<p>I really appreciate everyone’s help today. This forum is so wonderful and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your time and willingness to help. Looks like I got quite a few schools to look into. It looks like I was overlooking a UC(SD) that is right under our noses and would sure be nice not to pay private school tuition. Tufts, JHU (though I didn’t see much about plant bio when I looked into them before), WashU, a more thorough look at UoChicago (though it was already on his list), Pomona cluster, a closer look at CalTech. I’ll have to go back through the posts. I think there were more. Thank you !!!</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Thank you! Ok, I will check this one out too. I’ve been to Pittsburgh once, on business, and I went back to back with a trip to Vermont. Everyone said how much I would love Vermont, how gorgeous it was, etc., etc. It was nothing compared to Pittsburgh. I fell in love with that whole area (my trip was to the Duchene (Duquesne?) Light Co. out in Beaver County). Never have I met such welcoming people and the area is incredibly beautiful. The town of Pittsburgh is really gorgeous too. Driving through the tunnel at night and coming out the other side to the city lights was amazing. I’ll never forget that …</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I haven’t looked into Williams or Amherst. I’ll look there too. Thank you!!</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>That is exactly what he is interested in. Basically, he wants to solve world hunger using plant biology/genetics and chemistry. He’s pretty determined. I don’t put it past him …</p>
<p>Parent22, I’m sure your son would be a person of interest to many colleges and I’m also sure that the list of colleges that would fulfill his academic wishlist would be long and wide as well. So a few questions to narrow the range a bit:
- Do you need – or want – financial aid? If yes, do you qualify for need based aid?</p>
<ol>
<li>He doesn’t seem to be any geographic restrictions, but does he have any environomental preferences: city, suburb, rural, small town? </li>
</ol>
<p>I think “preppie” is an outdated describer for many Eastcoast schools. Even the prep schools aren’t preppie any more. Some schools are less overtly political, artsy. Some have more money (and this can be a positive). But the era of the white, Anglo, male dominance is over and diversity of culture, religion, race, economics is pretty much the norm at all of the most selective schools.</p>
<ol>
<li>Has he seriously looked into small LACs? I know there are a few on your list, but I’m not sure how much in depth knowledge you or he have of how they work. Again, aside from academic opportunities the LAC experience is vastly different from the atmosphere at a large university or even many of the medium sized schools. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but rather that fit is a critical consideration in an undergraduate education, moreso even than academic offerings.</li>
</ol>
<p>I believe that many of the top tier LACs would provide excellent research opportunities. My son is a Williams grad and although he’s in the humanities, many of his colleagues took advantage of research and science opportunities and are now in medical school or graduate programs in the sciences. For a science focus + a humanities sampler, I would definitely take a look at Williams.</p>
<p>Though most of my son’s friends focused on one area, they were all multi-faceted in their awareness and interest in a wide range of disciplines. In the course of getting their degrees in one or two majors, they were also able to take advantage of a wide spectrum of courses from other academic areas. For them, as specialists in one area and generalists in many, the “smallness” of the school and the faculty of the individual departments was never an issue, but personal preference plays a part as well.</p>
<ol>
<li>What are his extracurricular activities? These don’t need to be structured or school related, but he does need to account for how he spends his time when he’s not in school or studying. Selective colleges are looking for interesting kids that do interesting things. Beyond the class presidents and team captains and first chairs, kids who develop in depth interests in whatever fascinates them can be very appealing, but they do need to find a way to communicate this pasion in their application.</li>
</ol>
<p>How about WashU in St. Louis? Great bio program.</p>
<p>Northwestern is good for anyone with diverse interests. The quarter system makes double-majoring easy and triple-major doable without even summer courses. The two Rhodes Scholars they have this year are both triple-majors.</p>
<p>Cornell recently invested over $400 million in its life sciences programs, including a new biology building.</p>
