<p>Specifically in Biological Sciences/Physical Sciences/Biophysics. Thanks.</p>
<p>Rugg's Recommendations On the Colleges contains lists sorted by size and selectivity, but not rankings. It tends to favor LACs.</p>
<p>The Gourman Report (Princeton Review, 1997) is out of print but is still pretty valid. It tends to favor universities over LACs. It is hard to come across a used copy. I have a copy and will post rankings for you when I get a chance. Can you be more specific about the major? There is a separate edition for graduate and undergraduate.</p>
<p>The US News Graduate rankings might give you a rough idea about some undergrad programs, but graduate rankings shortchange the LACs and the connection between quality of graduate program and undergrad program is debateable, although there is probably a connection at larger universities.</p>
<p>Specific major would probably be considered physics with a concentration in biophysics (since very few offer a biophysics major), meaning that both physics and biology departments would have to be good.</p>
<p>some bachelors programs in biophysics:
Pitzer
Northwestern
U Iliinois UC
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
U Michigan
Washington U St Louis
Columbia
RPI
Brown</p>
<p>I'm not sure when this was compiled but you might be interested:</p>
<p>Gourman Report undergrad biophysics:
Johns Hopkins
U Michigan AA
UC San Diego
Yale
U Illinois UC
Purdue WL
MIT
U Penn
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Brown
Iowa State
SUNY Buffalo</p>
<p>Collegehelp:
Art history? That website doesn't seem accurate.</p>
<p>Department rankings are useless at the undergrad level... focus on getting into the best overall university or college you can... department rankings are really only relevant at the graduate school level.</p>
<p>Only exceptions:
(1) You have a passion for a highly specialized field.
(2) You have a passion for a very unusual peculiar field that may not be found
at every university or college.</p>
<p>However, for 99% of students who major in a standard field, then focus on the over-all quality of the school and don't obsess about departmental rankings.</p>
<p>Here's a great post by carolyn a few days ago.</p>
<p>
<p>However, I think you really have to do your own research and due dilligence to evaluate most undergraduate programs, even those where rankings exist.</p>
<p>Some things I look for are:</p>
<ul> <li>department accreditation by a professional association related to the subject, </li> <li>faculty size compared to the number of graduating majors in the department </li> <li>where grads of the department go on to graduate school or employment</li> <li>any recent or pending changes in funding for the department (search the school's press releases, and the student newspaper archives), </li> <li>special facilities or capabilities of the department (department library, research facilities, special equipment, etc.)</li> <li>how many prof's in the department are tenured, how many are full-time, how many are just visiting or are not tenured. </li> <li>the philosophy or subject approach of the department. This can take some digging, and you may have to put some divergent pieces together to see if the department's goals/philosophies are a fit with yours. Two equally sized departments at different schools can have very different approaches.</li> <li>I also like to get a hold of the actual course schedules (not the catalog which merely lists courses that may or may not be offered on a regular basis) for a few semesters and see how many classes the department typically offers, how large or small they are, and whether they fill up quickly or are over-subscribed. A department is only good if you can get into classes without too much trouble. </li> </ul>
<p>Another piece of advice that I also find helpful came from the Philosophical Gourmet site, which ranks Philosophy graduate programs but also has a section discussing how to evaluate undergrad programs, is to (1) find the rankings for top graduate level programs (these are usually more readily available) and then (2) look at the faculty bio's and see how many received their doctorates from the top grad programs. Of course, at large universities, you'll also need to find out how many of those faculty actually teach undergraduates. </p>
<p>There are, of course, many other things to look at when comparing undergrad departments, and I'm sure others will add to these suggestions.</p>
<p>I'd rather do this kind of research on my own than rely solely on rankings, which usually only look at a few key elements, not the broad picture of what an undergraduate's experience is actually likely to be.
</p>
<p>Carolyn's post is very useful. As academics we always looked at the degrees of faculty in evaluating a school. This will matter in looking at a dept you wish to major in not just for quality, but for the approach within a discipline. I disagree to some extent with the person who said the quality of undergraduate majors did not matter. If you are thinking of going on for a Ph.D, who writes your faculty rec. letters and the sort of courses you have taken will play a role in graduate admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Carolyn's suggestions are very good. My daughter's interests are rather specialized and the only way we could really research was to study the web sites of different departments.</p>