Reed for stem

Long term I either want to be a gene therapist or experimental psychologist. So I’ll probably major in molecular biology or psychology. From what i’ve read Reed college has pretty strong majors in both areas. Is Reed a good college to go to if you have longterm goals of being in stem? I really like the atmosphere of reed and i want to live in portland. But I need to go to a college where I’ll have long term opportunities in a stem field.

If your “longterm goals of being in stem” include a PhD, then Reed is a pretty good option.

The National Science Foundation recently conducted a study to determine which undergraduate programs produced the most future science/engineering PhDs, on a size-adjusted basis. Check Table 4 at the link below to see how Reed ranked.

https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/

Note that the study’s methodology actually handicapped Reed by lumping science and engineering PhDs together, since Reed (like most liberal arts colleges) has no engineering program. If the study had focused on science PhDs alone, Reed could have ranked higher.

One niece of mine obtained her BS from Case Western Reserve University in Biology. She fell in love with this exciting new gene therapy field where there were only two or three graduate programs in the country in the new specialty. Although an honors graduate in a very reputable university, she could not get into these special programs so she worked in the Boston area in laboratories which researched in this area. After three years of trying, she recently moved home.

Another niece, her older sister, graduated with honors from MIT as a biology major. Her first dream was to be a researcher in biology with her own laboratory. While completing her BS studies in MIT laboratories, graduate students she was working with made it clear to her that the path she was choosing would required many years of post PhD research to build a strong enough resume to have your own laboratory. The financial realities of this path caused her to elect patent law. She uses her biology background in patent law and is paid very well in a large Boston law firm.

My point?

At this stage in your education you can select alternative paths to obtain you goals. As an engineering school graduate who had a Biomedical Engineering major as a roommate, I witnessed this approach. Consider a school which offers majors in both Biology and the closely related fields of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. You can double major and will have more financially viable options upon graduation. Both of my nieces had these options, but did not know of them until the end of their BS studies. Leave yourself some flexibility.

Reed would be an outstanding school for you to major in a science. You should be able to go to an excellent graduate school from there. They also offer a five year program with Caltech, Columbia and RPI. Consider it. See http://www.reed.edu/catalog/programs/dual_special/index.html#Engineering

Reed also has a neuroscience major, just fyi. Reed is great for preparing students to do research and get a PhD. That’s, like, Reed’s thing. If you build a good rapport with professors in chem and bio (I don’t know much about psych), there’s a pretty good chance you can secure a paid summer research position at Reed over the summer. This is possible to do as a freshman, but usually sophomores and juniors get these positions. That’s good experience that can land you an REU or some higher profile position.