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Many of these students are interested in medicine, but Reed also has a strong tradition of sending students to graduate school in biology. Among the 1,100 biology graduates for which the college has survey data — representing virtually all of its living biology graduates — almost 200 have Ph.D.s, a much higher percentage than at most colleges and universities. Reed's success in generating biologists reflects its commitment to undergraduate research. All seniors must complete an original research thesis to graduate. As the numbers of biology majors have swelled, requiring every student to do research has often meant accommodating five or six undergraduates in a single lab. Yet faculty members remain committed to the requirement, despite the strain on budgets and time. "The immediacy of the connection between students and faculty is critical in getting them to think like scientists," says professor Stephen Arch, who chairs the biology department. Most biology students agree that research is the highlight of their time at Reed, despite the rigors that senior projects can entail. "The faculty are so involved, the students are so involved. It's tremendously rewarding," says student Katherine Deland, who did research with professor Maryanne McClellan on the impact of steroid hormones on genetically programmed cell death. Hired for a year after graduation to continue her research in McClellan's laboratory, Deland is now looking to combine a law degree with a master's in public health. "I'll still be using my biology degree, but in a different way," she says.
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Reed senior Jan Liphardt has always felt torn between biology and the social sciences. "I grew up in different countries because my family moved around a lot, and I've always been interested in history and languages." Liphardt started Reed as a political philosophy major, but the summer after his first year he took an introductory biology class at Harvard and returned to Portland as a biology major. A few months later Liphardt began to research viral packaging in yeast, a topic that intrigued him and eventually became the focus of his senior research project. Still, he studied a wide range of subjects at Reed and, until recently, considered law as a possible career. However, an offer to continue his biology research as a graduate student at Cambridge University proved too good to turn down. Liphardt continues to think about ways to bridge
biology and law. "In Europe a patent lawyer is both a scientist and
a lawyer," he explains. "I hope to get my Ph.D. first and then
study law."
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Reed College student Katherine Deland (left) and
faculty advisor Maryanne McClellan are working together on a study of genetically
programmed cell death.
t Reed College — a small liberal arts college in a quiet suburb of
Portland, Oregon — resources for biology have grown gradually over the
past decade, and the size of the department has increased from eight to
ten faculty members. But the department has had to deal with the same inexorable
rise in enrollments as at other institutions — up almost 70 percent since
1986. 
At 
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