Need help finding colleges for prospective chem major

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm a current junior interested in majoring in chem, not sure if I want a large school or smaller school. By the time I get to my upper division classes, what would the average class sizes at a UC and a liberal arts college be? Would it be a big difference?</p>

<p>Quick rundown of stats: chinese, CA resident, 4.01W GPA, 3.87UW GPA, 33 ACT, 2 APs soph, 3 APs jr, 3 APs sr, wide variety of extracurricular (music, sports, etc), will spend this summer either in an anesthesiology lab or chemistry lab at Stanford</p>

<p>Can you guys suggest some good schools for me? Planning on probably either masters/PhD in chem, or med school after undergrad</p>

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<p>bump</p>

<p>10char</p>

3

<p>hmm…chem or premed? here are some suggestions:</p>

<p>UC Berkeley
MIT
Stanford
Washington University in St. Louis
Johns Hopkins</p>

4

<p>Perhaps chem and premed :)</p>

<p>Stanford is my dream school, but it will take a miracle for me to be accepted. Berkeley…would be great too, but I’m afraid that the competition will be too high, and I think I may need some luck to get into too. The others, not sure if I want to go too far from home. And may take some luck for me to get accepted.</p>

5

<p>Staying near California, here are some good choices (in rough order of chemistry prestige):</p>

<p>UC Berkeley
Caltech
Stanford
UCLA
UCSD
U Washington
U Utah
UCSB
UCI
Colorado State</p>

6

<p>What do you think my chances of getting into the above schools would be? And is UC Davis and USC not that great for chem?</p>

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<p>^ Those two are fine schools. I basically posted schools that do well in grad chem rankings, and those two are just a hair lower.</p>

<p>The lower UCs + Utah would make a good safety base to build off.</p>

8

<p>Lower as in UCSB/UCI/UCD?</p>

<p>Do you think I should even bother applying to Stanford and Caltech?</p>

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<p>I don’t know how it is at other large colleges, but at my large kids’ college, once you’re in upper division classes, the class-sizes are “very small to medium small”…My older son’s upper division math classes have like 9 - 20 kids in them. My younger son’s 300 level Cell Biology class had 20 kids in it. And the school has about 23,000 undergrads.</p>

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<p>I am a chemistry major (and premed) at Duke and absolutely love the courses and professors. If you’re possibly interested, PM me and let me know. I’d be glad to give you some information about Duke’s programs.</p>

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<p>Berkeley’s College of Chemistry is tops.</p>

<p>5 building mini-campus; chemistry and chemical engineering majors only makes it a smaller environment in a larger university setting.</p>

<p>Class sizes for upper-division chemistry classes are 20-40 students. Chemistry is not a very popular major - there are only 186 undergrad chemistry majors. Competition seemed less intense for chemistry majors vs. MCB majors.</p>

<p>[UC</a> Berkeley, College of Chemistry](<a href=“http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/about/facts.php]UC”>http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/about/facts.php)</p>

12

<p>What about the “smaller school” half of the poster’s question?</p>

<p>Among tech schools, Harvey Mudd and Caltech have great programs.</p>

<p>Among general liberal arts colleges:</p>

<p>Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, Pomona, Reed, Swarthmore, Wesleyan and Williams are all very strong as well.</p>

<p>If you look at PhD productivity, these schools as a group have the highest rates in the country. A smallish school like Carleton often produces more chem grads and ultimate chem PhDs than elite unis 2-4 times its size.</p>

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<p>Is money no object? IF you’ll need FA, do you know if you’ll qualify?</p>

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<p>

If you can afford the app fees and don’t mind completing the apps, sure. It can’t hurt.</p>

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<p>Thats good, about the class sizes. I think I would like the environment of a larger school, more stuff to do.</p>

<p>Duke sounds cool, but a bit too far! Thanks though!</p>

<p>I will definitely apply to UC Berkeley’s college of chem, if I do get decided, I will have some deciding to do! The competition is still pretty intense, isn’t it?</p>

<p>Thanks for the list of small schools.</p>

<p>Money is no object, but my parents and I decided that it isn’t worth going to a school that costs tons when I can go to a UC and get a similar, or better education.</p>

<p>Okay, I may try then, but probably will be expecting a rejection .</p>

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<p>*Money is no object, but my parents and I decided that it isn’t worth going to a school that costs tons when I can go to a UC and get a similar, or better education.</p>

<p>*
You may need to consider whether going to a UC will cause you to go to school for a 5th year because of the difficulty getting classes.</p>

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<p>If you’re not willing to go so far as the East Coast but would consider the Midwest or Texas, I’d add these 5 to a list of potentials. The US News grad chemistry rankings are listed next to each:</p>

<h1>9 Northwestern</h1>

<h1>12 U Chicago</h1>

<h1>12 (tie) UT Austin</h1>

<h1>16 Michigan</h1>

<h1>28 Rice</h1>

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<p>^ If the above work, add Texas A&M too.</p>

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<p>How will I know if going to a UC will cause me to go to school for a 5th year?</p>

<p>I personally wouldn’t mind going really anywhere in the US, but my parents want me to stay close to home.</p>

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<p>Gourman Report undergrad chemistry ranking:
Caltech
UC Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
Columbia
Stanford
Illimois Urbana Champaign
U Chicago
UCLA
Wisconsin Madison
Cornell
Northwestern
Princeton
Yale
Purdue
UNC Chapel Hill
Ohio State
Texas Austin
Iowa State
Indiana Bloomington
UC San Diego
Minnesota
Notre Dame
Penn State
Brown
U Rochester
Carnegie Mellon
U Penn
Rice
Michigan Ann Arbor
U Washington
Colorado Boulder
Texas A&M
USC
U Pittsburgh
U Florida
UC Riverside
dartmouth
UC Santa Barbara
UC Irvine
Johns Hopkins
UC Davis
U Utah
U Oregon
Duke
Michigan State
RPI
UVA
Florida State
Vanderbilt
Case Western
u Iowa
Georgia Tech</p>