Catawba College News Service

SALISBURY — Catawba College is ranked No. 6 in a “Top Colleges for Biology Majors in North Carolina” list created by Zippia, a website dedicated to helping people find and pursue the right career.

Zippia compiled the Top 10 list by looking at data on North Carolina colleges and universities to determine which programs offer the best career opportunities for biology majors.

Catawba trails the top five, which include Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, Wake Forest University and UNC-Wilmington. Other colleges making the Top 10 include Wingate University, Elon University, UNC-Charlotte and Western Carolina University.

Zippia looked at data from the National Center for Education Statistics and ED.gov to determine which biology departments offer the best career opportunities. Data included career results, mean earnings after six years, mean earnings after 10 years, ratio of people working to not working after 10 years, percentage of graduates who are biology majors, school performance, admissions rate, graduation rate, average cost of attendance and median amount of debt.

With this data in hand, Zippia looked at the schools with biology majors and ranked each school for each of the criteria above, with a 1 being the best in any given criteria.

Zippia averaged the rankings for each school to create a “biology quality index.” The school with the best score on the index — Duke University — was designated the best college for biology majors in North Carolina.

To view the rankings, visit www.zippia.com/biology-major/#best-biology-colleges-in-north-carolina.