<p>I would strongly disagree. I would argue that Yale and Caltech are the
top undergraduate science programs overall, with MIT and Harvard being
close runners-up.</p>
<p>What you might be confusing is quantity and quality. Obviously, places
like UCSF, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Michigan churn out more papers than
Caltech each year, and are very good, but I would argue that the
quality of Caltech’s program (at both the undergraduate as well as the
graduate level) and the average faculty quality is higher than that of
any of those places.</p>
<p>If you evaluate quality-based rankings, you can see some trends. In
the individual department rankings of the 2006 Faculty Scholarly
Productivity Index published by the Chronicle of Higher Education, 4
of Yale’s science departments were ranked #1 in the nation (and many
others in the top five). For comparison’s sake, 4 of Harvard’s, 3 of
Stanford’s, 2 of MIT’s, 1 of Princeton’s, and none of Northwestern’s
departments were ranked #1.</p>
<p>Another way to look at it is that 13 of Yale’s biological science
programs were ranked among the top 10, versus just 10 of Harvard’s, 10
of UCSF’s, 10 of Johns Hopkins’s, 10 of Duke’s, 8 of Stanford’s, 6 of
UCSD’s, 5 of UPenn’s, 4 of Berkeley’s, 3 of Caltech’s, and 3 of MIT’s.</p>
<p>According to a totally separate source, ScienceWatch 2006 published by
ISI, if you take the average placement of the 100 largest university
science programs among 21 different fields, Yale scored the highest
average placement with a score of 2.67, followed MIT at 3.00, then
Harvard (3.80). Princeton and Stanford were in fourth place. In the
engineering subfield, Yale was ranked #1 in the past two surveys,
which were released in 2002 and 2006. Just above Caltech, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>In other words, you could argue that Yale is #1 for undergraduate
science – not even just #2 or “top five.” Certainly, the sciences are
a major area of strength for Yale. Obviously, Yale also has amazing
programs in fields other than science which compete for undergraduate
majors. It is generally regarded to have among the strongest history,
political science, psychology, anthropology, English, language and
literature departments in the world, for example. That’s why it ranks
so highly on an overall basis: See this post: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060158922-post45.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060158922-post45.html</a></p>
<p>More anecdotal evidence includes things such as Yale winning more
young researcher (PECASE) awards this year than any other institution
in the United States. Also, Yale’s science faculty have won four
Gairdner Awards just within the past 4 years. The Gairdner is the most
prestigious science award in the world after the Nobel Prize, as about
1/4 or more of Gairdner Award winners later go on to receive the Nobel
Prize in Medicine-Physiology. Yale’s biomedical research program is
world-renowned and rapidly expanding, and in terms of research funding
per undergraduate science student, Yale beats everyone else (except
for Caltech) hands-down. That means plenty of research opportunities.</p>
<p>Anyhow, my suggestion is to throw all of this info out the window and
evaluate the program for yourself. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins,
UCSD, UCSF, Stanford, WUSTL, Chicago, Duke and others are all
world-renowned for their science research, but which school has the
best undergraduate program? Talk with current faculty and students and
see if they like the program, as well as where they go after
they graduate. Also it is important to see where you would best fit in
as a student. Some people would do better at a place like Wellesley or
Pomona – both of which have incredible undergraduate programs – than
they would at a large, impersonal school like Berkeley, Stanford,
Michigan, Texas, etc. It doesn’t take all that much work to figure out
which school is right for you, but don’t base your decision on what
anyone else says.</p>