What colleges are good for biology?

College Search & Selection
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<p>My little brother is going into his senior year of high school and is starting to think about where to go to college. He says he wants to study biology (and possibly go to medical school) but there seem that almost every school out there has a solid biology program. When I applied to colleges I was doing engineering and you knew what schools to look at for that since there are fewer schools with engineering or even with recognized strong programs. With biology, everybody has that major and there are so many more options from liberal arts colleges to your research universities.</p>

<p>Stats:
GPA: 3.90 (unweighted, high school does not have a weighted GPA)
SAT: 2120 (going to take ACT next week)
7 AP classes
Lives in Massachusetts.</p>

<p>What kind of schools should he be looking at? With the possibility of going to medical school, should he go to maybe a less competitive school so he can keep his GPA up? Would a large school be good because of the research opportunities or a smaller school because of the smaller classes/opportunity to build relationships with faculty (know you probably need letters of recommendation for med schools?) Just want to hear the pros/cons of either.</p>

<p>I am not sure what my parents EFC is now (or remember what I was) but we are upper middle class so we probably would not get any merit aid beyond loans (I didn't when I applied for school). I know my parents have said that they would pay for a private school if he got into a good school but I know otherwise they would prefer a lower cost school (such as a flagship public college). It seems though that many of the elite public schools are tough to get into as an OOS student (UVA, UNC, William & Mary etc...).</p>

<p>Any thoughts? What should he be looking for in terms of a college and what questions should he be asking in terms of what he wants? (Just trying to help him get started)</p>

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<p>Yup…cuz it isn’t difficult for any established school to have a good bio program. It’s a given.</p>

<p>If he’s premed, then look for schools that have good premed advising and do Committee Letters.</p>

<p>BTW…since he’s not sure about med school (and 75% of frosh premeds never apply to med school), I would have him consider ANOTHER major…there is a glut of bio grads out there…and there aren’t jobs to support them.</p>

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<p>Yes, because of weeding, and so that he will shine and get great LORs.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.lvc.edu/health-professions/”>http://www.lvc.edu/health-professions/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

Fortunately this comes up a lot…so I can copy and paste an old response.</p>

<p>(1) Think about what you want in a college.
[ul][<em>]What are your stats? (GPA, class rank, ACT/SAT scores, etc.)
[</em>]What can you afford? How much merit or financial aid will you need?
[<em>]Small (<3000 students), small-medium (3000-7000), medium (7000-12,000), medium-large (12-20,000), or large (20,000+)?
[</em>]Big city, small city, suburban, rural…?
[<em>]Which part(s) of the country? (Pacific Northwest? Northeast? California? Southeast?)
[</em>]Co-ed or single-sex?
[li]Any other factors you deem important - must offer a particular language, offers LD support, has gender-neutral housing, big Greek scene or no Greek scene, DI or DIII athletics, etc.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>(2) Use search engines to create a preliminary list of prospective colleges based on qualities you’ve determined are important to you.</p>

<p><a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(3) Narrow down further. Read books like the Fiske Guide to Colleges and the Insider’s Guide to the Colleges. Your local library should have copies.</p>

<p>(4) Narrow down based on your interests in biology. No college, even among major research universities, excels in all areas of biology. Haverford is excellent for biochemistry, for example, but it’s much weaker in anything else. Other examples of LACs with particular strengths include Amherst (neuroscience), Conn College (botany), Ohio Wesleyan (zoology), and Eckerd (marine science). Check course schedules - NOT the course bulletin, which includes courses that haven’t been taught in years - to see if courses in your areas of interest are taught regularly. Other things to look for:
[ul][<em>]How much research funding is available? How competitive is it to get?
[</em>]How good are the college’s research opportunities? Are freshmen encouraged to participate in research? (Be wary of people who brag about freshmen “working in labs.” Too often this is simple grunt work.)
[<em>]Have students been published? If so, as what author (1st, 2nd, etc.) and in what journals? [</em>]How many students have received NSF or other post-graduate fellowships?
[<em>]What graduate programs do students attend?
[</em>]Does the college offer field and lab-based seminars?
[<em>]Are there faculty members in your area(s) of interest?
[</em>]What special facilities does the college have? Herbarium, vert/invert research collections, SEM, phytotron, mass spec, flow cytometry…?[/ul]</p>

<p>Once you’ve done all of this, you should have a list of about 20 or 30 colleges. College visits can help you cull the list further.</p>

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<p>As usual, Warblersrule has a command and great specific knowledge on the subject area. Listen up! M2CK is also a pro. 'Nuff said.</p>