<p>(this is cross posted on Parents forum as well).
My son has a pretty broad range of interests and is not sure of his major (may be in classics, or some social science, or some new interest), but one longstanding interest is biology/neuroscience/cognitive psych/linguistics, so we definitely want a place where he could pursue these seriously if that is the way he wanted to go. So with this in mind, is it even worth considering the LACs like Swarthmore/Amherst/Williams/Dartmouth/Haverford? A friend who is a Columbia prof thinks that for serious interest in science, you need to be at a research univiversity (although he thinks any of the LACs are fine for premed or just a "well rounded" type of interest in science). Thoughts? Are any of these LACs stronger in science than others? Thanks much (note I strongly suspect none of these would be his very top choices for other reasons).</p>
<p>idk about the research aspect, but when I visited Haverford, they said the bio department was divided between Bryn Mawr and Haverford, with one having molecular biology and the other having macro-biology. Dartmouth also has a med-school, which means going there may mean a step up in applying later (?)</p>
<p>Your friend from Columbia is probably thinking in terms of a math or science prodigy who could conceivably burn through all the departmental offerings at a LAC before realizing he’s really interested in a sub-sub-sub-specialty the college either doesn’t offer or would have to improvise in order to keep him on campus. Those people tend to get spotted fairly early in high school and steered toward MIT or Cornell and are better for it, IMHO.</p>
<p>For someone with broad interests, however, LACs more than hold their own against bigger research universities. What they may lack in magnitude of offerings they more than make up for in intimacy and access. In other words, there may be fewer “peak” specialties at a LAC but you can rest assured that the ones they do have (human stem-cell research at Haverford, bioinformatics at Wesleyan, theoretical math at Williams, for example), are all available to undergraduates and at close quarters – not from a flat-screen television poised at the front of a lecture hall.</p>
<p>Middlebury has an excellent science department and a new minor in linguistics. The many other threads on LAC science departments always point out that undergraduates have much greater opportunities to do research in an LAC. Another note, Dartmouth is considered LAC-like but it is an Ivy and twice the size of a place like Williams, for example.</p>
<p>Wesleyan is actually the most funded LAC in the sciences. You should look into it! It even has a 5 year PHD program!</p>