<p>Where could I go to get a sense of whats out there in terms of top rated molecular/cell/developmental biology programs?
I'm aware that a university's overall ranking has no relation to how respected individual department reputations are.. which got me pretty lost..</p>
<p>The best program ultimately is one that has a lot of faculty members with whom you want to do research. </p>
<p>A relatively non-controversial top programs list might include (in a general order only):
Harvard
Stanford
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCSF
Johns Hopkins
Caltech
Yale</p>
<p>US News has rankings for subfields (molecular biology, cell biology, neuroscience), but I would also take them as "general order only" and not get caught up in the difference between the #6 program and the #7 program.</p>
<p>Also look at Rockefeller, Princeton, and UCSD</p>
<p>thanks.. that really helps</p>