i.e. Calc BC, Bio, European History)</p>
<p>She is also a 2nd Dan black belt in karate, VP of 2 clubs (environmental club and a club that raises money to fight childhood cancers), plays trumpet in jazz and wind ensembles as well as in the orchestra and marching band, and is on her schools Science Olympiad team. </p>
<p>William & Mary, like many schools, has been sending info since the PSAT scores came out. Sounds like it’s worth a look. I know Davidson is in NC–and that’s all I know about it. Any suggestions for Northeastern U.S. schools (again, neither huge nor urban campuses, but suburban would be fine)?</p>
<p>Bio is pretty consistently one of the most popular majors at most top LACs and, for this reason, the departments tends to be pretty large and deep. Supporting casts in chemistry, biochem, physics, neuroscience are generally smaller and more selectively strong.</p>
<p>Suburban-Rural LACs with historically strong programs include schools like Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, Haverford, Pomona, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Williams</p>
<p>Colorado College, Pomona. Harvey Mudd if she doesn’t want to be a doctor (less grade inflation there). none of them are NE, but still worth a look.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, 1190 and GeekMom63. Any idea which of the schools is most likely to accept my daughter? I neglected to include her GPA, but it’s a 4.0 unweighted and a 5.2 weighted. I know her scores are pretty good, but her extracurriculars aren’t–no state or national awards.</p>
<p>Middlebury has very strong science departments and beautiful facilities. (also a great environmental studies major). Since, as someone already said, top LACs have “large and deep” biology departments, you might want to just examine the top 15 schools or so according to other factors like preppy vs. funky, location, connection to a consortium (Amherst and Haverford) etc. Then when/if you visit, try to see schools that are difficult for almost everyone to get into (Bowdoin) with schools that are slightly easier (Colby).</p>
<p>Biology is an extremely popular major at many schools, whether small LACs or giant universities. However, other sciences like math, physics, and chemistry are much less popular, so if she may switch to another science, check for strength in the other sciences.</p>
<p>Also, if she has already taken calculus BC (presumably as a sophomore, assuming that she is a current junior and knows she got a 5 on the AP test), she is sufficiently advanced in math that if she wants to major in math, she may want to find a school with a strong graduate program in math, since she will likely exhaust the offerings at an undergraduate-only school if she majors in math.</p>
<p>She should be aware that biology (and chemistry) major job and career prospects at the bachelor’s degree level are not good; even at the PhD level, competition can be fierce.</p>
<p>If she wants to go to medical school, she should note that it is not necessary to major in biology or chemistry to fulfill the pre-med course requirements.</p>
<p>Hi, Sadilly. We’re extremely fortunate. While it would be nice if she were to qualify for merit-based awards, finances are not a major concern (as grandparents are going to help and she has a college fund that should pay for at least a couple of years even at the priciest schools).</p>
<p>Hi, ucbalumnus. As you correctly surmised, she took calc BC as a sophomore. I think one reason she “bombed” the math portion of the SAT–missing 3 problems–heavens! ;)–is that she hasn’t had to do that level of math since middle school. She’s reviewing and take the test again in June, as 710 seems low for a potential science major. She’s take multivariable calc next year. (She couldn’t fit it into her jam-packed schedule this year, so is taking AP stat instead.)</p>
<p>She’s taking AP chem 2 and AP physics 1 right now, doing well, but not particularly interested in either. She has thought about med school or at least biomed research after viewing an operation and researching Alzheimers through participation in the Annenberg High School Science Symposium last year and doing a brief internship at Drexel in the summer (Alzheimers research using fruit flies, of all things). As a former English major, I have no idea about the course requirements for pre-med. What would fulfill the requirements?</p>
<p>Assuming she is interested in pre-med, typical pre-med course requirements are:</p>
<p>4 semesters of general chemistry, organic chemistry and/or biochemistry
2 semesters of general biology
2 semesters of physics
0-2 semesters of calculus and/or statistics
English composition (usually overlaps with most colleges’ English composition requirements)</p>
<p>However, there is some variation between medical schools; there are sticky threads in the pre-med forum here about undergraduate pre-med course work.</p>
<p>A typical student at many universities takes 32 courses as an undergraduate; the pre-med courses above would be about 10 of them, while another 12 to 15 would comprise a typical liberal arts or science major (some, like biology, will overlap with most or all of the pre-med courses). But even a non-overlapping major could still be taken with the pre-med courses alongside, especially if the student has college* courses completed before graduating from high school, unless the university she attends as a very large number of breadth or general education requirements not fulfilled by either her major or pre-med courses.</p>
<p>*For pre-med courses, this usually means actual courses taken at a college, as opposed to AP exams which many medical schools do not accept. Universities may accept AP credit for major and/or breadth requirements, of course. Note that medical schools consider all grades from college courses, including those taken while in high school, so she should endeavor to get A grades in multivariable calculus and other advanced math taken at college while still in high school.</p>
<p>From the opinion of a high school senior, I’d look at Wellesley. It’s an all-women’s college, so I don’t know how open your daughter is to that, but it is a really great school, and one of the few small LAC’s that I believed to have strong enough faculty and facilities for me to be happy there as a science-major. Aside from Wellesley’s own strong bio/biochem programs, all students can easily cross-register at nearby (40-min free bus ride) MIT for absolutely any classes they’d like. And many conduct research through MIT’s UROP, and at other neighboring schools (ex. Harvard). So, it seems to me like a perfect small suburban school with all the personalized attention that comes with that (Princeton Review rated Wellesley as having the #1 best professors), along with access to the facilities of large research universities.</p>
<p>Hi, Hellokitty44! Wellesley sounds great to me, but my daughter won’t even consider a women’s college, even though most have arrangements with nearby co-ed schools where kids can cross-register.</p>
<p>A possibility I don’t see listed yet is Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, PA. They don’t give merit aid though, but you say it isn’t needed. They are well regarded locally for science majors at an LAC.</p>
<p>If she thinks she might like research more, smaller research U’s that ought to also be considered include the University of Rochester (NY) and Washington U in St Louis (obviously not in the northeast).</p>
<p>Edited to add that I just looked at that list. Gettysburg, Dickinson, and Bucknell are also reasonably local. Of those, I can personally vouch for Dickinson. Gettysburg is too close for us to have considered in our searches… Bucknell and Dickinson are two I plan to aim a few local students toward if they can get the stats (and Franklin & Marshall previously mentioned).</p>
<p>My goddaughter goes to F&M and her mom went to Bucknell, so I’ve heard of those two and will suggest them to my daughter. Dickinson is a new one to add to the list, though. Thanks, Creekland!</p>
<p>D went to Williams to study Biology and now she is a History/Biology major. I was always hard for her to “narrow down” her interests. If your daughter is like mine, a top LAC with great professors across the curriculum is a great choice.</p>