<p>Hello all, I come to you today with a question: what universities have a good course in biology? I really need to know for I am entering my junior year in HS and I would like to start compiling a list of Uni's to apply to.
Also, if you would, please tell me if these schools are competent:
-University of Hawaii at Manoa (I really like Hawaii, however this one is just to sate my curiosity for I have no intent on going there unless it is stellar)
-University of Washington
-Arizona State University( I've heard bad things about this school, but I've heard some programs are good)
-University of Minnesota Twin Cities
-University of Colorado Boulder
-University of Utah
Also could you please list your alma mater or your current school and give your opinion of it's biology program, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>OP, good u/g biology programs are a dime a dozen. Go anywhere you want and you will get the same education pretty much. So use other criteria in making your decision: size, region, gender ratio, research dollars, etc.</p>
<p>You will have to differentiate yourself from the tens of thousands of other bio majors out there. It’s what you DO, not where you go that will set you apart. In addition to high grades, you should get research experience in productive labs. This usually but not always means wealthy, well-endowed LACs like Pomona and Amherst or universities with professors who are actively publishing and producing PhDs. Any of the unis you’ve named will have such profs, and they will advertise that u/gs get research experience, but you will have to do the digging to find out how friendly each dept and researcher is to u/g students. </p>
<p>To make you more attractive to researchers than your bio major competitors, I suggest that you investigate the possibility of spending some time next summer working in a bio or biomedical facility to which you can commute. This will give you some lab experience and help you to develop certain skillsets before you go to college. I have in mind here such national institutions as National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes, Mayo Clinic, Centers for Disease Control, Dept of Agriculture, FDA, but there may be regional labs in your area too that you should look into. There are also military facilities with such opps, but I know little about these. (In fact, DoD runs a civilian ROTC-like program where DoD will help to pay for a student’s education in return for the student’s serving the DoD for a certain number of years.) States also have their bio labs for water testing, food science, etc. All of these almost certainly will not be paid positions. Plan to apply for these positions now, as often the app deadlines are as early as November 1 for the following summer.</p>
<p>U can’t do much w an undergraduate biology degree, except work as a technician washing bottles and being a gofer for a scientist w a graduate degree. </p>
<p>If u want to pursue biology professionally, u need to go to grad school. Therefore, any reasonable undergraduate progrm will do so you can do well on the GRE.</p>
<p>^^Exactly my plan (I want a masters or Phd in genetics) however I will cross that road when I am a college junior/ senior</p>
<p>Can your family afford all those OOS universities?</p>
<p>^^I really only have one person who could possibly help me in college (my mother, single parent) and she really could not help me all that much even with an in state school. So I am saving up all of the money I get from my job (which would be about 8,000 a year) and I will use that along with federal aid and grants/scholarships to fund college. However from what I have heard about undergraduate biology courses being pretty much equal all across the boards, I will likely add some in state schools as well.</p>
<p>Good idea. Also look at the pinned threads in the Financial Aid forum. Some Us will give full tuition for high stats students and there is a list of schools with COAs under $25K/year.</p>
<p>dude, if you give us more info about your stats, state, yr in school, etc., we could help you a little more.</p>
<p>Can’t add much more than what jkeil911 said in the first reply, but I can’t help but say…
college biology departments are like the sports page in daily newspapers; all dailies have a sports page, but some are a little more ambitious than others, and some…like the New York Times, really don’t want to have one but they have to because everybody else does it.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 its alright, I already got the info I was looking for already. Maybe in another thread.</p>