<p>My top choices:
Penn with Vagelos Scholars Molecular Life Sciences Program
Vandy with big scholarship (full tuition)</p>
<p>I plan to study biology and become a biomedical researcher (in neurology or pharmacology). How do the social and academic atmospheres compare at these schools?</p>
<p>I have many friends in the Vagelos Scholars program. It’s a very challenging program and has a high attrition rate (although many people actually drop out to study physics and math). If you do complete it though, you are required to major in Biochemistry and another science major or submatriculate into the chemistry masters program. If you are planning submatriculate and get a masters, there is an award called Vagelos Challenge (Open to all undergraduates in Physics, Biochem, and Chem who are submatriculating) that gives you full tuition if you win. You will be eligible for this award when you are a junior or senior, and you can receive it for two years.
However, Vagelos will not let you have biology for your first major, it must be biochemistry and you have to take a lot more classes in math/ the physical sciences than you would need to if majoring in biology. Biochemistry and molecular biology are very different in this way, biochemistry takes a physical science approach, pretty much the same approach as chemistry except you are focusing on biological molecules.</p>