Huntington Beach College

What schools produce the most undergraduates who end up heading off tograduate school?

The subject came up yesterday because a friend of mine was telling me abouta brilliant teenager who wants to eventually get a PhD in physics. The studentlives in California, but the mom wants him to apply to schools in the Midwestwhere she grew up.

I asked my friend if the teenager had checked out Lawrence University.

“Huh?”

I realize that might be your reaction, but here’s the thing – many of theschools that are feeder institutions for the nation’s PhD programs are liberalarts colleges. While most liberal arts colleges are not well-known amongfamilies with teenagers, these institutions — and their reputations — are verywell known to graduate schools. Lawrence University, a liberal arts collegeAppleton, WI, for instance, happens to be 10th on the list among all four-yearcolleges and universities that produce, per capita, the most physics PhDs. (See chartbelow.)

I bet most families assume that attending a public flagship university or anationally-known private research university is the best ticket to graduateschool. If you look at the following lists of the most successful PhD feederschools for different majors, you will see a somewhat different story. Not asingle public university makes any of the lists. The entire Cal State system,however, is considered the No. 1 producer of humanities PhD’s.

I thought you’d be interested in the list of undergraduate institutionsthat, per capita, produce the most PhD’s. I pulled the names off the websiteof  Reed College, aliberal arts college in Portland, OR, that is understandably proud of itsimpressive record of turning out undergrads who end up earning PhD’s. Thestatistics cover the years 1997 to 2006 and come from the National ScienceFoundation and the federal government’s education database.

On the list of schools that have the most undergrads who ultimately earn aPhD  in all disciplines, Reed comes in No. 3 behind Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd College.

As you’ll see in the first column below, seven of the 10 schools, whosegraduates earn the most PhD’s by the percentage of students are liberal artscolleges.

Students can increase their odds of being accepted to graduate school ifthey earn their bachelor’s degree at a liberal arts college. On a per capitabasis, for instance, liberal arts colleges produce twice as many students whoearn a PhD in science than other institutions. That makes sense since studentshave more opportunities to work closely with their professors, they canactually learn more due to small classes and receive glowing recommendationsfrom their teachers, many of which, graduated from prestigious graduateprograms.

What’s even more remarkable about the prominence of liberal arts colleges onthe science lists is this: many students major in other disciplines at liberalcolleges while students who attend schools like Cal Tech and MIT overwhelmingly expect to pursue careersin the sciences and engineering.

I’ve attached a lengthy essay by Thomas R. Cech, a Grinnell College grad, Nobel Laureateand chemistry professor at the University of Colorado, who wrote a fascinatingessay contrasting the science experience for undergrads at colleges versusuniversities. Cech believes science majors at liberal arts colleges enjoy anadvantage over undergrads who attend universities. Here are Cech’sthoughts:  Science at Liberal Arts Colleges: A Better Education?

Here is another post that I wrote previously on this subject:

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and a workbook,Shrinking the Cost ofCollege. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.MyUpcoming College Workshop:

I will be holding my next two college workshops at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4. At the workshops — you can sign upfor one or both – I aim to share with you ways to help you make smart decisionsabout picking colleges and making them more affordable. You can learn morehereand sign up for the workshops here.Lynn O’Shaughnessy

The College Solution