<p>Hello, what do you think, what is the best school in the US for a graduate study of sciences like biology, biotechnology, or molekular biology and medicine? I guess there are some great schools like harvard, stanford or mit, but what is the best? I am interested in a school with good research opportunities and high level of education. The location doesnt matter, but i would also be glad if you shared your experiences about student life at the universities with me!</p>
<p>There isn’t just one. The following are stellar in the Biological Sciences:</p>
<p>California Institute of Technology
Duke University
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
Washington University-St Louis
Yale University</p>
<p>US News graduate school rankings in biology: Stanford #1, Berkeley and MIT #2, Harvard and CalTech #4, etc…</p>
<p>1 Stanford University Stanford, CA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.9<br>
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.8<br>
2 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.8<br>
4 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.7<br>
4 Harvard University Boston, MA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.7<br>
6 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD Distance Enter your zip Score 4.6<br>
7 Rockefeller University New York, NY Distance Enter your zip Score 4.5<br>
7 Scripps Research Institute La Jolla, CA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.5<br>
7 University of California–San Francisco San Francisco, CA Distance Enter your zip Score 4.5<br>
7 Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO Distance Enter your zip Score 4.5<br>
7 Yale University New Haven, CT Distance Enter your zip Score 4.5<br>
12 Cornell University Ithaca, NY Distance Enter your zip Score 4.4<br>
12 Duke University Durham, NC Distance Enter your zip Score 4.4<br>
12 Princeton University Princeton, NJ Distance Enter your zip Score 4.4<br>
15 Columbia University New York, NY Distance Enter your zip Score 4.3</p>
<p>For graduate school, you need to identify your specific research interest. Then you need to find out who is doing that kind of work. Then you find out where those individuals are located. The person you really want to work with, who is the absolute world-renowned expert on your topic of interest may be at a university that you have never heard of, and that doesn’t even make the USNWR list!</p>
<p>As well as finding individuals, you need to look for productive research groups. If Dr. Expert dies tragically the day before you arrive at your graduate program (this happened to a friend of mine), who will pick up the reins of the research group? Will there still be space for you, or will you be floundering looking for an advisor and a thesis project?</p>
<p>How do you find these people? Well, start by reading Nature, Science, and any big journals in your field of interest. Who publishes? Whose research do those people cite? Make friends with the reference staff at your college/university library and have them help you learn how to do this sort of investigation.</p>
<p>Where did your professors study? Who did they work with? Who do they know from grad school, post-docs, other teaching/research positions?</p>
<p>What kind of job do you want when you finish your education? Teaching? Lab research at a university or at the NIH? Lab administration (there now are specialized MBAs for this)? Employment in a bio-tech firm? Then you need to know what kind of success the various research groups and/or professors have in placing their students.</p>
<p>And, if you want to hang out at the NIH in Bethesda while an undergrad or grad student, look at the University of Maryland, College Park. Happydad’s old lab at the NIH always had a couple of these folks.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>