<p>I'm seeking preliminary college suggestions for a friend interested in bio, NOT pre-med.</p>
<p>Person: Asian female, upper middle class (merit aid is a plus)
Location: Eastern seaboard down to North Carolina, west from Pennsylvania to Illinois, and north including the Canadian border provinces. Possibly also California.
Size: 2-10k students.
Academics: non-premed bio, but would like a variety of majors
Vibe: intellectual, politically moderate/liberal
No religious affiliation unless truly historical, like Macalester or Duke.</p>
<p>GPA ~3.8UW at a competitive public magnet, SATs are not commensurate with grades but will be decent (~2100s). Semi-rigorous courseload--will be marked as most rigorous and certainly can't be said to be LESS rigorous, but not as many APs as the top students take due to Band.</p>
<p>Thoughts, suggestions? I know nothing about good science schools (other than the tech schools, which I don't think she will like much) since most LACs with science reputations are hailed for pre-med. As the size parameter indicates, she's open to larger LACs and small universities.</p>
<p>Sorry, but your friend is out-of-luck. There is no such thing as a bio major without premeds. Your friend could lessen the ‘competition’ for grades by going to a lower tier school (SUNY vs. Cornell or Del/Mary Washington vs. UVa, for example), but each and every one of them will have premeds in Bio 1 (or the equivalent). OTOH, she might be able to find a generic science major, but it won’t specifically be bio.</p>
<p>every school with a bio major is bound to have pre-meds. no matter what.</p>
<p>with that said, some of the best schools that fit the small size (for undergrad) criteria for bio:</p>
<p>Duke, JHU, WUSTL, The Ivies (minus Cornell due to size), northwestern, uofc, etc.
LAC-wise, Wesleyan is very good for sciences, but I’m sure the other top LACs are no slouchers either.
Your usual suspects.
In california, it would be stanford, though taking a look at some of the LACs would be a good idea too like Pomona and the Claremont schools, etc. </p>
<p>Tell her if she wants to look at the top schools, they are all going to serve her similarly academically as the #5 school vs. the #18 school have roughly the same caliber of academics and students. However, it’s all about fit, location, size, etc, so she needs to visit a few to be sure.</p>
<p>Obviously every bio major will have premeds, but she would like a school that focuses on preparing for other careers in biology (probably grad school) in addition to premed.</p>
<p>So, I’d like to find out some schools that are actually known for biology, not just for premed.</p>
<p>What kind of biology? Marine? Field? Ecology? Genetics?</p>
<p>How about Animal Science? Soil Microbiology? Human Nutrition? Biotechnology?</p>
<p>Are the professors doing research that she’d like to participate in? How easy is it for undergraduates to do that? What other classes does she want to take? How easy would it be for her to get into those classes?</p>
<p>Lots of places to do all of that stuff. And yes, there is probably a pre-Med, pre-Dent, pre-Vet, or neurotic pre-PhD student in each and every one of your classes, but if she gets a sense that the general environment is not full of evil cut-throat competition, she will probably be OK.</p>
<p>She needs to meet some bio majors at each place and find out if they share notes, if they get along with each other, if they celebrate each other’s personal and academic pursuits. That way she’ll be able to figure out where she will be most likely to be happy.</p>
<p>Marine and cell/molecular is her current interest, but that might well change so she wants to keep her options open.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice… do you know of any schools in particular that would fit those subjective criteria? For the prelim list it is impractical to visit.</p>
<p>any college that is a college will have a strong bio major. It’s as ubiquitous as english. But, bio grad school requires undergrad research, and that depends a lot on her interests and the offerings of the college. Even LACs (with premeds) can have a strong science component. (Williams and Colgate come to mind.)</p>
<p>For marine bio, definitely, U of Miami. You’ll get an excellent education there, even if you don’t find a job in Marine Bio. You’ll see wonderful places like the Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean. You will be challenged. Good luck!</p>
<p>Many years ago, I went to Johns Hopkins, and I can tell you that the professors loved the science students who were not pre-med. Remember, all the professors are PhD biologists. They’re not doctors. They want to train other biologists, not necessarily doctors.</p>
<p>Any school with a good science reputation would love to teach your daughter. All she needs to do is make herself known as a biologist. </p>
<p>Since she has no problem with the Canadian border, I’d suggest she look at University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. 4500 undergrads, intellectual, ability for non-medically related biological research. Politically liberal, not a cutthroat environment even among pre-meds, but intellectually rigorous. No core curriculum.</p>
<p>I would recommend NOT Hopkins. Upwards of 40% of the matriculating frosh are premeds, who are all seeking A’s, all are seeking research-ships, all are seeking professors, etc. The bio-sci competition is probably higher in Bawlamer than in any top college. Definitely not for the faint at heart.</p>
<p>Hopkins cellular biology program is actually top 3 in the nation. I matriculated into Hopkins as a biology premed. Many PREMED students do not continue biology as a major because they rediscover some other fascinating field that they would like to pursue such as public health or neuroscience that is more in depth and concentrated than biology. Which explains why a lot of premeds drop out of biology and choose to do something else. The number of biology majors saw a 53% decline over the last five years at Hopkins. Only the really passionate students who love biology stick with it all four years…</p>
<p>Hopkins has a BA and a BS (molecular cellular biology program) that requires an additional developmental biology class (which, Developmental Bio at Hopkins is #1 and the Carnegie Institute’s Developmental Biology is situated on JHU’s campus) and few extra semesters of research credits.</p>
<p>An option to get a 5 years accelerated BA/MA masters program in molecular cellular biology is available if your daughter is considering pursuing a masters for one more additional year at JHU.</p>
<p>try Ivies… some of them are better for humanities than sciences, but some of them have really good sciences… and significant portions (maybe up to 1/2) of the bio majors aren’t premed and are just planning on going graduate school</p>
<p>Yeah, sure after pulling down a B’s in Chem and Calc (not a great grade at schools known for grade inflation) they are no longer premed. But the simple fact is that up to ~33% of the matriculating Frosh at some Ivys WERE premed on the first day of orientation. The competition for grades changed their post-grad plans after the first grading period.</p>