Chance an aspiring biomedical researcher for LACs [3.93UW 1560 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Yes, Rochester has really leaned into International enrollment as another way of addressing both its current location situation and also the looming domestic demographic issues–and I see that as smart, not problematic. Over time, I think a lot of colleges are going to need to do that more and more, and part of that will involve building their international brand. And alums can be a big part of that. So good for Rochester in being aggressive about this relatively early.

Yes, that Finger Lakes region just southeast of Rochester is particularly pretty to me, and there is just so much to do.

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Just my usual pitch for LACs - among the 100 colleges that produce the largest percent of PhDs, 66 are LACs. Of the top 10, 6 are LACs, including #2 (#1, unsurprisingly, is Caltech).

My kid did her undergrad in Neuroscience at Middlebury and will start her PhD at a university which is considered top 10 or 20 in the field, worldwide (it’s not in the USA), her best friend will start Medical school at her top choice, and another very close close friend from Midd will start her PhD at Yale. The rest weren’t interested in grad school at the moment.

Overall, proportionally more graduates of LACs end up doing PhDs. A good amount of this has to do with the sort of students that attend LACs, as well as the glimpse they get of faculty life. Most importantly, though, it demonstrates that attending a LAC will not , in any way, reduce the chances that a person will be able to be accepted to a very good PhD program (or medical school).

What determines admissions to PhD programs is what you do in college. Every colleges has the opportunities that you need to achieve what you need to start a PhD. The better you feel at your college, the better you will perform, and the more energy and drive you will have to get things done.

You can do all of that at every single college that was recommended to you here.

The most important thing is to find the right sort of college for you. You are interested in research, and have an idea of how to get research opportunities. I think that you will be able to gain the research experience that you need at any college you will attend. I like telling the story of the professor at MIT who did her PhD at Caltech, and her undergrad at a university which you likely have never heard of, yet she was accepted to a very selective PhD program.

You seem drawn to LACs, so LACs are good, however I would guess that you would be able to do well enough at any college you attend to be accepted at a good number of top PhD programs.

Since Kalamazoo was mentioned, I’ll say that Kalamazoo specifically has a very good placement rate in PhD programs and so does Earlham. Some of the LACs that are generally ranked lower by entities like USNews have placement rates in PhD programs that exceed pretty high ranking research universities. Again, what it mostly means is that a student who wants to gain the research experience required for admission to a PhD program will have no problem doing it at a LAC, even one which is not considered “prestigious” by people who care about such things.

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LACs also tend to have fewer overtly preprofessional majors that are directly aimed at jobs at graduation and hence have fewer students aiming for further education, particularly for PhD study (how many business majors go on to PhD study?).

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I agree a lot of placement studies, including PhD studies, are problematic in detail because they tend not to control for student self-selection, with different students actually choosing different colleges based on possible career intentions, and then in fact maybe being influenced by their college peers as well.

I do think one way to think about a college that does well in a placement study is at least that is evidence if you want that sort of path, and are individually well-suited for that path, that college is among the colleges capable of supporting you.

But just because a college does not do as well in such a placement study, that does not necessarily mean it is incapable of supporting you.

In that sense, I am not usually concerned about what you might call false positives coming out of such studies. But I would definitely watch out for false negatives.

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I think you mean “more”, not “fewer”?

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Ultimately, though, the main point is that there is no inherent disadvantage in admissions and success in doctoral programs for somebody attending a LAC. That is, of course, if the LAC is otherwise a good fit.

That is always something that should be remembered is that fit is much more important for success at a small college, and LACs are small (but the same can be said for places like Caltech or Rose-Hulman).

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I live near Wesleyan and have been watching it go up. :wink::+1:

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Yes, the artist’s renderings don’t quite capture how massive it is, especially for an LAC.

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On the other hand, engineering PhD awards now outnumber the next highest subject category by about 20%.

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