ChemHopeful

i was deciding between organic synthesis and pchem, and between ucla, ucsd and northwestern. i ultimately went with pchem and NU. it was a tough choice. there was a lot to like about ucla and ucsd

sounds like you have weather and money on the one hand and (maybe?) prestige on the other. im not sure how much stock i would put in each school's evaluation of the other. it's hard to imagine why the one school would be so negative about the other. what is wrong with newly hired professors? if theyve been publishing a lot/doing good work this shouldnt be something to worry about too much. also, "interdisciplinary studies" is apparently par for the course these days. you'll hear it everywhere it's hard to make a judgment without knowing the specifics or even your field of study, but i would go with school A just based on the money and location. this is 5 years of your life, after all

in my application process and visits, i was told time and time again that the school i choose should have at least 2 (no not 2, 3! at least 3!) professors for whom i would be happy to work. that said, if you can work in a professor's group in the summer, you will probably get in in the fall, so maybe it would be ok to make an exception here i would not hesitate to contact current or former group members. their input matters especially in a big group, where you learn from the senior grads and post-docs much more than from your PI

well, the school in question just rejected me today. problem solved!

berkeley rejected me by email today

im facing the same problem as i search for a job for this spring/summer. ive looked at a few jobs where they were looking for a chemistry BS with no experience necessary, but they were obviously also looking for a long-term hire. i have been up-front about the fact that i am going to grad school this fall, even though it closes a lot of doors for me. while it's true that a new hire could leave a company after only 5 months for completely aboveboard reasons, i dont feel it would be ethical to hide my plans from them. i wouldn't judge someone else doing it, but would feel much too dirty about it myself for your specific situation, unless it really is your intention to bank the couple months' work between now and august, i would tell them about it. you'll know within a month whether you're into grad school or not, and i'm sure they would be willing to wait that long if this isn't just some entry-level position.

man purse

Would you wait all the way up to april ("All decisions will be sent out by april") for a school to accept you, or would you decide on schools you had actually had a chance to visit by then? would you wait until april 14? i realize it's still pretty early in march, but the "most prestigious" of my schools has not sent any word back. theoretically one would visit the schools they did get into, explore their options thoroughly and make a decision... and then drop it all and jump on a waitlist offer from a school they havent spent any time investigating? late acceptances almost seem like table scraps... you only get in because the better students turned the slot down. i definitely wouldnt turn my nose up at a late accept if it was far and away a better choice than anything else i had going, but when the decision is fairly close it feels very weird to work around an unknown like that

How grown up are you feeling right now? Because the advice I was given (aside from that TSRI is an excellent institution) is that going there would be more like going to a job than continuing the college experience. There are no undergraduates there, no undie run etc etc Both would be a good starting point for the kind of career you want. I am also interested in UCSD and I saw on their chemistry page that about 65% of their phds go on to work in academia. Maybe that just means they cant find a job so they all become post-docs

i got my first rejection today, from Caltech

i heard back from northwestern, ucsd, and csu in january waiting on scripps, ucla, ucb, caltech, usc, and columbia

I wouldn't advise you do this. Plenty of students bring home a 3.7+ without any hi-jinks and the recruiters know this. I would downplay your GPA and offer some apology for it, not try to cast aspersions on other people's GPAs or get defiant about it. You'd be better inferring that the 3.1 gpa you have is not an accurate reflection of your ability than saying that you earned it fair and square. If you can point to a high subject GRE score or As in your upper level courses, that would help As for the OP, a 3.5 and some B+s won't close any doors. What you can do now is try to get As in your chemistry courses from now on and make sure you have some good undergraduate research experience. Your letters of recommendation will be crucial, as well

i would say you'd better have a good feel for what group(s) you might be working with before you apply. UTD is just off most people's radar. for instance, http://www.organiclinks.net/ is a good guide for students looking to pursue organic work and no one from UTD makes the list. that doesn't mean you won't find a great advisor or do meaningful research there, but you are probably going to have to evaluate your future adviser on your own. i know of at least one professor there who would be great to work with for computational chemistry

I am applying to 9 schools even after reading up online and talking to people i still dont have a good feel for how likely my acceptance at these schools is. if it were as easy as the push of a button, i probably would have applied to 30