<p>(lets try this again)
I'm a junior in high school and getting frustrated with my college search. I want to go to the best school I can get into for what I want to do - the natural sciences. I haven't narrowed down exactly what field I want to be in, but as of now pretty much all science fascinates me so I want a school that offers a wide variety of science majors. (hopefully all top notch programs) However, no one seems to rank science, the only ranking I found was on the number of research papers schools produced. I don't know if this would help me because I was under the impression that research didn't necessarily mean good undergraduate education. Which top schools are the best at science and care about undergrads/ have good research programs for them? I don't really have any specifics as far as what type of university I want to be in. I'd like an affordable school, if possible, but I'll fork up the dough if the education I'm going to get is really going to be worth it.</p>
<p>Well, MIT and Caltech would obviously be at the top of the heap; both have top-notch programs in all of the natural sciences as well as small undergraduate student bodies and a history of encouraging undergrads to do research with world-famous professors. At MIT 80% of undergraduates participate in research, and a large percentage of them publish in scientific journals by the time they graduate.</p>
<p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is also outstanding.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rpi.edu/dept/science/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.rpi.edu/dept/science/index.html</a></p>
<p>If you're interested in <em>all</em> of the natural sciences, you might want to make sure your colleges have geology departments...that might be a limiting factor. To be perfectly honest, most of the top universities and colleges have strong science programs. </p>
<p>You might want to look for broad programs like JHU's Natural Sciences major that allow you to explore interdisciplinary interests.</p>
<p>thanks guys!</p>
<p>also it depends on where your grades and stuffs are....</p>
<p>Natural Sciences majors:
Pitzer
Harvard
Hampshire
Colgate
Alfred
SUNY Geneseo
Case Western
Gettysburg
Lehigh</p>
<p>case western
john hopkins
pepperdine
u penn</p>
<p>My grades are pretty much all A's throughout high school, and I'm an IB diploma candidate. (basically like taking straight AP's) Last year my SAT was 1880 (that was my first time taking it-I was in 10th grade) and this year I took the PSAT and got 2100 and into the running for NMS. (I doubt I'll go far though) I'll be taking the SAT's again in June.</p>
<p>Wisconsin, Michigan, UCLA, UCSD</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is first class for the natural sciences...among the best in the nation.</p>
<p>Look at University of Chicago.</p>