By your junior year, you should be selecting a graduate school if you plan to pursue a Ph. D. There are several WWW files to examine in the process. GRADUATE PROGRAMS gives descriptions/definitions of many biological fields with which you may not be familiar. ALUMNI PHD CHOICES tells where Beloit's Biochemistry and Chemistry majors have chosen to pursue grad school, where many of them now teach in graduate schools, and seminar speakers who have come to campus to recruit students. Below is some information which may be of help in making the appropriate selection. Data was taken from "Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the U. S. - Biological Sciences - 1982" which is available in the Main Library. This book ranks departments based on quality of faculty, students, and research support.

Unfortunately, they have not done a reassessment since 1982, and the only fields covered are Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Physiology, Botany, and Zoology. To assess other programs, e.g. nutrition, immunology, neurobiology, etc. it is best to speak or write to faculty with expertise in the area and ask them to recommend the top schools in the field. I also recommend that you look at Peterson's Guide to Graduate Programs in the Biological, Agricultural and Health Sciences in the Science Library which lists about 20 areas of graduate study, and has descriptions of most graduate programs. It allows you to examine the size of the department, areas of faculty research interest, etc.

Besides the brochures on the wall here, there is a large collection in a box on the refrigerator in the Biochemistry lab Rm. 420, and in the Chemistry Seminar Room. In 1982, there were 139 programs offering a Ph. D. in Biochemistry, and a total of 3,000 Ph. D.s were awarded that year.

Top Biochemistry Programs

Berkeley MIT

Brandeis Rockefeller

Cornell Stanford

Harvard UW-Madison

U. IL - Champaign/Urbana Yale

In 1982, there were 89 programs offering a Ph. D. in Molecular Biology, and a total of 1,900 Ph. D.s were awarded that year.

Top Molecular Biology Programs

Cal. Inst. of Technology Rockefeller

UC-San Diego UW-Seattle

Harvard UW-Madison

MIT Yale

In 1982, there were 134 programs offering a Ph. D. in Microbiology, and a total of 2,060 Ph. D.s were awarded that year.

Top Microbiology Programs

UCLA Johns Hopkins

UC-San Diego MIT

Duke Rockefeller

U. IL - Champaign/Urbana UW-Madison

In 1982, there were 101 programs offering a Ph. D. in Physiology, and a total of 1,370 Ph. D.s were awarded that year.

back to top

Here are some suggestions I developed to help undergraduates and graduate students select a good advisor for graduate study:

1) Look for a lab where you get a clearly defined project that is likely to be accomplished in 4 years. Some profs want you to explore a new area - which may not work out. Like "try to develop a new technique to do X". Others offer a clearly defined project that they know will be successful - e.g. "clone gene X into a mouse and see what happens and explore why". The nature of the hypothesis you explore, and methods you will use, clearly indicate whether your project is guaranteed success. Look for a prof that will offer you such a project, and such confidence.

2) Ask about the outcome of the former students of the prof. Do they finish in 4 years? Do they get good positions after completing the Ph.D. Are the present students happy there?

3) Generally, it is better to work with an established prof. A junior prof may either not receive funding, may transfer to another campus, or may be unpopular after a few years in the department, and your fate is definitely entwined with your prof's.

4) It is better to work in a lab where you will get to use a lot of different techniuqes that can be applied to other problems in future research. Avoid doing just electron microscopy, or just DNA sequencing, etc.

How's that for a starting list of choices?

back to top