National Recognition

Nearly 40 percent of all St. Olaf students pursue a major or concentration in natural science or mathematics. Among the nation’s baccalaureate-liberal arts colleges, St. Olaf College has the highest number of graduates who earn mathematics and statistics Ph.D.s, and ranks in the top 10 for several other scientific disciplines.

• St. Olaf has received five consecutive Howard Hughes Medical Institute grants, for a total of $4.5 million.
• The National Science Foundation has selected St. Olaf as one of four sites nationally for a $1.3 million grant to enhance the statistics workforce in the 21st century, the only liberal arts college to be honored.
• St. Olaf is recognized as a leader in the national “green science” movement. The Keck Foundation, known for its funding of only the most innovative proposals, awarded St. Olaf a $500,000 grant for the implementation of “green chemistry” throughout the chemistry curriculum.
• The Kresge Foundation Green Building Initiative awarded St. Olaf a $100,000 grant to design sustainable features into Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• The Kresge Foundation Science Initiative awarded St. Olaf a $440,000 challenge grant to enable St. Olaf students’ continued access to modern scientific instrumentation.

According to the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates, St. Olaf ranks 8th overall among baccalaureate colleges in the number of graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees. St. Olaf ranks 1st in degrees earned in mathematics and statistics; 3rd in physical sciences; 4th in chemistry; 5th in engineering and medical sciences; 6th in life sciences; and 8th in biological science and physics.

In Minnesota, only the University of Minnesota — an institution with an undergraduate population ten times that of St. Olaf — grants more bachelors degrees in mathematics and the physical sciences.