<p>please help
which is better
university of delaware
university of maryland, college park
university of virginia
with a premed/biology major</p>
<p>Which of these places is in-state for you? That would be the cheapest one. If you are headed to med school you want to get your first degree as cheap as possible so that you don’t have to take out any loans until you get to med school.</p>
<p>university of maryland is in state for me</p>
<p>On rankings its like this: UVa, Md, Del. In that order. However, the advice above is very true, IF you intend to go to graduate school or med school. And we all know that a high percentage of kids who intend on going to med school either change their majors as undergraduates or burn out, or don’t get in to med school. So consider all your options wisely.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>But to answer your original question, U.Va. is generally viewed by people across the nation as being in an entirely different class qualitatively than the other two.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s amazing what some hype and nice old buildings can do.</p>
<p>Here’s what UVa’s own consultants say about the UVa bio department.</p>
<p>"Biology
Biology ranks number 42 in USNWR, on the same level as Purdue, Penn State and Ohio
State, but well below UNC (number 26). The TT Faculty numbers 27, unbelievably the
same since 1968. We are told that this is only 65% of the size of the median for top 20
Biology Departments (as may be true for other several other CLAS science departments).
There were no retirements or hires for 10 years until one senior and two junior faculty
were recruited this past year. Rundown bio labs reflect the low ranking.
The undergraduates are taught by quality scientists assisted by 11 TAs for Introduction to
Biology, alone. Nevertheless, there is a need to modernize courses: there is only one
course in genomics, none in bioinformatics. There are multiple opportunities for joint
teaching and collaborative research between CLAS and SOM. Prominent examples exist
in Chemistry and Biology. Further opportunities exist in genomics, bioinformatics, brain
imaging, and a wide range of cell biology and biochemistry areas.
Current annual research expenditures are $8.3M, which comes to about $300,000 per
year for TT Faculty. Hopefully, recruitment will generate a major increase in funded
work in this department. There have been remarkable improvements in the department
during the past 4 years – from autocratic leadership and factionalized faculty to collegial
Ecological and Evolutionary Biology and Cell and Molecular Biology subgroups, with
good linkages. Promotions and tenure review are regularized; annual reviews occur for
faculty.
A frequently mentioned frustrations is the failed senior faculty search for the Ivy Chair
($1.5M) in Morphogenesis and Regenerative Medicine. They had three good female
candidates; needed $600-800K for renovations. The reason given was that they could not
mobilize the support of the Dean, Vice President or Provost. Other frustrations:
• Graduate student support is inadequate and not competitive with national quality
departments.
• This department seems leery of BOV recruiting costly older “free agents”, using
the sports analogy. It would prefer to recruit a number of assistant professors to
build for the future. Nevertheless, a strong BOV hire, who chose to affiliate with
Biology for his/her primary appointment and wants to help Biology improve
could be significant.</p>
<p><a href=“http://media.gatewayva.com/cdp/pdf/WAG_Report.pdf[/url]”>http://media.gatewayva.com/cdp/pdf/WAG_Report.pdf</a></p>
<p>And the sciences in general at UVa are not outstanding–from the same study</p>
<p>“Overcoming a History of Disappointment: Without knowing if the faculty comments are
justified or not, The Washington Advisory Group needs to report a widespread sense of
malaise and frustration in the science faculty within CLAS. It derives from the feeling
that UVA’s low standing as a ranking research university is due to a long history of
comparatively low priority for science in the allocation of internal funds.
Various strategic planning efforts in the recent past (and underway now) have not helped
the situation. Stated goals from previous planning efforts, including projected hiring and
fund raising plans, failed to materialize as advertised, leaving departments frustrated and
faculty unwilling to contribute more time to efforts perceived as being unable to achieve
tangible results that benefit their department or their work.
When departments and their faculty members perceive themselves to be unrecognized by
the university’s leadership, strategic planning suffers because the main incentives become
to protect current, limited assets rather than to seriously plan for the future. This is a
serious matter at UVA. For example, too many research-active faculty members we
interviewed expressed no knowledge of, or any particular interest in the ongoing
activities of “the Commission” which is currently planning initiatives for the university’s
ongoing major fund raising drive. These faculty members are dubious of top-down
efforts to define research directions with token requests for faculty input. Such
approaches are often too-little/too-late and can alienate dedicated faculty members.
Indeed, the accumulated frustrations over unfulfilled growth plans, unsolicited strategic
research directions promulgated by the university, and perceived minimal efforts for
significant involvement of faculty in actual planning exercises, prompted some
individuals we interviewed to propose separation of their departments from CLAS. We
do not think that such a separation will enhance the research stature of UVA, or that it has
significant support, but mention it here as evidence of the beginning of a breakdown in
trust between university administrators and a number of science faculty members that
deserves attention by all concerned. Regaining a sense of teamwork and trust among all
the science departments in CLAS should be an important objective for the new dean”</p>