I’m a parent trying to help my daughter who needs to make a decision by May 1! She is trying to decide between UW and Carleton. She is interested in biology, not sure what area yet, and wants a broad exposure to learn more about what she might be interested in. Is concerned if goes to UW, she would possibly be miserable/turned off in the various intro courses (large lectures; some online which she would hate). Would that be the case? But UW has large number of classes to choose from. Thinks she wants to go into research (PhD, MD, or both). Will have had 3 summer internships at a regenerative biology lab at UW by the time she starts college, so she may be beyond just getting lab research experience for the sake of exposure to it. Also has danced since young and is in a pre-professional company. Wants to continue to learn technique at a high level. Would like to get out of Madison, where we live, and have an adventure - she is so familiar with the UW (dorms, dining halls, clubs, environment). But not sure that a school as small as Carleton and a small town like Northfield would be big enough, but she thinks the private LAC might be a good experience. Is a small LAC appropriate for someone who wants to go into research and wants broad biology exposure to decide what to go into ? Or would it delay the next step a bit? Any help you can offer will be appreciated. And would there be a better school somewhere in the US that would be a better choice? If her choice doesn’t fit will, she may end up transferring. She had excellent grades, ACT, SAT, activities, volunteer work, research experience so she is not limited by lacking qualifications to get in to other places.
@Parentwithqs Has she visited Carleton’s dance department? I know that the biology and sciences send a lot of people to grad schools. It is the dance aspect that I am not sure of.
My daughter’s friend majored in bio and had a good experience.
@Parentwithqs : Our daughter is a freshman at Carleton, with plans to be a Bio major. She is appropriately challenged by Carleton’s academics in both stem and non-stem classes (had a 34 ACT, super-scored to 35), and she is loving the college’s student environment. She has continued her proficiency with flute, both with lessons and with flute ensemble/flute trio. there are plenty of research opportunities for her on campus in the coming years, working closely with faculty. See some of the info in the following Carleton website link: https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/inside/
Right on topic: Son #2 is a sophomore Bio Core major at UW-Madison. He loves the large university setting, trails surgeons at the university health center, and he volunteers at Madison’s free medical clinic. His Bio and Chem classes have had 350-400 students in the lectures, that break down into smaller discussion groups.
Our Carleton daughter’s Principles of Chemistry (an intro class) had 42 students, with 24 students in the chem lab. Her Energy In Biological Systems (the second-level Bio class) has just over 80 students in the lecture (largest class ever for it this term!), but with 24 students in the lab section. For Carleton, these are the largest class sizes you will get – most classes will have 20 and fewer students. She likes Carleton’s trimester calendar, with three classes per term.
S2 wanted a large-campus setting, DD wanted a smaller campus. Both are happy where they are. Carleton is the LAC that sends the largest percentage of women on to stem grad schools.
If her interests are in STEM research, there is probably no better place for her to be than a place like Carleton. Their graduates have some of the highest representation among PhD ranks in the country with much larger percentages heading on to grad school and research careers than comparable top universities. They place extremely well among top grad programs and are heavily recruited. Not surprisingly, the high quality of classroom and lab teaching accounts for the hugely disproportionate number of kids on campus with parents who themselves are academics.
From the Reed College website, looking at colleges’ PhD productivity, FYI:
https://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html
Although my UW kid is not a STEM kid, many of his friends at UW are, and none of them have ever had an online course. That really hasn’t seemed to be a consideration in their experience. As a public institution, UW has to make a lot of info available – you can search the fall course offerings, including how large the lectures are and how large the discussion sections are. You can also look on the UW website for the list of First Year Interest Groups, which are clusters of 2 or 3 thematically linked courses, taken by the same or so 20 students. Those “Fig mates” have 2-3 classes together, one of which is a seminar and the other(s) are lectures with all the FIG kids are in the same discussion section. The FIG becomes a way to “shrink” the first year experience. As a female interested in sciences, there may be residential learning community applicable as well.
The breadth, and depth, of science offerings at UW can’t be matched. But if a student is not comfortable with the idea of at least some large lectures early on, then it is not a good match.
If she plans to get a Ph.D she’ll spend years at a large research U like UW for grad school. Undergrad is the only time she can attend a LAC. I’d go for the LAC experience.
@NolaCAR That is what she thought too, and eventually decided on Carleton. I had always gone to large state universities for undergrad and med school, so Carleton and private colleges are a new world to me.
@Midwestmomofboys My daughter’s boyfriend who is a current freshman at UW took an Intro to Chem that requires online work. Also the Intro to Biochem has a required online section too. I think she wants to see what a LAC is like. It was a tough decision - she labored over it, flipping back and forth. Both are great schools for science, and each has it’s plus and minuses for her.
@1190 Thank you!
My D1 is a freshman at Carleton where she’s pre-med but majoring in American Studies. She could not be happier. She loves everything about Carleton!
so I have to ask, a year later for you, is your D still loving Carleton? mine deciding between Carleton, Madison and Vanderbilt…the latter dropping out quickly as not as STEM focused for the price…