<p>By the way, the Gourman Report general methodology is published in the Introduction of the book, contrary to popular opinion.</p>
<p>Gourman Report undergraduate biology ranking </p>
<p>Biology rankings from Gourman Report
Caltech
MIT
Yale
Harvard
Wisconsin
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley
U Colorado
Columbia
Stanford
U Washington
U Chicago
Duke
Wash U St Louis
UCLA
U Michigan
Cornell
U Penn
Purdue
Indiana U
UNC Chapel Hill
U Utah
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Princeton
UC Irvine
Notre Dame
UC Santa Barbara
UVA
Brown
U Illinois Urbana Champaign
U Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
U Oregon
SUNY Stony Brook
U Rochester
Tufts
U Minnesota
SUNY Buffalo
U Texas Austin
Florida State
Michigan State
USC
U Connecticut
UC Riverside
Rice
Iowa State
SUNY Albany
Case Western
Boston U
Ohio State
NYU
U Iowa
Penn State
Emory
Brandeis
U Kansas
Rutgers New Brunswick
Tulane
US Air Force Academy
U Missouri Columbia</p>
<p>You might want to look a bit more at what Washington University in St. Louis has to offer in the way of plant biology. At the graduate student level, there is a lot of collaboration with the Monsanto Corp (major player in agricultural research, headquartered in St. Louis) and with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. I don’t know the specifics about how that would affect undergraduate opportunities, but at the universities with which I am familiar, talented undergraduates have no trouble getting involved in research labs. Wash U. does offer some lucrative merit scholarships if that is of interest to you.</p>
<p>Son had similar stats and passed on Harvard, Yale and Duke in favor of Rice (bioengineering) and is delighted with his choice. The difference was a great deal of personal attention, extensive undergraduate research opportunities, and a residential college system that drastrically reduces exclusionary practices on the social side. Pay no attention to the “ratings” of biology programs. Biology is entirely too broad for ratings to be a meaningful factor. The quality of undergraduate teaching and the undergraduate living environment are far more important. Look at the course offerings, the percentage and quality of tenured professors who actually teach more than one undergraduate class per year, how the undergraduates rate their own professors, the student-faculty ratio including only faculty who teach undergrads, and the learning opportunities, including undergraduate research, in the specific sectors of biology that interest your son. Spend some time reviewing the interests of the faculty members in the departments that are the most important. The departmental links on the Rice web page (and I assume most others’) offer extensive discussions of the specific areas of greatest interests of the faculty, particularly in the sciences.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your input and thoughtful replies. This has been so helpful. Thank you!!!</p>
<p>
Since we’re talking about biology, let the results speak for themselves: Reed and Swat are numbers one and three in the country for producing future PhDs in biology. Perhaps, though, numbers two and four (CalTech and U Chicago) are indeed less constricting. :)</p>
<p>Pomona, CAL, and if you are looking for a good bio program and also a school that has good lib. arts, Rutgers is number 2 in the world right now for Philosophy. In terms of Swarthmore, it is a great school and i would recommend it to anybody who can get in. But, if your son wants to be a doctor and is interested in pre-med at all, do not go to swat. Most pre-med Swat students wind up getting screwed by having to take more pre-med classes at a large university after they graduate.</p>
<p>My parents are both bio PhDs and they loved their schools, so look at:</p>
<p>Ithaca College
NYU
URochester
USC
Harvard</p>
<p>My mom did postgrad work at UCSF, but they don’t have undergrad.</p>
<p>I would check out:</p>
<p>Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Outstanding school with a world-renown Bio/Pre-Med department and other impressive programs if he decides to pursue a different avenue. Also, considered a new Ivy.</p>
<p>UNC-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Impressive school with a great Classics program that would be great for this love of latin. It is also the home of fantastic Bio/Pre-Med department and a highly ranked Business school. </p>
<p>Colby in Maine is a great school to check out as well. But the winters and the price tag are high. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>California doesn’t have Governor’s schools, but the OP’s son might find one of the COSMOS programs interesting. [url=<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos/]COSMOS[/url”>http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos/]COSMOS[/url</a>] Four different campuses, each offering different science clusters.</p>