I like the small schools like Amherst, Williams, Tufts & Bowdoin because of the closer relations with actual professors…average smaller class sizes
Number of courses seems like an arbitrary way to judge things. The University of Central Florida, Liberty University, Ohio State University and Texas A&M have at least 45,000 undergraduates each. Each of them offers literally hundreds of classes in English, Literature and Poetry. Would you suggest that those schools are “better” than Amherst or Williams for studying English or Literature or Poetry as an undergraduate? If so, why not?
The same principle applies to neuroscience. It is an interdisciplinary course of study. You are going to need to take biology, chemistry, biochemistry, statistics and calculus before you can concentrate on neurology specific classes. Each of those classes is going to be small and demanding at the top LACs, any you will work closely with your professors, even if there are not as many different course offerings. You are well prepared for grad school or med school, which is going to be necessary for anyone in this field. The premed adviser also will know you personally, because he or she only has a couple dozen people to advise in any particular year. As a result, a very high percentage of Amherst students who actually want to go to medical school actually get into medical school, despite the limited undergraduate course offerings.
Again, not knocking Northwestern, which is a great school too. Just continuing the conversation.
NW, most of the country has no idea what Amherst even is. North Western is well respected mostly everywhere. Plus, will a liberal arts program prepare you for pre-med? Lol
“NW, most of the country has no idea what Amherst even is. North Western is well respected mostly everywhere. Plus, will a liberal arts program prepare you for pre-med? Lol”
Err, do you even know what a liberal arts college is or how it works? (oh, and Northwestern is one word, not two).
It was a few years back, but a report showed that over 90% of Amherst med school applicants with at least a 3.1 science gpa (which isn’t that good) and an MCAT of 28 (which isn’t that high) were accepted to med school on their first try. And a large percentage of those who didn’t get in on their first try and tried again got in on their second try. And Amherst does NOT screen its students to protect its medical school admissions percentage, like so many colleges do. If you want to try for med school, they will support you.
^The overall rate is 79%. It’s about the same as NU’s 82%.
michigandermom,
Other than the self-selection I mentioned, another reason why it’s silly to use those percentages is that many research universities have larger percentage of majors not in liberal arts. At NU, 30% are in engineering and another 30% are in the schools of music, journalism, education, and communications, which include film and theater.
I was told by chemistry majors that there’s probably no better place to do chemistry at Northwestern. The number of chemistry students per year to number of faculty is roughly one to one! There’s no shortage of opportunities to do cutting-edge research with leading figures in the field (it’s ranked #4 in the world according to ARWU). The percentage of chemistry majors that go on to do graduate school is actually about 40% but the percentage relative to the entire student body is very small.
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michigandermom,
Other than the self-selection I mentioned, another reason why it’s silly to use those percentages is that many research universities have much larger percentage of majors not in liberal arts. At NU, 30% are in engineering and another 30% are in the schools of music, journalism, education, and communications, which include film and theater. Those silly percentage lists also don’t tell you what PhD programs people get into? It’s way harder to get into PhD program at Stanford than some third-tier schools.
I was told by chemistry majors that there’s probably no better place to do chemistry at Northwestern. The number of chemistry students per year to number of faculty is roughly one to one! There’s no shortage of opportunities to do cutting-edge research with leading figures in the field (Northwestern’s chemistry is ranked #4 in the world according to ARWU). The percentage of chemistry majors that go on to do graduate school is actually pretty high at 40% but the percentage relative to the entire student body is very small.
http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectChemistry2014.html
http://www.chemistry.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/programs/major.html
Here’s the page that shows the 82% med school admission rate: http://www.weinberg.northwestern.edu/discover/all-about-weinberg/facts.html