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According to an analysis by the National Science Foundation, 41 percent of the people who received their biology Ph.D.s in a recent five-year period earned their bachelor's degrees from 70 leading research-intensive colleges. Next on the list were other doctorate-granting institutions, comprehensive institutions, liberal arts colleges, and specialized institutions (such as engineering schools and military academies). Liberal arts colleges accounted for only 8 percent of the undergraduates in four-year colleges and universities but for nearly twice as many of the eventual Ph.D.s. The same study revealed the special importance of several types of institutions. Among African Americans who earned Ph.D.s in the biological sciences, for instance, 42 percent attended historically black colleges and universities as undergraduates. Also, of the 12,334 people who received biology doctorates between 1987 and 1990, 1,073, or 9 percent, began their undergraduate education at two-year colleges.
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hat kinds of undergraduate institutions are most likely to produce graduates
who go on to earn doctorates in biology? Research universities and liberal
arts colleges produce the most per capita. But other doctorate-granting
institutions and comprehensive institutions also graduate sizable numbers
of future biology Ph.D.s. 
| Type of Institution Attended by Students at Four-Year Colleges or Universities. | Type of Institution Attended as Undergraduates by Biology Ph.D.s. |
Source: National Science Foundation, "Undergraduate Origins of Recent Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients" (Washington, D.C., 1992).
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