Best Colleges for Biology Majors

Caltech

Caltech's biology program is the smallest on this list, but that small size is one of its great assets. With professors and graduate students outnumbering undergraduate biology majors, students will have no difficulty finding a wealth of research opportunities. They will also have the benefit of attending one of the most prestigious schools for STEM fields in the world while also enjoying its enviable location in Pasadena, California.

Biology and Biological Engineering are housed within the same division at Caltech, and students enroll in one of three undergraduate programs: Bioengineering, Biology, and Computation and Neural Systems. Research areas include microbiology and immunology, neuroscience, systems biology, evolutionary and organismal biology, biochemistry, and molecular cell biology. The curriculum is grounded in both formal coursework and participation in ongoing research programs, and it would be unusual to graduate from Caltech without acquiring extensive research experience.

Cornell University

Cornell University offers an impressive breadth of undergraduate programs in the biological sciences through both its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences. Students can choose from majors including microbiology, ecology and evolutionary biology, computational biology, plant science, animal science, chemical biology, molecular biology and genetics, and neurobiology. The university's location in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York is ideal for students who want to get out in the field to conduct hands-on research with plants, animals, and ecosystems. As one of the world's top STEM research universities and a member of the prestigious Ivy League, Cornell also has exceptional laboratory facilities.

Duke University

Duke University's programs in both biology and neuroscience are popular with undergraduates. Biology majors have a wide range of options for their major concentration, including genetics, marine biology, plant biology, pharmacology, cell and molecular biology, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, and animal behavior. The school's 7,000-acre forest and marine lab are frequently used for biological research. Also, Duke University's status as one of the nation's top medical schools further enhances opportunities for undergraduate biology majors. The program emphasizes hands-on research experiences, and the university is home to over 500 Principal Investigators—faculty scientists conducting research—in the biological and biomedical sciences.

Located in Durham, North Carolina, the university is part of the "research triangle" with nearby UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

Johns Hopkins University

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University has long been a leader in the biological sciences, and the university is home to 27 research laboratories in the field. Both the undergraduate biology and neuroscience majors offer a rigorous curriculum with plenty of opportunities for conducting research with graduate students and faculty members in biology, biophysics, chemistry, engineering, and the medical school. Indeed, JHU's programs in the biological sciences are bolstered significantly by the university's highly ranked medical school and its 2,300 full-time faculty members.

Harvard University

Harvard University, like many of the schools on this list, is home to a top-ranked medical school that expands the research opportunities for undergraduates. Through the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, students can choose a field of study in chemical and physical biology, human development and regenerative biology, human evolutionary biology, integrative biology, molecular and cellular biology, or neuroscience.

Harvard's location in Cambridge, Massachusetts, places it in close proximity to some of the nation's best hospitals and biotech companies, so students will find opportunities off campus as well as in Harvard's extensive research laboratories. Realize you'll need to be an exceptional student to be admitted: Harvard accepts only 5% of all applicants.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT often ranks #1 in the world for STEM fields, and the biology department faculty is home to three Nobel laureates, 33 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and four recipients of the National Medal of Science. Students will find a wealth of options for hands-on experience through MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), and some student researchers are invited to present their findings to the MIT community through the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Many of MIT's engineering fields are interdisciplinary, so aspiring biologists will find further opportunities through the institute's programs in biological engineering, chemistry and biology, and computer science and molecular biology. The institute's Cambridge location also places it near several biotech companies.

Stanford

In 2019, Stanford University's top-ranked Department of Biology moved into the state-of-the-art Bass Biology Research Building, a 133,000-square-foot facility with a range of wet labs and computational labs designed to foster collaboration between different areas of biological research. Partnerships are further enhanced by the building's proximity to the School of Medicine and the Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning.

Undergraduate biology majors have a choice of "tracks" including biochemistry/biophysics, computational biology, ecology and evolution, marine biology, microbes and immunity, neurobiology, and molecular/cellular/developmental. Students who wish to complete a substantial biological research project as part of their curriculum can apply to the honors program. Plenty of additional research opportunities can be found in the campus labs and at the Hopkins Marine Station. Stanford's location in California's Bay Area provides further research and internship opportunities off campus.

UC Berkeley

Molecular Biology is the most popular major at the University of California at Berkeley, with over 600 students earning a bachelor's degree annually. Aspiring biologists, however, will find plenty of other options at Berkeley, including majors in integrative biology, molecular environmental biology, genetics and plant biology, and microbial biology.

Within the undergraduate Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) program, the curriculum has five emphases: biochemistry and molecular biology; cell and developmental biology; genetics, genomics, and development; immunology and pathogenesis; and neurobiology. Research is a central part of the Berkeley undergraduate experience, and the university has many avenues for matching students with research opportunities.

UC San Diego

The University of California at San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences offers seven undergraduate majors: general biology; ecology, behavior and evolution; microbiology; bioinformatics; human biology; molecular and cell biology; and neurobiology. The university also offers a B.S. program in biochemistry/chemistry through the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and four options within the Department of Bioengineering.

UCSD has a robust undergraduate research program that fosters faculty-student collaborations, and biology majors will also find rewarding opportunities to conduct an international internship through the university's International Education Program. Strong students who want to gain teaching experience can apply to become Undergraduate Instructional Apprentices and Undergraduate Tutors. Students hoping to publish will find opportunities through Saltman Quarterly, the department's undergraduate journal focused on biology.

Yale University

The study of biology of Yale University spans many departments, including ecology and evolutionary biology; molecular, cellular and developmental biology; molecular biophysics and biochemistry; biomedical engineering; forestry and environmental science; and the School of Medicine. The university is also home to numerous centers, institutes, and programs focused on biology, including the Sackler Institute, Stem Cell Center, Chemical Biology Institute, Microbial Diversity Institute, and Nanobiology Institute.

Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale is one of the three Ivy League schools on this list. Biology majors will have a wealth of research opportunities both during the academic year and over the summer, but admission is remarkably selective, with a mere 6% acceptance rate.