<p>This is a ranking of the top 20 baccalaureate schools of PhDs in biological and biomedical sciences. </p>
<p>This information is from the NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates 1995-2006 and from IPEDS. I divided the number of PhDs from a particular baccalaureate school by the number of bachelors degrees awarded by that school in the same fields (biological sci). I think this is a more valid way to "normalize" PhD production.</p>
<p>The number of bachelors degrees is the total over three years 2002-2004 in biological and biomedical sciences. These were the earliest available from the IPEDS website. I thought a three-year total would be more reliable than a one-year snapshot.</p>
<p>Other methods divide by total undergraduate enrollment. When you divide by total undergraduate enrollment schools are penalized if they have large numbers of undergrads in other fields.</p>
<p>I limited the schools to roughly the top 100 US News universities and top 100 LACs plus the SUNY schools, some additional tech schools, and a few schools that are not top 100 in US News but which produce large numbers of PhDs.</p>
<p>school, PhDs produced in biological sci 1995-2006, bachelors degrees granted 2002-2004 in same fields, ratio</p>
<p>1 California Institute Of Technology 136 76 1.789
2 Harvey Mudd College 55 32 1.719
3 Bennington College 8 5 1.600
4 Wesleyan University 126 93 1.355
5 Oberlin College 183 139 1.317
6 Massachusetts Inst. Of Technology 418 329 1.271
7 Princeton University 327 267 1.225
8 Swarthmore College 164 135 1.215
9 Wellesley College 130 113 1.150
10 Amherst College 84 74 1.135
11 Harvard University 566 513 1.103
12 Stanford University 423 399 1.060
13 Reed College 125 124 1.008
14 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 121 121 1.000
15 Yale University 362 381 0.950
16 Duke University 335 365 0.918
17 Kalamazoo College 86 95 0.905
18 Rice University 184 204 0.902
19 University Of Chicago 304 340 0.894
20 Johns Hopkins University 257 296 0.868</p>
<pre><code> 21 CARLETON COLLEGE 139 161 0.863
22 BROWN UNIVERSITY 312 362 0.862
23 TRINITY COLLEGE 61 71 0.859
24 VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 120 140 0.857
25 CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 130 156 0.833
26 HAVERFORD COLLEGE 84 101 0.832
27 GRINNELL COLLEGE 99 120 0.825
28 VASSAR COLLEGE 65 80 0.813
29 POMONA COLLEGE 80 100 0.800
30 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 210 265 0.792
31 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 69 89 0.775
32 MACALESTER COLLEGE 68 89 0.764
33 BELOIT COLLEGE 49 65 0.754
34 WILLIAMS COLLEGE 107 144 0.743
35 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 890 1198 0.743
36 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY 63 85 0.741
37 BRYN MAWR COLLEGE 64 88 0.727
38 SMITH COLLEGE 103 142 0.725
39 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 320 443 0.722
40 MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE 130 181 0.718
</code></pre>
<p>The correlation between SAT and PhD production rate in biological sciences is +.65 which accounts for about one-third of the variability in PhD production rate.</p>
<p>After seeing this post, I was interested in seeing if the enrollment for my program (Harvard BBS, one of the top biological/biomedical sciences PhD programs in the country) lined up with this data. (And holy cow, collegehelp, I have more respect for you after doing the analysis -- it was time-consuming!)</p>
<p>I've listed all US undergraduate schools which have sent more than one student to my program in the past three years (from data distributed by my department), divided by the number of bachelor's degrees the undergraduate institution awarded in biological and biomedical sciences 2004-2006 (from IPEDS), and multiplied by 1000 to get a more sensible number.</p>
<p>school, PhD students entering my program 2006-2008, bachelor's degrees awarded in biological/biomedical sciences 2004-2006, ratio*1000
1 Massachusetts Inst of Tech 16 338 47.3
2 Harvard University 11 496 22.2
3 Princeton University 6 281 21.4
4 Yale University 6 373 16.1
5 Brandeis University 5 345 14.5
6 Smith College 2 157 12.7
7 Williams College 2 159 12.6
8 Swarthmore College 2 167 12.0
9 Georgetown University 2 185 10.8
10 Brown University 4 390 10.3
11 Bucknell University 2 255 7.8
12 Duke University 3 401 7.5
13 Stanford University 3 428 7.0
14 John Hopkins University 2 308 6.5
15 Univ of Michigan Ann Arbor 6 1062 5.6
16 Washington University 2 432 4.6
17 University of Pennsylvania 2 522 3.8
18 University of Delaware 2 531 3.8
19 Univ of Maryland, BC 2 592 3.4
20 Cornell University 4 1188 3.4
21 Rutgers 2 1438 1.4
22 Univ California Berkeley 3 2515 1.2
23 Univ California Los Angeles 3 2591 1.2
24 Michigan State University 2 1801 1.1
25 University of Washington 2 1816 1.1
<p>molliebatmit-
I just returned from a Labor Day weekend getaway and saw your interesting post. MIT and Harvard are the big feeder schools for your program followed by Princeton and Yale. Not surprising.</p>
<p>Brandeis is a surprise with five (too large to be a fluke).</p>
<p>I am also surprised by U Delaware (although they have an outstanding chem program due to affiliation with DuPont, as I recall).</p>
<p>Also surprised by U Maryland Baltimore County, since U Maryland College Park is the system flagship. My brother is in the immunology PhD program at U Maryland Baltimore (not Baltimore County). I know there is collaboration among JHU and the local U Maryland campuses and that universities in the Baltimore area have strong programs in biomedical science.</p>
