Hello, everyone!
I am an international student, and I've decided to apply to a grad school in the USA, so naturally I have some questions, mainly about choosing universities to apply to. I know, I will be able to get good GRE results and I am sure I will have good LORs. The problem is that I have some concerns regarding my research experience and about how my undergraduate university might affect my addmitance to some universities.
About research: At the moment (and for the past four months) I am working at the Institute of Organic Synthesis of my country, which, I think is the place to be for organic chemists here (as you might have guess from this, organic chemistry is the field I am interested in ). But I don't know how much of what I am doing can really be counted as research. I am mostly just performing chemical reactions I am told to, without much other input, and will really be starting my own research - my undergrad thesis - in about a month. So I doubt i could be able to get my name on any publications by the time applications are due.
Would this amount and type of experience (it will be approx. 8-9 months when I apply) be enough?
And about my current university: While I think the teaching here is good and this is the best place for chemistry students in my country, there are probably very, very few in the USA who have even heard of it, and I don't know how much worth a good LOR from here would have.
Despite all that, I think I could be successful anywhere (and I intend to try fo some of the best universities), but I don't know if adcomms would think the same.
So what do you think I should do? Perhaps contact the schools I want to apply to and ask them if I'm not wasting both my time and theirs?