My daughter was accepted to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Beloit College, and The College of Wooster. All of them seems all have good biology programs from their website. Does anyone knows anything good/bad majoring biology at these schools?
Thank you!
–What is your home state?
–Is cost an issue? If so, what is the cost difference?
–What are D’s future plans wrt biology?
This list may represent a sampling more than a definitive compilation, but it nonetheless relates to your question.
Biology is a staple at these (and most schools). It’s like asking which grocery stores have the best or worst milk.
Can you pay full OOS costs for each of the publics on the list?
In other posts, you seem concerned about cost. If you’re OOS for UIUC, then expect to pay full OOS costs. They’re lousy with aid and often no merit.
What is the career goal with a Bio major??
What’s her career goal?
(biology majors prospects aren’t very good - less than English majors for example).
What’s her best fit from a social point of view?
Beloit = small, undergraduate - focused college in small town, about 1 hour from big city. Study abroad and in the US through consortium.
Wooster = small, undergraduate -focused college in a small town, about 1 1/2 hour to big city. Requires research senior year.
Uiuc = huge public research-focused university in a college town. Is suffering from budget cuts (though not as terrible as other Illinois schools) .
Umn twin cities = huge public research-focused university in a major metropolis. (benefiting from state investments/better funding).
Those are very different.
Beloit and Wooster would be most similar to one another.
Between umn and uiuc I’d pick based whether she wants a big city or a college town. Also check on the effects of budget cuts (larger lab and discussion sections would be a big negative - compare sizes for those. Also check whether professors and ta 's have office hours or ta 's only.)
Did she get in to the honors college at either umn or uiuc?
If she’s considering premed, I’d go with either Wooster or Beloit. More support there, which is what premeds really need. All classes will be small, all professors will have office hours, the goal there is to ensure the student succeeds. (“look to your left, look to your right, make sure those classmates graduate with you” vs. “look to your left, look to your right, one or two of you will be gone by the end of the year” which is what weed out sounds like.)
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If she’s considering premed, I’d go with either Wooster or Beloit. More support there, which is what premeds really need. All classes will be small, all professors will have office hours, the goal there is to ensure the student succeeds. (“look to your left, look to your right, make sure those classmates graduate with you” vs. “look to your left, look to your right, one or two of you will be gone by the end of the year” which is what weed out sounds like.)
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I agree that W and B would likely have more support. However, if this student will be premed, the weed-out will exist at all of those schools. W & B have to weed as well.
One has to determine if W and B are affordable, and if it is a campus env’t suitable for DD. If really focused on wanting to go into medical school, if student is a strong enough student. What is plan B if student realizes she wants to study something else - if merit and finances are tied into decision for that school, if the school is still suitable for career goals. Also need to consider having small UG school debt if going on to professional school/graduate school.
Re #6 : there are different meanings for ‘weed out’ - generally speaking, it means that a large number of students give up in certain majors or classes. In some universities, especially state universities, the intro classes are designed to do that; it’s pretty sink-or-swim and regardless of who enrolls there’ll always be a certain percentage that sinks its GPA - if the intro class has a median at B-/C+, right off the bat half the class is out. There simply isn’t enough resources to keep hundreds if not thousands of premeds at Karen’s universities. In other universities, persistence in these majors is higher because the classes aren’t designed to ‘weed’ - making some students switch path is a byproduct not a goal. The reasoning isn’t 'we have too many of you. Let’s cull the crop ’ but 'let’s make sure as many of you as possible make it if they do what we tell them to. "
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I disagree. Nearly every “good college” has a lot more premeds than it knows will likely ever make it to med school. Probably 4-5 times as many. And most colleges have a number of freshman premeds who truly don’t have what it takes and they need to move onto where they can shine and succeed.
Most schools know the approx number of their applicants that get accepted each year. The acceptance numbers don’t really change much unless enrollment numbers change. Hence the need for weeding.
That said, yes, there may be an atmosphere of “we’ll help you as much as we can,” but at a school that regularly only sends 30 students to med school but has 150 freshman premeds, they know that they need to get those premed numbers down to 70-80 students.
The number of US MD med school first-year seats has not grown enough and undergrad schools know that.
Thanks for all the replies.
We live in Illinois and my daughter was accepted to the LAS James Scholar honor program at UIUC. I checked UOM and the University Honors Program will be notified by the end of February 2017. I checked both school this morning and found out UOM College of Biological Sciences admitted student average ACT score is 33-35 and at UIUC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences it is 27-32.
Her future goal is to do marine research.
The cost might be similar from each school since she applied for need based financial aid.
Beloit College is only 1.5 hr away. If Beloit offers similar education qualities compared to others then Beloit will be our first choice in these four schools.
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The cost might be similar from each school since she applied for need based financial aid.
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That probably won’t matter for UIUC because it gives lousy need based aid. Did you run the NPC for UIUC?
Sounds like you won’t qualify for a Pell Grant, so you may not get one dime of free money from UIUC. Probably just loans.
And, you’re OOS for UMinn, which doesn’t meet need either. Run the NPC for UMinn as well
What do the NPC 's indicate for each school? Only look at net cost -
(tuition, fee, room, board) - (grant, scholarship)
Honors college at uiuc is a big plus.
Post 2 had been intended to include a link:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/colleges-to-consider-if-you-want-to-study-biology/117/
My daughter was accepted to Macalester College with nice need based aid so that makes the decision very easy now.
Congratulations!
Thank you!