<p>Quick question.</p>
<p>Which colleges have the strongest Zoology programs? (at major/undergrad level)</p>
<p>By "strongest" I mean the 'Harvards and Stanfords' of Zoology, to put it bluntly.</p>
<p>For example, Wall Street Journal offers a "top colleges by major" page here [url=<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703376504575491704156387646.html%5DSchool">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703376504575491704156387646.html]School</a> Rankings by College Major Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ.com<a href="Though%20of%20course%20I've%20been%20unable%20to%20find%20one%20for%20Zoology%20or%20similar%20courses">/url</a></p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There are no rankings for undergraduate departments. Rankings for graduate programs, which focus on research output of a department, give some indication of the relative strength of departments. Those rankings, however, don’t tell you anything about the quality of undergrad teaching. Even if you used graduate rankings as a proxy, it’s complicated by the fact that many of the best schools do not use a traditional division of their departments into botany, zoology, etc. Instead, most of what used to be in zoology depts, is now in depts titled “ecological & evolutionary biology” or “organismic & evolutionary biology”. Most depts. that still retain the traditional title of “zoology” are located in public universities. Some schools to consider (even if all of them don’t have the traditional “zoology” title): Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Cornell, Indiana, Arizona, Minnesota, UC-Davis, and Texas.</p>
<p>Thank you, very helpful. Especially regarding the use of “organismic and evolutionary biology” (among other names) as opposed to Zoology. And with the list of schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, a lot of schools have dropped the departmental name ‘Zoology.’ But Zoology survives at U New Hampshire, U Georgia and N. Carolina State University, for example.</p>
<p>The truth is, there are dozens of very fine undergraduate Biology/Biological Sciences/Organismal Biology/Zoology departments, so a distinction among colleges about relative strength in undergraduate biology may be minimal for your purposes. Your best best is to choose your setting first. Small Liberal Arts College or large public university? Considering LACs, for example, these places all have great reputations for biology.</p>
<p>Allegheny College
Ohio Wesleyan University</p>
<p>as do these “tech schools;” Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensalear Polytechnic
Institute.</p>
<p>And many of the large public flagship universities have excellent Biology department, including Michigan State University, which has the noted Lyman Briggs College of Natural Sciences. Two overlooked schools on the west coast are Washington State University and Oregon State University. OSU’s marine biology department is one of the best.</p>