<p>Just kinda starting to look at schools. Planning on majoring in cellular/molecular biology, possibly biochemistry. Basically this is my wish list:
Dartmouth - seems like a little school lost in the woods, but my aunt and uncle live over there (Peterborough, about 40 min drive) and my dad lives in Montreal (3.5 hr drive), plus Boston isn't that far either (3 hours), plus i LOVE New Hampshire.
University of Wisconsin-Madison - As far as I know, it's one of top biology schools in the US. Weather and environment do not scare me, I'm used to it (came from Ukraine, where pollution sometimes makes winters wild).
University of Michigan - pretty much the same thing - not a bad school academically, plus Michigan is cool.
UCSD - pure academics - one of the top biology schools out there. Gonna be out of state for a UC, which wouldn't be good. Not a big fan of California.
I would appreciate if you guys add some schools to my list and tell me if these are good picks for my major.
Thanks :)</p>
<p>I would go to UCSD.</p>
<p>Top Mol Bio programs
1 Cal San Francisco<br>
2 Stanford<br>
3 MIT<br>
4 Cal Berkeley<br>
5 Harvard<br>
6 Yale<br>
7 Cal Tech<br>
8 Wisconsin<br>
9 Cal San Diego<br>
10 Johns Hopkins<br>
11 Columbia<br>
12 Colorado<br>
13 Washington (St. Louis)<br>
14 UCLA<br>
15 Duke</p>
<p>what is the source of your info? kinda curious</p>
<p>I'd choose Dartmouth for undergrad.</p>
<p>I don't know how strong Dartmouth is in Mole Bio. UW is very strong in that and all biosciences with tons of top research going on. Good ug students get a crack at research early on. The town is good sized and lively.</p>
<p>PS, they all are fine schools in their own ways.</p>
<p>This is a pretty diverse list you've come up with and they're all good schools. The main thing to investigate is what the undergrad experience in molecular biology will be like at each of these schools. Find out if they actually offer a specific undergrad major in cellular or molecular biology and, if not, what the exact undergraduate major would be. Find out how much of your lectures will be from TAs and how much from professors. Find out what the opportunities might be for undergrads to do reearch in the areas in which you're interested. Take a tour of the school and see what the facilities and labs are like -- not the labs for grad students, but the labs that you'll be using. I can't emphasize enough that the reputation and rankings in speciality areas have mostly to do with success in research and Ph.D. production and not much with the undergrad experience. And, speaking of that, if you're interested in going to grad school in a specific field or to med school, find out what the acceptance rates are at the grad or med schools of your choice.</p>
<p>As for bobbobbob's ranking, I have no idea what the source of that is, but very often rankings of specific programs, especially in the sciences, have not much bearing on the undergrad experience because they are based on things like how much federal grant money professors get for their own research -- research which undergrads never get to participate in.</p>
<p>that is the NRC rankings...old but still a good estimator
<a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html</a></p>
<p>I don't see any information about the criteria used to come up with these rankings.</p>
<p>The NRC rankings are reliable.</p>
<p>This is highly debatable. This is a 1995 (based on 1993 and earlier data) study of graduate programs. Read the critieria. It has mostly to do with faculty resources and graduate student experience. It actually lists Cal San Francisco #1 for Biochem/Cell Bio. Really.</p>
<p>This is a bit removed from what an undergrad starting in 2006 might be looikng for.</p>
<p>And there is no consideration at all for Liberal Arts Colleges because so much of the criteria is based on size.</p>
<p>Remember, you're looking at undergrad, not grad school here.</p>
<p>I would look at the faculty of each one of the schools you are looking at.</p>
<p>look at how many professors they have at each level. that is, </p>
<h1>of full professors</h1>
<h1>of Assistant</h1>
<h1>of Adjunct</h1>
<h1>of......</h1>
<p>Then I would look at the Phd specialtys of each professor to see if they are also your interests. Look at where the professors went to undergrad, MS, PHd.
How much research and publications do they have?</p>
<p>Unfortunately benny there is no comparable evaluation for LAC's. However this is a pretty specialized major requiring expensive labs and equipment--things that research grants help fund but are available to all students. Also the fact that many research projects are going on at the larger programs may mean more opportunity for ug participation. Many UW ugs are doing research and presenting such in campus research reviews.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wisc.edu/cbe/research/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.wisc.edu/cbe/research/index.html</a></p>
<p>We can debate all day the pros and cons of research univs and LACs. My main point is that what's good for grad students and profs isn't necessarily good for undergrads and I'm skeptical of the old data.</p>
<p>UW-Madison is a great school, and undergrads can have opportunities for meaningful research if they seek it out in some departments. But the website you cit is not a campus research review in the sense of some kind of presentation of student work. It's just a promo piece. Any school can do that and all should.</p>
<p>Here you go--it was this week. They also have started two ug research journals to publish some of the data.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.learning.wisc.edu/ugsymposium/%5B/url%5D">http://www.learning.wisc.edu/ugsymposium/</a></p>
<p>Also state of the art new facilities</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bact.wisc.edu/MSB/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.bact.wisc.edu/MSB/index.html</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.biotech.wisc.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.biotech.wisc.edu/</a></p>
<p>Dima, go to Wisconsin. I'm Russian and will probably go there. Weather is a plus for me, I can't stand New York climate.</p>
<p>I would choose UCSD. See link for recent rankings:
<a href="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/USNewsGrad06.asp%5B/url%5D">http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/USNewsGrad06.asp</a></p>
<p>The graduate school rankings are one of the few ways to roughly gauge the quality of specific undergraduate programs. These rankings are good indicators of the quality of the professors teaching and students attending.</p>
<p>Well, i pretty much knew that Wisconsin and UCSD are good bio schools, and between two of them, i'd definetely pick Wisconsin. But what about Dartmouth and Mich? (Actually, of i ended up going to Mich, i'd probably go for something like bio or chem engineering.) Are they any good in cell/molec bio?</p>
<p>bump ......</p>