Top 50 Schools That Produce Science PhDs

(MoneyWatch)  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

1. Cal Tech
2. Harvey Mudd College
3. MIT
4. Reed College
5. Swarthmore College
6. Carleton College
7. University of Chicago
8. Grinnell College
9. Rice University
10. Princeton University
11. Harvard University
12. Bryn Mawr College
13. Haverford College
14. Pomona College
15. New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
16. Williams College
17. Yale Univeristy
18. Oberlin College
19. Stanford University
20. Johns Hopkins University
21. Kalamazoo College
22. Cornell University
23. Case Western Reserve
24. Washington College
25. Brown University
26. Wesleyan University
27. Carnegie Mellon University
28. Macalester College
29. Amherst College
30. Duke University
31. Beloit College (My son's school.)
32. Bowdoin Collge
33. Wellesley College
34. Renssenlaer Polytechnic Institute
35. Earlham College
36. Franklin and Marshall College
37. Lawrence University
38. University of Rochester
39. University of California-Berkeley
40. Dartmouth College
41. Occidental College
42. Hendrix College
43. Vassar College
44. Trinity University
45. College of William and Mary
46. St. John's College
47. Bates College
48. Whitman College
49. Brandeis University
50. Hampshire College

Only three state universities cracked the top 50 PhD list and only two of them are well known: University of California, Berkeley, and College of William & Mary. The third is a head scratcher: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology!

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.