<p>A little surprised by Michigan State. I wonder if grad programs build connections (partnerships?) with certain undergrad schools, perhaps due to common research interests and collaboration among faculty.</p>
<p>Thanks for the very interesting information. I think prospective students would find it useful.</p>
<p>By the way, it is a lot of work. I try to do it as easily as possible by downloading files of bachelors degree data from IPEDS Peer Analysis System, sorting by IPEDS ID number, and merging with the data from Survey of Earned Doctorates by ID number using SAS software. Still a lot of work.</p>
<pre><code> 41 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-MAIN CAMPUS 311 435 0.715
42 SKIDMORE COLLEGE 32 45 0.711
43 PURDUE UNIVERSITY-MAIN CAMPUS 297 420 0.707
44 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 159 235 0.677
45 EARLHAM COLLEGE 73 108 0.676
46 COLGATE UNIVERSITY 79 117 0.675
47 BARNARD COLLEGE 60 89 0.674
48 OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE 75 112 0.670
49 COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 225 346 0.650
50 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS 233 371 0.628
51 SUNY COLL OF ENVIRON SCI & FORESTRY 67 107 0.626
52 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK 149 238 0.626
53 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 163 262 0.622
54 KNOX COLLEGE 46 74 0.622
55 TUFTS UNIVERSITY 139 225 0.618
56 HOPE COLLEGE 60 98 0.612
57 MILLS COLLEGE 17 28 0.607
58 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY 94 155 0.606
59 HAMILTON COLLEGE 35 58 0.603
60 UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 251 418 0.600
</code></pre>
<p>Well, of course this is still an exercise in small-number statistics, with only 153 students from 82 schools in three years. I'm not sure I really believe most of the schools with two students will really end up high on the list after, say, five years of analysis.</p>
<p>And I think there is a more pronounced regional bias than I would have expected -- we have nobody from Caltech or HMC, and few from Stanford, but relatively more from schools located in Massachusetts. But overall I am impressed with how well my program's data lines up with the overall data -- looking at the raw numbers, I was expecting the two lists to look quite different.</p>
<pre><code> 61 BATES COLLEGE 84 140 0.600
62 BOWDOIN COLLEGE 90 152 0.592
63 WABASH COLLEGE 26 44 0.591
64 ALLEGHENY COLLEGE 87 155 0.561
65 GOUCHER COLLEGE 23 41 0.561
66 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 134 245 0.547
67 HENDRIX COLLEGE 51 95 0.537
68 FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE 66 127 0.520
69 CENTRE COLLEGE OF KENTUCKY 36 71 0.507
70 SUNY COLLEGE AT PLATTSBURGH 54 107 0.505
71 WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY 103 206 0.500
72 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR 506 1016 0.498
73 BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY 115 232 0.496
74 SUNY COLLEGE AT FREDONIA 42 85 0.494
75 DREW UNIVERSITY 30 61 0.492
76 PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV-MAIN CAMPUS 538 1112 0.484
77 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 108 229 0.472
78 SAINT OLAF COLLEGE 116 247 0.470
79 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY 1006 2167 0.464
80 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 37 82 0.451
</code></pre>
<p>Yes, it's partly common research interests and research collaborations, but it's also the scholarly reputations of individual faculty members at the undergrad schools who recommend their top students to the grad school, as well as relationships the grad schools maintain with their former grad students and post-docs who become faculty members at other undergrad institutions. A lot of this is based on personal relationships and mutual respect among faculty members.</p>
<p>But you shouldn't be surprised by Michigan State's strong showing here. Michigan State is a pretty darned good school in many fields, including the biological sciences. US News ranks Michigan State's biology graduate programs #34, tied with Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Emory, UC Irvine, Minnesota, and Vanderbilt. Some pretty fancy names in that group. Also well ahead of Rutgers (#48), U Maryland (#48), Georgetown (#77), and U Delaware (#95), which should be the real surprises here (well, maybe not Georgetown which has a very strong undergrad class but generally weak graduate programs).</p>
<pre><code> 81 EMORY UNIVERSITY 142 315 0.451
82 FURMAN UNIVERSITY 61 136 0.449
83 WHEATON COLLEGE - MASSACHUSETTS 26 58 0.448
84 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 184 411 0.448
85 HANOVER COLLEGE 20 45 0.444
86 COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS 55 124 0.444
87 UNIV. OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 636 1444 0.440
88 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH-MAIN CAMPUS 156 362 0.431
89 WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE 81 189 0.429
90 COLLEGE OF WOOSTER 45 105 0.429
91 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA CRUZ 354 828 0.428
92 BOSTON UNIVERSITY 226 530 0.426
93 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 113 270 0.419
94 UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE 203 486 0.418
95 GEORGIA INST OF TECHNOLOGY-MAIN CAMP 84 206 0.408
96 SUNY AT BUFFALO 156 385 0.405
97 GETTYSBURG COLLEGE 42 104 0.404
98 SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 33 82 0.402
99 PITZER COLLEGE 14 35 0.400
100 TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 108 272 0.397
</code></pre>