<p>I am not interesting in biology, so I am not talking a pre-med heavy school. Premeds are fine, I just don't want one that mostly just caters to premeds. I mean chemistry, physics, math. My stats are decent (2100 SAT, top 10%, etc). </p>
<p>I ran in to someone from my high school over the holiday who is at a great LAC and spent a lot of time talking about it and I realize this is the direction I need to be going. Nothing has felt right with the large universities to me. I am definitely applying to her school. Thanks!</p>
<p>what school was that and what felt right about it? there are oodles of LACs strong in math and non-pre-med sciences. help us offer ones that might feel right and match your stats.</p>
<p>There are several small universities strong in the sciences. Caltech is the most obvious choice, but Rice, Brandeis, Dartmouth, U Rochester, Johns Hopkins, etc. also have fairly small undergraduate populations. </p>
<p>Less selective, there’s Wake Forest, which has smaller class sizes than some of the top LACs. Trinity U is another good option. </p>
<p>Last year I used IPEDS information to calculate the percentage of natural science and STEM students at the top 60 LACs. Popularity of the sciences is not necessarily indicative of quality, but it does give you some idea of where you might find the most STEM students. Keep in mind that these numbers will fluctuate a bit from one year to the next. </p>
<p>I don’t know how you would do that, since it is tricky even to estimate the overall percentage of premed students in an undergraduate population (let alone get an accurate count of premed students in each major). However, it is fairly easy to count the number of PhDs that a school’s alumni earn in STEM fields. Try running some queries on the NSF/webcaspar.com site (<a href=“https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/[/url]”>https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/</a>). Reed College posts a tally of top PhD producing colleges in various fields (including physical and life sciences); many of these are LACs ([REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)).</p>
<p>Can you give more information on what you like…what part of the country are you from, and do you want to stick close to there, or are you open to other areas? Cold weather, warm weather preference? Do you want an outdoorsy, hiking type campus, or artsy, hipster feel? Near or in a large city, or a more urban campus?</p>
<p>My daughter is a science major (definitely not a premed) at a 2000 student campus in the south with great science facilities, opportunities for research and is pleased with her professors so far. The atmosphere on campus is friendly, sports are Div 3, not highly ranked teams but good school spirit, lots of different clubs and groups to find your niche. School has a 100 year history, is highly regarded regionally, and has been rated #1 up and coming school.</p>
<p>A reasonable approximation would be to cut out the biology majors. Biology is the most popular STEM major, though its percentage of STEM majors at different colleges varies. The OP is apparently not interested in biology, though other posts indicate interest in engineering and CS as well as math, physics, and chemistry (OP should clarify).</p>
<p>Also, some definitions of “STEM” include social and behavioral sciences like psychology, so one must be careful what definition is being used for any given data set.</p>
<p>might look at Holy Cross-top25 LAC with strong science reputation. HC has very nice campus 1 hour from Boston. Holy Cross has Jan15th application due date and is need-blind for admissions(meets 100% demonstrated financial need).</p>
<p>Here’s a list of the top science-PhD producing schools (so, it cuts out most of the premeds). Note that there are a lot of schools listed outside the USNWR top 60 that warblersrule mentions (notably, Kalamazoo, Washington College (MD), Earlham, Lawrence, Hendrix, Hampshire). In fact many of the schools warblers named don’t appear on this list.</p>
<p>There is a middle ground between small LAC and large university, namely small universities.
Warblersrule pointed that out too. Tufts, U. Rochester, Brandeis are good examples.
Some might also consider a smaller STEM school such as RPI, WPI etc. to be a good choice.</p>
<p>I like warblersrule’s list but remember (as was pointed out) that percentage doesn’t necessarily equal quality. You may find a school with a very small but very dedicated, invested group of science nerds. (I use nerd in a positive way).</p>
<p>Anyway, most top LACs are going to have strong math and/or science departments. Also, I know that pre-meds get a lot of flak (from me, too, at least mentally) but cutting them out isn’t necessarily more indicative - I know a lot of pre-med students who are not science majors, and a lot of pre-med science majors who are actually really interested in their major and invested in learning more about it. Some kids I know are interested in being physician-scientists, too.</p>
<p>Math is sometimes limited in offerings, particularly for students who come in having taken math beyond the AP calculus level while in high school. Physics is not that popular a major, so a prospective physics major may want to check the offerings there (e.g. Oberlin and Reed appear to reliably offer core upper division physics courses every year, but Marietta offers many once every two years or even less frequently). Chemistry can be checked with ACS approval, and biology is popular enough that it is unlikely to be an issue, unless the student is interested in a less common subarea.</p>