Best School for Chemistry

[collegealum314]

"People in this thread are talking about how great Arizona is but why aren't they even ranked for undergraduate chemistry research. Research in this field is extremely important"

I'm not sure what you mean by "undergraduate chemistry research." If you want to know about how good the research opportunities are, then just look at the grad school rankings. There are no rankings for research on undergraduate chemistry education. Rankings in undergraduate chemistry programs have nothing to do with research in education. (If there was, U. of Wisconsin would be #1 as it is the place where the Journal of Chemical Education is published.) The only difference in graduate vs. undergraduate rankings in chemistry is probably the quality of the student body. I don't know why Arizona wouldn't be ranked in the Gourman Report.

I don't know its ranking in every subfield, but I do know Arizona a top 10 school in analytical chemistry. Graduate rankings will tell you the quality of the faculty (at least in terms of their research,) how cutting edge the research you might do as an undergrad, the quality of the facilities, and also how much pull recs will have for grad school (because the faculty members are respected.) There might be a loose correlation to rigor in the classroom, but this is probably more closely tied to the intelligence of the student body.

[emeraldkity4]

The Undergraduate origins of the students who recieve a PHd in chemistry by percentage of students.
Harvey Mudd
Reed
Cal Tech
Wabash
Carleton
Grinnell
College of Wooster
Kalamazoo
Texas Lutheran
Bowdoin

An eminent chemical physicist I know sent his chem major son to Macalester, another went to Carleton.
You also might check NSF fellowships awarded.

[JaneyPT]

I would say that Pacific Luthern University in Tacoma WA has one of the best chemistry departments I know of. They have graduates which go on to do research in major univeristies including John Hopkins, University of Washington, etc. Try calling the chemistry chair there and talking with him. They have a lot of great equipment and give a lot of one-on-one care to the students in general.

[20yearsofsnow]

The university of Illinois has a highly ranked chemistry dept, my roomate just got accepted into their phd program pretty competitive

[emeraldkity4]

If you went to UPS you could take classes from The Wizard!

[BunsenBurner]

Yes, EK, the Wizard is amazing!
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These are all wonderful schools, no doubt. However, it is not what the OP was asking about. Please read the first post: the OP was asking for help with selecting the best undergrad chemistry program at the colleges on his friend's list.

Doing this for a friend. He wants to major in Chemistry.

These will be the schools that he is applying to
San Diego State
Sonoma
UC Riverside
University of Oregon
University of Arizona

3.1 GPA 1800 SAT

Cost is not a factor...his parents are extremely wealthy and just want him to be happy.

Which school has the best academic reputation? Best in Chem? Best social scene?

[emeraldkity4]

we did get off track I think when I mentioned that U of O was only school I knew about and then someone mentioned U of A and then...

[collegealum314]

^^yeah, I doubt you could get into U. of Illinois with the stats that were listed, especially as an out-of-state applicant.