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I'm currently in highschool; I'm interested in majoring in evolutionary biology.
The evolutionary biology major for undergrads is offered at very colleges. I'm clueless as to where the program is strong or weak.

Please exclude Yale, Harvard, University of Chicago and the like. Anywhere U.S.A. state is fine.

If there is a special biology college, I'd appreciate the name(s). O:-)

By Futajalon (Futajalon) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 10:51 am: Edit

Think seriously about your major. You'll be sorry and frustrated for the rest of your life, unless you love making up stuff and hanging on to thin fragile threads.

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 12:33 pm: Edit

Furajalon what the heck are you talking about?
Are you a creationist?
If you think that evolution hasn't been proved and isn't the accepted theory from astronomers to zoologists , you need to get out of the house more.
http://www.darwinday.org/bookshelf/intro.html
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 12:44 pm: Edit

This is only going to become a heated topic, so please lets just drop it and get back to my question.

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Most any school of any size will have a bio major where you can take course in evolutionary biology
The links I posted were not to start a flame war but to give you a source of further information about your proposed major.
I imagine with that major you are not interested in stopping with a BA degree, these schools have a high percentage of grads who eventually obtain a Ph.d
http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html

IMO you should first look at schools that have strong biology programs.

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 03:13 pm: Edit

I like the fact you're trying to inform the uninformed, I just didn't want this topic to turn into a Darwinist v. Creationist thread that caused people to have animosity toward each other.

Sorry if I gave you the impression I was mad for it.

By Haon (Haon) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 04:14 pm: Edit

Schools that have strong bio programs will, in turn, have strong evolutionary bio programs...the two are fairly synonymous--there aren't many top, non-religious universities or colleges that have non-evolutionary bio departments.

Oberlin, Carleton, and Williams all have excellent bio programs (among LACs).

JHU, WashU have excellent bio programs (unis)...what kind of school exactly are you looking for?

By Futajalon (Futajalon) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 07:29 pm: Edit

Emeraldkity4, I'm not a creationist, never been one; just giving a friendly warning to Jay12602.

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Saturday, November 29, 2003 - 10:52 pm: Edit

How would University of Washington at Seattle be for a major in biology (specifically ecology & evolutionary biology)?

How good of a college is University of Washington in general?

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 01:06 am: Edit

big very big too big( except for grad school)
a friend of my daughters is a bio major, attended Reed for freshman year, then went to UW, is now back at Reed for junior year, but cause UW has quarters instead of semesters, she is a quarter behind even though she took more than a full load at UW.

UW is a great school, my daughter is thinking of going there for grad school in astrobiology, but she is also currently at Reed when she is thinking of writing her senior thesis on something to do with evolution and plants.

If you don't mind grey weather it is certainly worth taking a look at though.
( but if you are out of state, it might be tough for admittance)

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 07:41 am: Edit

I live in Florida. I'm assuming few Floridians attend college there, so would my geographic location raise my chances of admission? Does UW give out merit-based aid and is it not too hard to get (like at Case Western)?

How much emphasis does UW put on SAT score for admission? I know UF doesn't put much, that's why I'm curious.

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 11:58 am: Edit

From what I have been reading attending an out of state school is difficult due to deep budget cuts and space being reserved for instate residents.
It is very difficult to admit to a CA university from out of state for example.
In WA they have been talking about making out of state students pay an even larger portion of tuition for the few out of state students they do admit
For fall 2003 UW had 15,770 applications. But becuase the legislature has not funded more enrollments, the UW has frozen the class size at 4,800.
Average GPA is 3.66 and SAT scores are 1168, however this includes a low of 600 SAT scores from students who are probably star football material. If you don't play football, expect a higher academic index to be required especially if you are from out of state, however if you are a starter/state athlete your chances are much better.

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 12:03 pm: Edit

I was told geographic location helps your chances of getting into an out of state school, but since I saw 82% of the UW students are from in state I don't think it will help much. Just how high of an SAT score/GPA do you think I'd need? I know this is hard to say, but just a rough estimate would be appreciated. My school counts AP's as 2 extra points (6 = A), and honors as 1 extra points (5 = A).

By Cornellgrad02 (Cornellgrad02) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 12:08 pm: Edit

the top schools without a doubt for organismal/evolutionary biology are Cornell, U of Chicago, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Harvard and Duke...Be aware that evolutionary biology is a very different brand of science in many ways from the traditional empirical sciences like genetics and development. However, evolutionary biology majors tend to integrate the other fields of biology more than any other concentration. Hope that helps.

CornellGrad 02

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 01:42 pm: Edit

I was told the same unversities as you listed.

Which other universities are good for a major in evolutionary biology but aren't quite as difficult to get admitted into?

UC Davis wouldn't be a problem if I lived in California, but unfortunately I live in Florida and only 3% of UC at Davis' attendants are from states other than California.

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 06:32 am: Edit

O:~) Bump.

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Which universities are good for a major in evolutionary biology but aren't quite as difficult to get admitted into as Ivy Leagues or Ivy League equivalents?

By Ivy League equivalents I mean schools like UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, and other schools at/near that difficult to get admission to.

By Cornellgrad02 (Cornellgrad02) on Tuesday, December 02, 2003 - 02:19 pm: Edit

Jay, University of Florida has an outstanding group of people in the evolution/organismal biology field...very impressive program. Also, florida state has a decent program and USF too. Also, Michigan and Wisconsin are very good as well the university of Arizona and the University of Texas (tuscon and austin respectively). Kansas in the past had a good department, but I'm not sure where they are now. University of Washington has an excellent program, but there focus tends to be population genetics if that floats your boat.

hope that helps,
cornellgrad02

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Wednesday, December 03, 2003 - 12:38 pm: Edit

Case Western's scholarship programs are no longer as you have heard about them. While students with test scores above 1300 and who rank in the top 5% of their class are considered for scholarships, they are not guaranteed. The amounts are determined each year and do cover a portion of tuition but not a set percentage.

...Dammit!!!

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Wednesday, December 03, 2003 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Case Western Reserve University -or- University of Florida for a major in evolutionary biology?

Pro's of UF
-It will be free to me since I have Florida Pre-Paid/Bright Futures
-It will be easy to get in
-I'll make my parents happy

Pro's of CWRU
-I'll get to get out of Florida and I absolutely despise it here
-The school is the opposite of a party school, and is described as a school for "anti-social science nerds", which kind of describes me O:-)
-It's not hard to get into

These are just a few positive points of each, but what really matters is which will educate me better for this major?

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 05:44 am: Edit

bump

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 03:38 pm: Edit

bump O:-)

By Jay12602 (Jay12602) on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 12:39 pm: Edit

How good are UF and Case Western for biology? How do they compare to eachother?

O:-)Please somebody answer!