<p>I'm considering majoring in either chemistry or biochemistry, and down the road, a career in dentistry.
Can anybody give me some insight on the strength of the chem/biochem majors/programs at any of the following universities: UPenn, Cornell, WashU, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>Any relevant comment is appreciated.</p>
<p>Cornell is the best in chemistry (8th or so,) then Northwestern (11th or 12th overall,) then UPenn (15 to 20?). Carnegie Mellon and WashU lag behind but they are ok for an undergrad major. Wash U concentrates more on undergrad education than Carnegie Mellon and is of similar prestige, so I would choose Wash U over Carnegie Mellon if you are choosing between those two. </p>
<p>I took some classes at Northestern and did research there; it may not be relevant to a future dentist but here's what I know about the department. Northwestern has a great department; their professors are outstanding but they don't have many straight synthetic organic people. This lowers their overall ranking somewhat. Their inorganic department (solid state and organometallic) is 3rd in the country and their physical chem and biochem are great too. I took some classes there and all the senior pure chem majors (about 20 or so) basically got in everywhere. (The only grad school people had trouble getting in was the Harvard Chemistry program. Berkeley, CalTech, MIT and any other place were no problem.) There is a pure chem option or a biochem option; they basically differ in the senior year classes. The pure chem people are typically higher caliber because the lab classes they have to take senior year are very difficult. Spectrometry is a very rigorous class (bases everything on PChem) and so is Advanced Lab. If you take these two classes and the Analytical Chemistry class required for all chem majors you will know have worked with all of the common instruments that you might see in research, have done in-depth experiments, and written up and defended. There are also individual oral exams where you they ask you questions to make sure you know the theory behind everything and the relevance of trends. They really do a great job with these three classes. Overall, they do a really great job at undergrad education in chemistry at Northwestern. I can't recommend this place enough.</p>
<p>My D is at CMU now in her third year as a chem major. She just got a GREAT summer internship at Reckitts Benckiser (Lysol products) in MOntvale New Jersey. CMU is into GREEN chemistry if that matters to you. She is thrilled and had NO trouble getting an intership. Salary is great and they gave her mileage expenses so she can drive from White Plains. </p>
<p>When they say you can get a job once graduating from CMU, they are NOT kidding! You can get interships, obviously, also. I highly recommend CMU if you want BANG for your buck.</p>
<p>Collegealum314 -
Can you elaborate on how "Carnegie Mellon and WashU lag behind but they are ok for an undergrad major"?</p>
<p>Also, can anyone comment on how CMU's reputation for engineering and CS (possibly placing MCS/Chem/Bio on the backburner?) changes/effects the study pure sciences?</p>
<p>Further, can anyone offer guidance on CMU vs. a LAC like Mount Holyoke? I too am interested in entering the health professions after graduation.</p>
<p>Here are the top programs in chemistry, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's 2007 ranking (at chronicle.com)</p>
<p>Institution Faculty Scholarly Index Number of faculty</p>
<p>1 Harvard U. 2.16 25</p>
<p>2 Yale U. 1.98 31</p>
<p>3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1.94 43 </p>
<p>4 Northwestern U. 1.92 27</p>
<p>4 U. of California at San Francisco (grad only) 1.92 49 </p>
<p>6 Columbia U. 1.89 35 </p>
<p>7 U. of California at Berkeley 1.86 58 </p>
<p>8 California Institute of Technology 1.83 45 </p>
<p>9 U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1.78 53</p>
<p>10 Stanford U. 1.75 23</p>
<p>These are for departments overall. At the undergrad level, I'd say Caltech, Yale and MIT are the strongest. Among the schools you are looking at, Cornell and NU are probably the best.</p>