Top 50 Schools That Produce Science PhDs
In the newest survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, nearly 
35% of students said that it was "very important" for them to attend a college that provides a pipeline to the best graduate schools.
That makes sense, but what colleges and universities are the top undergraduate farm teams for graduate programs?
I've talked to many parents who assume that flagship state universities are the best incubators for future grad students. But if you're in that camp, you might want to reconsider, at least if your child is interested in the sciences.
National Science Foundation Stats
The National Science Foundation compiles data on where engineering and science PhD's obtained their undergraduates degrees. Take a look at the undergraduate institutions, which per capita educated the most students who ultimately earn engineering and science PhD's from 1997 through 2006.Top 50 Schools That Produce Engineering and Science PhDs
- Cal Tech
- Harvey Mudd College
- MIT
- Reed College
- Swarthmore College
- Carleton College
- University of Chicago
- Grinnell College
- Rice University
- Princeton University
- Harvard University
- Bryn Mawr College
- Haverford College
- Pomona College
- New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
- Williams College
- Yale Univeristy
- Oberlin College
- Stanford University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kalamazoo College
- Cornell University
- Case Western Reserve
- Washington College
- Brown University
- Wesleyan University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Macalester College
- Amherst College
- Duke University
- Beloit College (My son's school.)
- Bowdoin Collge
- Wellesley College
- Renssenlaer Polytechnic Institute
- Earlham College
- Franklin and Marshall College
- Lawrence University
- University of Rochester
- University of California-Berkeley
- Dartmouth College
- Occidental College
- Hendrix College
- Vassar College
- Trinity University
- College of William and Mary
- St. John's College
- Bates College
- Whitman College
- Brandeis University
- Hampshire College
All the other schools on the top 50 list are private institutions. What I found most interesting (but not surprising) is that the majority of these schools -- 28 of them -- are liberal arts colleges.
Students who attend liberal arts colleges enjoy many advantages that students at large public and private universities often don't. At liberal arts colleges, there is typically a far greater chance for undergraduate research. Classes are routinely small. Instead of hundreds in a lower-division science class, you may have 15 or 20 students. Students at colleges enjoy more of a chance to form connections with teachers because the learning doesn't take place in lecture halls. What's more, it's the professors who ultimately write those graduate school recommendations.
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog.
Science PhD image by Vironevaeh. CC 2.0.
