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Learning
Science By Doing Science
- If you decide to
become a Hope College science student, you will have the option to major
in one or more of our eight departments: Biology, Chemistry, Computer
Science, Engineering, Geological & Environmental Sciences, Mathematics,
Nursing and Physics. Or you can create a composite major from different
departments. With a Bachelors of Science or a Bachelors of Arts degree
from Hope College, you will be well prepared for graduate school for
an advanced degree, or professional training in education, medicine,
dentistry, health professions, law school, for example. Or like many
of our graduates, you could go directly into the job market.
- At Hope College
you will Learn Science By Doing Science! This might involve
undergraduate research opportunities with state-of-the-art research
instrumentation in a laboratory setting. You will certainly spend many
hours in a teaching laboratory supervised by a faculty member. Even
our non-majors courses require a hands-on laboratory component involving
scientific observation and discovery.
- At Hope College,
we place an emphasis on student-faculty collaborative research. This
is the long-standing hallmark of the Natural Sciences Division and it
leads to many science students choosing Hope over institutions where
graduate student research is the focus. For example, over 50% of the
space here is devoted to student-faculty research. Funded by many external
grants, last summer we had more than 170 science students doing research
at Hope College. If you do summer research with us, you will get paid
about $3600 for 10 weeks in the summer. The summer research experience
involves intense work in the labs during the days, while evenings are
often spent out at the beach and attending various social events. For
the past two years, Hope College has been the only Liberal Arts college
in the country with 6 Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs
funded by the National Science Foundation
- Another result
of this unique emphasis on research is the extensive array of cutting-edge
research equipment routinely operated by undergraduates and their faculty
mentors. This instrumentation is used not only in our research labs
but in our teaching as well. You will become a scientist by "doing
science." For example, if you are preparing for a career in medicine,
you will actually have hands-on experience with sophisticated instrumentation
before you reach medical school. If you go into education as a career,
you will leave Hope College with enough practical experience to teach
others with confidence and enthusiasm.
- The faculty has
a diverse array of research interests. Check out each professor's specific
concentrations here!
- You will find there
is extensive faculty - student interaction at Hope College. Classes
are kept small; labs have no more than 24 students and are taught by
a faculty member. Research experiences are built around small teams
working closely with their faculty mentor. Faculty are readily available
outside of class for advising, homework help and preparing research
results for presentation.
- Being a Christian
institution, you will find that students at Hope College will freely
discuss how and why they pursue science and the impact of science on
society.
- Bottom line:
When you graduate from Hope College as a science major, you will be
in demand! Graduate schools, industrial and government labs seek our
science graduates to the extent that in all departments guest speakers
visit regularly at their own expense to recruit our seniors. Check out
our many prominent science alumni on our web site
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