I’m trying to decide between Johns Hopkins, Rice, and Berkeley. I plan to major in ecology/ environmental biology. I want to travel and do a lot of research in college, and as a career (I’d love to go on to get a doctorate in ecology and get paid to travel and study the environment). Which school will best help me achieve this?
Net price at each? How much student loan debt at each?
Those going into biology should be aware that it is often not a high paying field, so it is best to avoid large amounts of debt.
I, fortunately, will not need to worry about debt at any of the three. I appreciate the concern though!
You should temper your expectations on travel and research as an undergraduate, especially at a big school.
Some schools and some college towns are well rounded and just about anybody could find them tolerable… Others have very strong personalities and if you aren’t that type, it could be 4 years of feeling uncomfortable. From what I’ve seen and read (& I could be wrong),it looks like both Berkeley and Hopkins have strong personalities (variations on the neo-tree- hugger type, and STEM grinder, respectively). .no doubt there are exceptions to these generalities. Plenty of them. But it.takes a tough person to buck the trend and feel completely ok in the minority.
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Are these stereotypes still accurate? I know nothing about Rice.
Berkeley has its neo-tree-hugger types, but they are nowhere close to the majority or dominant type of student, although they can be noisy at times. Remember, it is a big school that attracts all kinds of students who have the academic credentials to get admitted.
Indeed, as a biology major, you will probably find many pre-meds (competing for the high grades and GPAs needed to get into medical school) in your classes at whichever school you go to.
Rice is known to have extremely happy, involved students. S visited and felt very welcomed. His host student said students are encouraged to study abroad, but most do it short-term over the summer because they enjoy being at school so much.
rice
I’d go with Rice.
I’d go with JHU because it’s ranked the highest and has the most name-recognition both domestically and internationally. That said, it’s your life not mine, so you have to make the decision that will make you the most happy. The best advice I received was this: flip a coin and choose the school that you want the coin to land favorably with because that’s where you subconsciously want to go.
I’d go with Rice because it has lots of research and other opportunities but with the smaller size and fantastic student:faculty ration (6:1 at Rice as opposed to 10:1 at Hopkins and 17:1 at Berkeley).
Since different schools claim faculty student ratios in different ways, up to a point they are meaningless. I know one school with an outrageous ration (like 19:1) but they count faculty members who don’t teach at all. So it is a lot worse than it appears. Besides the school, you may want to consider the other factors like being in California vs Baltimore VS Texas.