alkylholic

Just got my official admissions letter by email from MIT.

According to the MIT prof. that emailed me, it's March 29th.

That's awesome to hear LOL

Got an email from a prof. at MIT telling me I'm in! Still awaiting the official response.

I did too (Yale).

This is an interesting topic! I think the content of the letter is more important than the reputation of the writer, but a strong reputation certainly won't hurt. I didn't get to see my letters, but prospective PIs who have read them told me things like "they were all highly impressed," or "I've heard amazing things about you," so I can only assume they were "great." Each of my letters writers knew me very well and praised me throughout the time we've known each other and have told me things like "you're a great scientist," or "you destroyed our classes." Whether it's unique or common in my undergrad school, based on some of the schools I've gotten into I have no complaints.

Awesome!

Just got into princeton via email!

Congrats! I hope I get a call soon.

Got into UCSD today. 7 more to go!

I think that will change soon. A friend of mine said most of responses start rolling in this month. Dont go off the deep end just yet!

Im assuming you applied for the chemistry track too. I haven't heard anything from them either, but based on the last years' threads, most notices came in January.

No, the profs. I'm interested in called me.

I got into Yale! I just need the interview.

I knew at a grad student at UC Irvine who had no research experience and mediocre GRE scores, so it's possible. It will however be more difficult.

My experience may be different, but I took and tutored in calculus-based physics and tutored in algebra-based physics and found little difference. Calculus-based physics derived equations with calculus and that's it - almost all the problems were done with algebra. I did find the calculus-based physics more "math-heavy," but again it was just basic algebra. As for physical chemistry, all we needed to be able to do was take integrals and derivatives - adapting it to the concepts came with practicing calculus. It's true modelling and molecular mechanics is important in medchem, but I knew someone who sucked at pchem and still did well in computational modelling research. I think most schools will care more about your research/internship experience than your physics and calculus if you're going into med chem or pharm. Having studied med chem, having a solid understanding of organic chem and chem bio will took me much further than pchem in this particular area. That being said though, doing poorly in these courses will drop your GPA, which can harm your chances in getting into grad school.

Got into UM Ann Arbor. Glad to see the acceptances beginning.

Fortunately, most of us seem well above average.

I knew a 1st year theoretical chemistry graduate student with similar stats (he was also international) that got into those places, but chose to go to UC Irvine. I think you'll be alright.

I heard Chapel Hill and Wisconsin, Madison have good programs (though i dont know if they specialize in nanoscience). I knew chem majors who got into their materials program with decent GPAs and chem research.

I just got my chem GRE scores; 840, 85%. Trivia and biochem questions got me. What are your guys' takes on it?

Thanks! I'll keep that it mind. I met with profs at Scripps and they didn't make a big deal about my nearly 1 year of experience given my other stats, but it can be demoralizing when comparing how much research others have done. On the other hand, it's something I can rectify as opposed to grades which are more set in stone. I have a solid direction for graduate school and strong knowledge of the field, including the profs who do it and I'd want to work for, which I'll certainly include in my statement. I've met with profs at Stanford and Berkeley in person too and along with the research they do, I'd love to work with them. I plan on meeting those in the east coast soon.

My SOP is two pages and the profs that read it had no issue with its length, though I think 2 pages is the maximum.

Fellow anteater? Cycloisomerizations and similar ring closing chemistry have always appealed to me and was what I was thinking of going into after the PhD. I still need to do more digging, but right now I really like what the Zhang group (UCSB) and Ferreira group (Colorado State) are doing. I'm also interested in C-H activation and is partly why I'm interested in the Du Bois group at Stanford, though I'm mainly interested in the types of complex molecules they tend to target. Could you clarify what you mean by "don't limit yourself to what you think you can achieve?" Where did you apply to?

Area of Interest: Organic synthesis (natural products, mainly alkaloids) 2 year Community College, GE Transfer 1 year UCI, Chemistry BS Overall GPA: 3.90, Majors GPA: 3.93 6x Graduate courses (5 organic, 1 inorganic) 10 months research in a Chem Bio/Organic/Materials lab, no publications 4x Awards/Honors -ACS POLYEd Undergraduate Award -Outstanding Senior in Chemistry -Phi Gamma Upsilon Honors -OC Chemistry Scholarship 4x LORs (from my PI and grad courses profs), all "stellar" according to one prospective prof who wanted them early. SOP is "quite good" according to another prospective professor. No GREs to report yet. For the PhD program, interested/considering: Scripps, Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, WashU, Princeton, UM Ann Arbor, UCSD, ETH Zurich. This is based solely on the professors there, not rank. I've met some professors in person and contacted most via email. My concern is my research experience. I'm considering getting an MS to gain more experience in catalysis at lower tier schools and trying again later if things don't work out.