<p>
US News – Biology
- Stanford
- Harvard
- Princeton / Yale
- Cornell
- Chicago / Duke
- Penn
- UCLA
- Dartmouth</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, however, I think it’s pointless to attempt to rank such a broad field, and most people familiar with biology would shy away from doing so. For example, US News ranks Johns Hopkins #5 for biology…and yet it only does molecular biology. Is it really the 5th best option for students interested in ecology, marine biology, systematics, plant science, or pretty much anything else larger than a cell? </p>
<p>For example, say a student is interested in zoology. Cornell may be ranked #11 for biology…but its zoology program is easily the best among privates and one of the best in the country, its vet school is the best in the US, its ag school and marine lab are also great, and it has an internationally famous ornithology lab. With resources like that, the overall biology ranking is totally irrelevant. For that matter, most of the zoology superstars aren’t extremely selective or particularly known for biology (e.g. Oklahoma, Hawaii, UF, Michigan State, Miami U, etc.).</p>
<p>Picking a different field, only a few of the places good for undergraduate marine biology are elite universities (i.e. Brown, Duke, and Stanford). Most of the best places are either slightly less selective (e.g. U Miami, UCSD, UNC) or much less so (e.g. URI, Eckerd, USF). Do well at one of those places, and you’d have at least as good a shot at a top PhD program in marine biology as you would coming out of Harvard or Yale. Again, the overall biology ranking is totally irrelevant. </p>
<p>As others have said, they’re all great programs. It’s really best to choose based on fit.</p>