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I am trying to collect as much data as I can to arrive at the most sensible goal. I was hoping I can get some stats of people for both success and unsuccessful results that includes their subject gre. I am sorry if I keep touching your nerve, I am just trying to get the most out of this forum so I don't get my hopes up, again. My other question previously stated was whether or not disclosing my subject gre score for universities that "strongly recommend" a subject gre would hurt my application? Or would a 43 percentile be better than none? Thanks in advance. @LI-S it would be great if you could post the older exams. Thank you.

I have a similar problem. I scored a 680 and I am not sure if I should include them for the "strongly recommended" universities. I saw on the Harvard website that the average score was over 850. Should I bother applying to that program even though they have amazing research groups? I am contemplating on retaking the subject gre, however, I graduated undergrad in 07 and a graduate in 09 (terminal masters) and work full time. I studied for 2 months reading text books, class notes, 4 practice exams, watching lectures from other schools, but a lot of the questions were esoteric. I've been trained to think critically and solve problems rather than memorize ideas that I can easily lookup. Thus, I am really worried that I may only improve slightly on the second exam (maybe slightly higher than ～50 percentile). Or worse... If i retake the exam, would it be better to hold off until I get the results for the second exam and slow down my application process? Or submit my applications ASAP? I saw some post regarding "very good schools" and "very poor" gre subject score. Would you mind defining what that means? The schools I am interested in are Yale, northwestern, Harvard, uc irvine, uc San fran, uc Santa barb, purdue west Lafayette, u of wis madison. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Synorg-> thanks again for your insight. I really find your advice to be very helpful. I've been spending a couple of hours every night looking for a university that conducts research that I find would be a good fit for me. However, the university conducting research that I am interested in is at Harvard, Yale, and Northwestern so far. I've been going through the list of schools I read about though the ACS, however, I am having difficulty finding a mid tier university that makes the news. I plan on continuing my search everyday until I find at least 5 more universities conducting research that best fits me and my career goal. I understand that every organic chemistry program will have a faculty conducting research in pharma. However, I am surprised at having such a high attrition rate for finding a faculty conducting in a chemistry based pharma research(rather than the bio based ones). So far I looked at UIC, UCLA, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, University of Notre dame, University of NC C Hill, Scripps, UIUC, Northwestern, Yale, University of Chicago and maybe a few more (I don't have the list with me) I plan on going through some of your list through the week. Thanks again for your list because I only had about 5 more school to look into on my own.

Can someone suggest some universities that deals with pharmaceutical research with an emphasis in organic chemistry? So far the schools I am interested are ranked in the top 15 and I'm not sure if my credentials are strong enough to gain acceptance.

Symmetry of imperfection -> thanks for the heads up, that is something I'm going to look into. Prolixity-> thanks for the positive feedback. I'm running a little low in self esteem lately with the economy being the way it is.

synorg -> thanks for the comment, you make a good point. When you say choose between physical/synthetic organic vs. polymers/material, aren't they the same? I'll spend some time looking into research at various programs. Process chemist -> I'm a little insecure because of my lower subject gre score. I would like to do research at a top university so I can be involved in an applied research environment to continue to develop my career. Do you have any suggestions on which schools to look into with my credentials? I would like to apply for top universities, but I'm not sure my stats are strong enough to get in. I am starting to feel like pedigree matters in the industry. Especially with the surplus of phd students I don't just want a degree, but rather a chance to leep frog my career. Thanks again for all the insight, I really appreciate them.

Hello, I currently work for a biotechnology company related to polymer particles. I am planning on going back to school for a phd in chemistry. My stats: Undergraduate gpa 3.3 at Illinois state university Masters gpa 3.9 isu studying physical organic chemistry. Synthetic and analytical experience. 6 years of research exp total 2+ years of industrial exp. Gre over 1200 Subject gre 680 I'm coming from a mid level university with a good gpa, but I'm not sure what schools I would be accepted at. I am interested in organic chemistry, and want to do research in pharmaceuticals. After looking through a lot of the advice on this thread, I became overwhelmed and confused. Can someone help guide me to a school that might suite my needs? Thank you.