Eigen

From what I understand, it's not a big deal whether the degree was earned online or not, but where the degree was earned. If you get a degree online through an otherwise known/reputable/brick and mortar school, it shouldn't be a big deal. If you get a degree online from a for-profit degree mill, it will look bad.

The physics background isn't such a big deal... We have several people in our department with physics undergraduates, and even one with an ABD physics PhD that started the same year I did. They seem to fit into our physical groups really well, some on the experimental end and some on the theory end. The grades, however, I'd worry about. And I'm not sure about the MS to bring them up, there aren't many "good" places to get an MS in the USA... Not a big focus on terminal masters programs, and very little funding for them. You might be better off to swap to go back and take some Chem classes and work on a second major- it would let you bring your undergrad GPA up, get some more research experience, and take the relevant Chem classes for your interests. Just a suggestion. A 2.3 can be pretty hard to recover from, though, especially since a lot of schools have a pretty hard 3.0 miniumum.

If you've been reading journal articles in the area, then you don't need to ask... You already know. Look at the last author on the paper. Look at the school affiliation. Voila! You know what schools to apply to.

I fail to see how you designing catalysts (I'm assuming you're an Org Synth person) rules out a significant portion of modern catalyst design being done in organometallic and inorganic groups. I'm just telling the OP to not limit his search if that's what he's interested in. But I agree, this thread is not the place for the debate.

The ones I'm talking about are 15+ hour drives apart and mostly fly, so it still applies. Apparently if you book well in advance and frequently, the combination of bonus miles and cheap fairs makes it fairly reasonable. A lot of it depends on how close you are to major airports, though, I guess. It all depends on priorities, what funds you have available, and other things... But it's definitely possible. If you can get tickets that are around $300, you're talking about around $3600 a year... Or around 10,800 over the three years you'll be separated. It's a lot, but could very well be worth it. If your spouse is working, and you have a decent assistantship, and you budget it in, it's certainly doable. I'll also add that in most cases, you can probably work it out to take a few extended stays at home- there are always times you need to be writing, working up data, etc. I know one friend that has worked out some collaborations at the university where his SO is, so he can take an extra few weeks around Christmas/Summer, and do some work through labs up there. And this is in the lab sciences, so much harder to work from a distance.

Slacker!

On the other hand, it's only 3 years. And you'll be able to go visit. Almost half of my department is doing long distance relationships, most work it out so they can go back and visit every 3-4 weeks. And I assume from your post that when he finishes in 3 years he'll be able to move and join you? I understand the reluctance at being separated, but it's not like you're going into a permanent separation, or won't be able to see each other quite often.

Like I said, it's why I ended up where I am. The chance for a possible better placement rate in the future (if everything went well) wasn't worth 5-8 miserable years working 80-100 hour weeks for me. I'm much happier somewhere I can work at the pace that suites me best for that particular week/month, and still have decent access to facilities/funds/etc.

I know my wife and I will do a year or two apart in the future, possibly more... We're both in PhD programs, she started a year behind me, and her program is a year longer. I'll be working on my post-docs when she's finishing up (2 years or so) and then ideally she can get a post-doc at the same place... If not, it'll be a longer separation than 2 years. But we've been married for almost 5 years now, and we both are good at writing/calling when we aren't together... I'm not thinking it will be wonderful, but I think we can definitely get through it OK.

I'd say 60-85, but it really depends on the week. Sometimes I'll work a string of 14 hour days, sometimes I'll take a few days off and play catchup on paperwork and such. I'll also note, however, that most people won't count Teaching/Classes/Homework in how much they "work" each week... I know all of my peers and I only count the time we're actually in lab and/or writing manuscripts/catching up on reading papers. I probably only did 40-65 hours when I was in classes, though, most weeks. I'm not at a top-10 school, though, so things are a lot more relaxed. I have friends at top-10 programs who have their professors regularly come by the labs at 9pm on a Friday night just so they can note who isn't there. Such programs usually expect around 80 hours per week on top of teaching, classes, homework, etc. I know I interviewed at a couple of programs that expected you to work 12+ hour days all week and maybe, maybe take one weekend day per month off. There's a reason I'm not at those programs. I put in the work on a regular basis, but it's nice that I'm doing it from my drive and not because my PI demands it.

