<p>Hi guys!</p>
<p>Basically, I'm an international undergraduate applicant who's crazy about biology and specifically immunology, biomedical science, bioengineering (specifically in disease research). SAT score is 2240, top of my grade class. Love doing community service work and playing squash as well.</p>
<p>I'm more of an sincere person tbh and not overly competitive (though i always want to be the best I can be). Dream school is Yale, and I love UChicago too. That's where the problem comes in. There are about 5 people (tentative number) from my school applying early to Yale, which now means I'm looking at other places. Since I've heard UChicago is one of the best in the world for biological sciences, I decided to put my name down for EA at UChicago. However, I saw the rankings for universities in biomedical sciences and it turns out UChicago isn't in the top 15 for most of the rankings I checked out (US news, QS etc.)</p>
<p>I hope you've got some kind of an impression of the kind of person I am, and hope you can help me in this dilemma. Should I go for UChicago EA? Or should I look at another place for EA/ED and if I should, could you please suggest a great university for that? </p>
<p>Will be EXTREMELY grateful if you could help me out.</p>
<p>Thank you! </p>
<p>Placing down the rankings and backing away slowly is the first step. I can promise you that you won’t need them!</p>
<p>Your second step is to figure out cost. American colleges are often extremely expensive, more so than many of their international peers. Can you afford tuition, or will you need financial aid or a merit scholarship?</p>
<p>Biology is an extremely common and popular major. Almost any reputable college will have at least an average program, and almost all of the top colleges have very good ones – molecular biology, biochemistry, and neuroscience in particular, which are far more popular than ecology and organismal biology these days. (Indeed, schools like Johns Hopkins, CMU, and Brandeis have entirely jettisoned the latter.) Selecting on strength in biology is going to leave you with a long list of very, very different colleges. And yes, Chicago is extremely strong in biology and would make a fine option. </p>
<p>Figure out what type of college you want. A very urban university (NYU)? A university in a small town (Cornell)? A small college (Amherst) or large university (U Pittsburgh)? Is there a region of the US that particularly interests you? Once you have some criteria, it’s much easier to come up with a list of colleges. </p>
<p>Track down a copy of the Insider’s Guide to the Colleges and the Fiske Guide. You can find pretty cheap copies online. What colleges appeal to you? Do they share certain characteristics in common? You can also browse through video tours of colleges on Youtube or admissions websites to get a sense of what the campus is like. </p>
<p>Out of the magnanimity of my heart, the abundance of my time, and the skillfulness of my google search abilities, I’ve compiled a list of university rankings for Biological Sciences & Medical School Research, and i’ve put the positions of our dear friends over at New Haven, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Duke for comparison: </p>
<p>Life Sciences</p>
<p>QS News:
- Harvard
- Hopkins
- Yale
- Duke
- Chicago</p>
<p>THE (Times Higher Education):
- Harvard
- Yale
- Hopkins
- Duke
- Chicago</p>
<p>US News:
- Harvard
- Hopkins
- Yale
- Duke
- Chicago</p>
<p>Medical Research</p>
<p>US News:
- Harvard
- Hopkins
- Yale
- Duke
- Chicago</p>
<p>It does seem, from these rankings, that Chicago would be a weaker choice for a student interested in biology. Yet when you account for research institutes that are wholly graduate focused in the rankings, like the Scripps institute in California, the University of California San Francisco, Chicago seems to hover slightly higher. The QS News and THE rankings, moreover, are global rankings, and I presume you won’t be applying to places like ETH Zurich, UCL or Imperial College in England. So we can eliminate these universities from their places above Chicago. When you factor in the entire undergraduate experience of academics, extracurriculars, location, “Fit”, and also - cost, Chicago doesn’t look so weak any more right? You state “I love UChicago”; when we synthesise all this information, it looks like Chicago should still be in competition for your EA/ED slot. But go ahead, consider Duke, Yale, Hopkins, MIT and Harvard too if you especially like Biology. </p>
<p>Outside of research unviersities, would you say places like Pomona and Wellesley can’t teach biology properly? No! That’s because these rankings all focus on research - i.e. the intellectual output of the faculty, and not on their ability to teach. What i’m trying to say is that the eminence of a few faculty members in Harvard’s biology department do not ensure you are getting the best education. Do more research. </p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys!</p>