<p>I'm quite passionate about human evolution, so I'm planning to study something related to that in the future. However, I'm not quite sure whether I want to do that through social science (ie. anthropology) or biology/chemistry just yet. So I think it will be best for me to go to a college that has a strong social science department as well as a strong natural science department. what are some good choices?</p>
<p>Top liberal arts colleges will be good at both and will provide an environment in which you can get to know professors and have small classes which might help you to decide. So it really depends on your stats. If you have top scores, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury. Wellesley if you’re a girl. There are also tons of threads on CC, for some reason, on the best places to go for anthropology although I think the best thing is just to focus on the best place academically that you can get into.</p>
<p>UW-Madison has a top 5 chemistry program and a top 25 economics program</p>
<p>A lot of the national universities have this. There are the elite private schools in the northeast that are very expensive and hard to get into, there are large public schools in the midwest that offer these programs at a slightly lesser price, etc. Point is, there are a significant number of schools that are strong in both sciences. You’ll need to find other variables to lower the number of potential schools.</p>
<p>Find some schools with great biological anthropologists as professors.</p>
<p>I agree, there are lots of schools with good biology and good anthropology departments.</p>
<p>At some schools, some of the best scholars in evolution/paleontology are in geology rather than biology. In addition to BillyMc’s excellent suggestion, I would consider schools with a geology program with an evolutionary biology track. Quaternary studies are quite popular at the moment. On a more practical note, geology majors are currently more employable than biology graduates and particularly anthropology graduates.</p>
<p>As a specific suggestion, Duke’s program is pretty much tailor-made for your interests and has a collection of 24,000 fossil primates.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> University | Evolutionary Anthropology: Home](<a href=“http://evolutionaryanthropology.duke.edu/]Duke”>http://evolutionaryanthropology.duke.edu/)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. </p>
<p>I prefer medium-sized colleges so I’m not considering any liberal arts colleges at this stage. I’m actually an U.S applicant from aboard so I’m not too sure how my stats fit with all the other applicants.</p>
<p>@warblersrule86: Duke is one of the colleges on my list right now. =)</p>
<p>The UC system. Cornell. Cornell and Cal/ UCLA are probably the two most well-rounded universities in the US; but don’t forget UCSB, UC Davis and the like. USC is pretty solid all around as well.</p>
<p>“…Cal/ UCLA are probably the two most well-rounded universities in the US.”</p>
<p>Add Michigan and Wisconsin to the above two most well-rounded universities in the U.S. along with a few others…</p>
<p>Meant to say 3, not 2. But yea, Michigan, etc. are great too. The OP said they wanted medium size schools so I think I sub-consciously threw out the BigTen. ;)</p>
<p>^^^UCLA and UCB are not “medium size schools” either.</p>
<p>There are dozens of medium sizes schools that would meet your requirements (not a LAC, good natural and social sciences). Without your stats, and more detailed information about your criteria, we can’t really be very helpful.</p>
<p>Cornell reputedly has a really good program in evolutionary biology. My daughter took an intro course in it and she thought it was great. A possibly relevant though dated graduate program ranking is here: [NRC</a> Rankings in Ecol/Evol/Behav](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area14.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Ecol/Evol/Behav)</p>
<p>I would also add Northwestern to the list. It’s a Big 10 medium-sized university.</p>
<p>There are some very exciting things going on at UWisconsin in the Natural Sciences including the study of evolutionary developmental biology as well as in the top notch History of Science Dept. Plus Sociology and Econ are both incredible. </p>
<p>It’s a big school though.</p>
<p>An example: [Sean</a> B. Carroll Biography](<a href=“http://seanbcarroll.com/about/]Sean”>About — Sean B. Carroll)</p>