Top Undergrad Schools for Ph.Ds in Science & Engineering

What is one of the measures of the quality of an undergraduate education at a college? How many people go on to achieve the highest (terminal) degrees. There’s a reason.

Undergraduate schools that generate a lot of Ph.Ds tend to be “core” undergraduate schools. They are the places that graduate schools seek out for the best and brightest students upon which they build their graduate programs.

What’s a Ph.D, and why would I want one?  MONEY, for starters. In most occupations, it’s a big double-digit boost in your lifetime earning power.  You will also be considered to be one of the leading experts in whatever field you pursue, which can mean more perqs and benefits, and a generally improved experience of your work world.  It can also lead to more challenging kinds of work. People with their Ph.Ds are often at the forefront of breakthroughs in the sciences. Top performing artists with their doctoral degrees land good academic gigs backstopping their creative efforts.

Here is a “list of lists”  that we’ve compiled from a few top lists of undergraduate programs that produce the most Ph.Ds in the sciences and in engineering.  (Links are to programs that we have reviewed specifically for performing arts school students)

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. Ressenlaer 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 College
47. Bates College
48. Whitman College
49. Brandeis University
50. Hampshire College