Actually, I mean both. And probably more on heterogenous catalysts than homogenous catalysts, as there are more catalytic metal based compounds that do better in aqueous solutions than the organic solvents usually used for organic synth. For that matter, don't rule out straight inorganic synth groups if you're interested in catalyst development.

I've had Chase for like 15 years now, and have been consistently satisfied.

If you're interested in catalyst development, don't rule out organometallic synth groups... They're the ones developing the majority of the catalysts nowdays.

Depends on the field, the program, and the university. I know some that look at all the scores you have on records, and I've heard of some that just take the highest set. I have yet to hear of any that will mix and match the highest score on each section from several tests, however.

I would say you stand right on the fence: some places you will not be able to get in because of hard and fast minimum undergraduate GPA requirements (usually 3.0). These can sometimes be waived, but require action above the department level to do so. There are cases you can find on the board of people who were both successful and unsuccessful in this. On the other hand, there are plenty of schools without hard and fast minimum GPA requirements who will think your masters work and work experience makes you an extremely attractive candidate. Just do your research on the schools you want to apply to, and if you come across one with a stated minimum GPA for the graduate school, send an e-mail to ask the chances of waiving it due to your masters work.

You getting out of paying it simply ups the interest and difficulty of acquiring loans for all those who come behind you. And in the case of federal loans, all of us who pay taxes have already subsidized your education, and will be on the hook for it if you skip out on paying it as you intend to try to. It's not the fault of the person who loaned you the money that you borrowed more than you can afford to pay back... It's not like it's a mystery or hard to figure out what the minimum payments will be or when you are required to start paying them. It is also not their fault that you chose to use the loan to pay large sums of money for an undergraduate degree that wasn't worth it. Instead of advising people to "trick the system", it would be better to advise them to choose wisely when it comes to going very far into debt for an education, and to be wary of the quality of their institution and how well the degree they receive will allow them to pay it back. I do think that it's amazing that after having this problem with debt for your bachelors that you're intending to pile even more money on top of it for a masters.

Just a note: Do you like synthesis, or do you like total synthesis? Because total synthesis is a brutal, competitive and somewhat shrinking field. But there are plenty of places you can do organic synthesis, just in a more directed approach with more applications. Something to think about. Other than that, I'd say your stats look pretty good overall, although perhaps a bit light on the length of time spent with research- there's nothing you can do about that now, though.

So are you one of the chemists, or one of the biologists? The structure is actually pretty close to how our group is divided up, with the cavaette that we all have to pitch in on other parts if needed. For your dissertation, I don't think it would be much of a problem... Either end that you describe is significant enough to make a story out of.

Take this with a grain of salt, as I'm in the sciences: For us, there's a threshold. A second or third tier journal publication is fine, anything much lower than that and it's not always beneficial. Are these all peer-reviewed publications?+

I'm going to refer some of your questions to the CHE thread on CVs: Lots of good advice in there. It's mostly aimed for higher level CVs, but it can certainly give you a good feel for how different fields react to different things on CVs. It's mostly focused on what not to do, and can be quite helpful in avoiding some obvious slip-ups. http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,39038.0.html

For CVs where you don't have a lot of pubs or presentations, I'd add a section titled "experience" under which you can put leadership, teaching and research, with more detail on what, specifically, you can do in a research lab.... Instruments you can use, techniques, etc.

I'll add that the 10% acceptance rate doesn't really explain the true competitiveness of the award... There's a lot of self-selection in who applies. You should definitely start thinking up research projects now... But you'll need to tailor it to some school you've been accepted to, so you can discuss the infrastucture that will allow you to complete said project. Once you get the fellowship, though, you don't have to complete it.

We had to do a very similar thing as first semester PhD students, it wasn't an official class... But a series of evening presentations. I agree, it was really helpful. I think a lot of how early PIs start sizing up students depends on how early the students are expected to settle into groups. In our program, you have to have chosen your final group by the last day of your first semester, so things start fast.

I know our PI's start sizing up incoming students during applications, and definitely during campus visits. I usually take potential students out, and I know my PI and several others usually ask my opinion of the incoming students.

Just going to go ahead and note that $600-$900 per month in rent isn't close to "one of the most expensive places to live", in fact that seems pretty much average in most reasonably sizable cities. I pay more than that now, and I know people that pay almost twice as much as I do in some of the really high cost of living areas. There are some places that will be lower, but it's definitely not really high cost of living either.