Grinnell vs Colby vs Colgate

mcpheevn
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:10:42 +0000

It’s funny I’m looking at these schools as well, and I also want to major in chemistry so I have been looking at various chem departments across several LACs.

I’m not a Grinnell student so I can’t vouch for the strength of the chem department but I believe they have a solid reputation at grad schools. If you do a Facebook search of the recent graduates they have attended grad schools in Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Northwestern, etc. The average chemistry major graduates per year is about 15 students and there are ~9 profs in the department so it’s a very good faculty:student ratio. They have the standard 400 MHz NMR, the standard for most top LACs, and I think they bought/was granted (I think from HHMI fund) a 600/700 (can’t remember which) NMR machine recently but I can’t find the link. And the Noyce science center (newly renovated in 2007 with new labs and very nice interior, you can do a virtual tour at the Chemistry Department website) beats virtually all other LACs’ out of the water.

Colby also has a strong chemistry department (that and, I heard, economics). If you like organic synthesis (I do), there’s a prof there (Timo Ovaska) that has a solid track record of publications (of course this is relative to LAC profs and not research uni’s profs with dozens of papers per year), including several JACS. He also has research students that went on to very good graduate programs (e.g. Scripps Research Institute, one went on to be a current assistant prof at CalTech). Thus, if you want a publication as an undergraduate it could be an opportunity. Of course, if you work hard at either of these 3 schools and getting research experience including external ones (which are also other routes to publish a paper), I believe good graduate programs are within your reach.

I don’t know a lot about Colgate since I don’t really click with the school in general so I didn’t research a whole lot about it (the ‘preppiness’ that d’smom has mentioned) . However, I believe it has the biggest student out of the three and there will be more opportunities and more profs for you to do research with.

One point of speculation is that due to the slightly more preppy vibe from the other two colleges, there might be a greater pre-med bend at those schools, which might create a slightly more competitive environment academically. But then again I would imagine pre-meds to major more on biology and biological chemistry so this may be a non-issue.

I know that high school students should not idealize one college but Grinnell is a perfect place for me. I would be so crushed if I get rejected.