After some, um,
encouragement to look somewhere other than Harvard (and other
helpful commenters who found other sites), I was able to get some numbers on what
other major chemistry departments are seeing as far as corporate recruiting. The results are tabulated above, with MIT coming out ahead by a nose with 14 companies coming to visit.
A potentially interesting note: it's not much of a surprise to see a corporate recruiter visit both Harvard and MIT -- you've just flown across the country, so why not visit both institutions? But for a company to visit either (or both) Boston school(s) and Stanford shows a certain level of commitment to finding people; in no particular order, those companies are Amgen, Dow, Dupont, Genentech, Lilly and Novartis. Have at, folks.
P.S.
bad wolf suggests looking at both UC-Irvine and UIUC and the commenters respond!
A8:52p
responds for UC-Irvine: "Recruiting at Irvine has gone downhill recently, mirroring other top-notch organic programs. Prior to Merger Mania, something like 40 companies (Pharma and Biotech) showed up to campus. From 2005-2007, the number of recruiters hovered around 25-30. After the economy tanked, the number dropped to around 12. I wouldn't be surprised if Irvine is looking at single digits this year. Like at other places, the postdocs and super-ambitious senior grad students are probably trying to pull every trick up their sleeves to secure an onsite interview."
A7:53a
reports some UIUC RUMINT: "I had an interesting discussion with the chair of UIUC's department today at lunch (he was visiting/speaking at my department). He said that they usually have 8-10 companies on campus recruiting throughout the fall/winter and that this year is about the same. I found this particularly interesting considering the fact that my department, Emory University, has 0 lined up."
