<p>Can someone give me a list of the top 10 or 20 schools for sciences (all kinds of science; hard sciences like chem and physics and bio, engineering, and social sciences like psych soc econ and political sci)
i've seen some rankings by USNWR but i've heard this is determined by things like research funding more than undergrad education, and this leads to [what i think are] good schools like WPI to not be ranked very highly.
so for this reason i ask CC for their opinions on a top 20 list.</p>
<p>The social sciences are not really sciences. Thay can't do controlled experiments.</p>
<p>Caltech
MIT
Harvey Mudd
Harvard
Princeton
Cornell
Berkeley
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Chicago
Yale
Columbia
Penn
Georgia Tech
Michigan
Illinois
Wisconsin
UC San Diego
Duke
Swarthmore
Haverford
Northwestern
UCLA</p>
<p>and many others</p>
<p>Some of the top LAC natural science programs (i.e., bio, chem, physics or some combination thereof) include the following:
Swarthmore
Bowdoin
Pomona
Carleton
Haverford
Grinnell
Colby
Bates
Bucknell
Holy Cross
St. Olaf
Reed
Kalamazoo</p>
<p>(just some that I know of, not meant to be all-inclusive)</p>
<p>"The social sciences are not really sciences. Thay can't do controlled experiments."-psychology, a social science, very much does do controlled experiments.</p>
<p>UC's, UW, stanford, caltech, Harvey Mudd, usc are all good in the sciences for west coast.</p>
<p>OP - Plenty of good suggestions above, but way too many schools to apply to. What are your other criteria?</p>
<p>Carnegie-Mellon, Emory, Washington University (St. Louis)</p>
<p>Northwestern</p>
<p>Probably the best way to differentiate hard and social sciences is hard sciences have repeatable results.</p>
<p>^ Psychology has "repeatable results." So does that make it a "hard science"? And some natural sciences like ecology and evolutionary biology are not particularly experiment-driven, except at the margins. Does that make them "social sciences"? I don't think so.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins. Ranked third in life sciences and biomedicine.</p>
<p>World's</a> Best Colleges: Top Life Sciences and Biomedicine Universities - US News and World Report</p>
<p>NRC Rankings</p>
<p>NRC</a> Rankings</p>
<p>^ I wouldn't put much stock in these NRC rankings which came out in 1995 based on data from an even earlier period, meaning it's roughly 15 years out-of-date. Not to knock Johns Hopkins, though, an outstanding research university.</p>
<p>I would definitely put up WUSTL, Carnegie Mellon, JHU, and Stanford.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't put much stock in these NRC rankings which came out in 1995 based on data from an even earlier period, meaning it's roughly 15 years out-of-date.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>still better than some of the opinion here.</p>
<p>Size of between 8k and 18k, give or take; location in the northeast preferably, but i'd be up for going to school in most 2008 blue states other than Nevada and New Mexico; with the social atmosphere i'm not really looking for a place where all the social scene revolves around drinking but it's not a study all the time school and they can throw a decent party;</p>
<p>does that narrow it down at all?</p>
<p>I'm looking for a school with a size between 8k and 18k, give or take; location in the northeast preferably, but i'd be up for going to school in most 2008 blue states other than Nevada and New Mexico; with the social atmosphere i'm not really looking for a place where all the social scene revolves around drinking but it's not a study all the time school and they can throw a decent party;</p>
<p>does that narrow it down at all?</p>
<p>Tufts and Holy Cross are very good in science majors. HC just built a new science building.</p>