Need help finding colleges for prospective chem major

<p>In the midwest Wisconsin and Illinois have the highest ranked programs - #7.</p>

<p>UW-Madison had the largest Chemistry department in the nation. I had a great time working part time every semester for a variety of professors and had a blast. It’s important as a scientist to work in research labs esp. as a student so you can get idea of what interests you. And it will help for getting references to grad. school…also important if you want to be a scientist. A Ph.D. is really necessary, and I cannot emphasize that enough. Good Luck!</p>

<p>What exactly is the gourman report rankings? What is it based on?</p>

<p>How would a school with a large chemistry compare to a school with a small one? Since isn’t Berkeley’s kind of small, but it is good?</p>

<p>

Absolutely not. Over the past three years, UCB has graduated more undergrad chem majors than any other school with > 700 SAT Math 75%ile, and likely more than any at all. Here’s the list of 700+s, ranked by # of chem majors:


University of California-Berkeley Berkeley    CA  394
University of Virginia-Main Campus  Charlottesville VA  289
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis MN  288
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Champaign   IL  277
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison WI  161
Emory University    Atlanta GA  147
University of California-Los Angeles    Los Angeles CA  129
College of William and Mary Williamsburg    VA  127
New York University New York    NY  114
Duke University Durham  NC  114
Carnegie Mellon University  Pittsburgh  PA  112
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland   OH  109
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta GA  105
University of Chicago   Chicago IL  104
Cornell University  Ithaca  NY  96
Vanderbilt University   Nashville   TN  93
Harvard University  Cambridge   MA  92
Princeton University    Princeton   NJ  88
Massachusetts Institute of Technology   Cambridge   MA  85
Carleton College    Northfield  MN  83
Northwestern University Evanston    IL  83
Williams College    Williamstown    MA  76
Washington University in St Louis   Saint Louis MO  71
Haverford College   Haverford   PA  68
Dartmouth College   Hanover NH  65
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor    Ann Arbor   MI  65
University of Rochester Rochester   NY  62
Villanova University    Villanova   PA  60
Stanford University Stanford    CA  55
Wake Forest University  Winston Salem   NC  52
Colby College   Waterville  ME  51
Rice University Houston TX  50
University of Pennsylvania  Philadelphia    PA  50
Boston College  Chestnut Hill   MA  48
California Institute of Technology  Pasadena    CA  48
Grinnell College    Grinnell    IA  45
Johns Hopkins University    Baltimore   MD  43
Macalester College  Saint Paul  MN  43
Hamilton College    Clinton NY  43
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    Troy    NY  42
Yale University New Haven   CT  42
Pomona College  Claremont   CA  41
Bucknell University Lewisburg   PA  40
Brown University    Providence  RI  39
University of Notre Dame    Notre Dame  IN  36
Illinois Wesleyan University    Bloomington IL  35
Amherst College Amherst MA  34
Wesleyan University Middletown  CT  33
Brandeis University Waltham MA  31
Wellesley College   Wellesley   MA  30
Columbia University in the City of New York New York    NY  30
Reed College    Portland    OR  28
Tufts University    Medford MA  28
University of Southern California   Los Angeles CA  26
Vassar College  Poughkeepsie    NY  26
Davidson College    Davidson    NC  24
Colgate University  Hamilton    NY  24
Georgetown University   Washington  DC  24
Harvey Mudd College Claremont   CA  22
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute IN  19
Oberlin College Oberlin OH  19
Bowdoin College Brunswick   ME  18
Swarthmore College  Swarthmore  PA  17
Lehigh University   Bethlehem   PA  16
Scripps College Claremont   CA  14
Middlebury College  Middlebury  VT  12
Washington and Lee University   Lexington   VA  10
Claremont McKenna College   Claremont   CA  3
Barclay College Haviland    KS  0
Bowie State University  Bowie   MD  0
Soka University of America  Aliso Viejo CA  0
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Needham MA  0
St Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary   South Canaan    PA  0
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art New York    NY  0

</p>

<p>Oh, I have no clue why I thought that it’s small. Thanks for clearing that up!</p>

<p>bump10char</p>

<p>this may sound rather odd to you, but you might want to avoid some of the “tougher” colleges on that list if you want to be premed for the sake of your gpa. But otherwise, I would just stick with the top 20 or so schools from collegehelp’s list.</p>

<p>Nah, doesn’t sound too odd, makes sense. I was wondering about that. What would be the “tougher” schools? (Berkeley…</p>

<p>If you’re a “lunaticchemist”, Bezerkeley is your best bet. :)</p>

<p>I believe it’s more the student than the school. </p>

<p>But some people on this site will whine all about the harsh grading curves, risk of failing out, etc. at schools like Berkeley and Caltech.</p>

<p>There are tons of undergrad research opportunities in the chem department at Northwestern. The department is highly ranked and has a pretty big faculty team yet the undergrad class is not huge. The department has produced a few Cambridge Gates scholars since 2002.</p>

<p>Heh I hope to be a “lunaticchemist”. Okay perhaps not too lunatic, but at least one that is damn good. I guess I perhaps should see if I get in or not before worrying.</p>

<p>Perhaps I’ll consider going to the midwest, not too sure.</p>

<p>So what is the average class size in LACs, say Occidental for chemistry? (for lower division and upper division)</p>

<p>And how is Occidental for chem?</p>

<p>bump10char</p>