Eigen

Oh yeah, we have a lot of runners to. Lots of marathons/half marathons here, about 10-15 people in our department run them together pretty regularly.

If all you want to do is teach (especially at a 4 year school), you don't necessarily need a PhD- you could get an instructor level position with a MS. This is especially common in Math, it seems like- and I know at least ULL (I see you're in Louisiana) recruits quite a few teachers with masters to cover all the lower level (Calc 1 and below) courses. Psychology is going to be a lot more competitive- both to get into grad school, and to find a position to teach. You're going to need to finish up a psych degree, and then do a PhD, and then probably do at least one post-doc before you'll find a teaching position. I think the big question is what are you interested in teaching? If you're passionate about something, it's doable... But teaching the same courses over and over each year, you'll need to really enjoy the subject material to keep going. Not to mention the 6-10 years before you even start teaching.

Our department does a good many city-league and school sponsored club sports- we have a basketball team, soccer team, flag football team, softball team, and volleyball team. As to experience level... Each team has people that have played for years, and people that had never played at all. They are all of the "get a group together, pay a fee" type, so no trying out. Some schools won't let graduate students play on intramural teams, it just depends on the rules and regs- and if there are enough graduate and professional students to complain if they aren't allowed to play.

I also do a lot of dropping by later to clear stuff up, after I've had a chance to do some research on my own.

This. I make sure I'm home for dinners with my wife (although I may go back after she goes to sleep), and I try to take the weekends off as much as possible. I really try to set a schedule for when I'm going to work and stick to it- a solid 8-12 hours a day, and weekends only if I have something that has to be done (cells that will die if not treated, etc). Procrastinating/not working during the day, however, is another matter. I know there's always more I can pack in, if I go without getting online at all, don't take a break to get coffee or chat with my peers, eat lunch at my desk while I work, etc.

I ask my advisor to repeat himself all the time- he rattles off long lists of names, dates, articles, etc- often faster than I can take notes on them.

It is a risk, but there was a recent discussion (this was for hiring TT faculty) on the CHE forums where a search committee was explaining their criteria- and they said they didn't offer the job to one candidate because the head of his graduate department was the doctoral advisor to one of the SC members... And he didn't mention the connection, or have his department chair reach out personally. The reasoning being that either he didn't do his research about the members of the SC/faculty at the department to which he was applying, or that the dept head wouldn't have made the call due to a less than stellar relationship between the two. The other side of the risk is that some faculty members view it as improper for personal contacts to be made during job searches/applications. If it were me, I'd get him to call- I think the risk is well worth it, and if he's an older researcher, he probably knows how to make it carefully and tactfully- and wouldn't have offered if he didn't think it would help.

Are we talking the one-to-one meetings with, say a boss or committee member? Where you're so overwhelmed with information that you can't take notes fast enough? Or normal conversations with peers, etc? I think everyone has to ask someone to repeat themselves occasionally, but I wouldn't say it's hugely common.

People tell their advisors they're too busy for things? For several weeks at a time? That's not how I've seen the boss -> employee relationship work. My boss knows that I've got 4 or 5 projects I'm juggling, but if he asks me to do something and it's important/time sensitive, I push something to the back burner to make time for it. Or I have a really, really busy week. I mean, I could see telling him my plate is full and I'll try to work his new request in ASAP, but... Is this because your boss is overloading you with projects/changing priorities? IE, giving you one project, then telling you he has another he needs you to look at? Or is this project time for your boss vs. coursework, etc.

I had the same problem- I came from a traditional org. synth background (since it was the closest our school had to Med Chem), but I just said that the biological interactions were what had always interested me, and in the absence of any direct research, I opted for experience that would broaden my synthetic background as a means of preparation. I didn't have any problems telling that to any of the potential prof's I met.

Absolutely. Research potential PIs, and know what they're working on so you can talk to them intelligently. Medicinal chem is the area I'm in- since you couple it with natural products, I'm guessing you're more interested in traditional pharmaceuticals rather than biopharmaceuticals. I'd check Vanderbilt- nice chem department, good school, and a nice mix of natural product and med chem research. If you're really interested in medicinal chem, you'll want to pick a school that has an attached medical school, and one that is reasonable close (ie, not like Penn State, where the medical campus is close to 2 hours away). I spend about half my time at our medical school testing the compounds we make, and being able to easily get collaborations with pharmacology labs and other biomedical people helps a lot. Vanderbilt was especially nice for that- the chem department is right across the street from the med school, and a decent number of the faculty are dual appointed. Northwestern had traditionally had a lot of natural products labs- Silverman is still there, I think, and he does quite a bit with medicinally active natural products. If you aren't already, join the ACS... Student memberships are cheap... And join the Division of Medicinal Chem- good yearly publication you get with your membership (annual reports in medicinal chemistry). Feel free to PM me if you'd like more specific advice.

Advisor is what I've seen as most common.

Absolutely true. Most of my info is based on recent experiences (the department where I'm a grad student just went through the process of filling a TT position), so I'm probably a bit biased based on the search committees results (we got to meet the top 6 personally). The process is extremely competitive- I just have had friends go to more prestigious universities only to end up working with junior faculty who can't really boost their careers as much as a senior faculty member at a lower ranked institution might be able to (I stress might, it entirely depends). One of the best ways to find out is to ask the department point blank where their past students have gotten academic positions. See how many have made it to TT positions at R1 schools, etc. It can really be a helpful metric. I found that of the schools I had to choose between, the one ranked #12 (at the time) had a much worse track record of faculty placements than one that was ranked ~#60-100, depending on where you look. The difference was a few very influential senior faculty (editors for journals, etc) that pulled the strings to get people positions. Also be really careful with ranking systems in the sciences- the last 5-6 years have shown a huge bias for larger programs over smaller ones due to the ranking being determined by overall funding vs. per capita funding- get some funding figures and compare for yourself.

I think it's also really important to differentiate between STEM fields and non when you're talking about how important name is. I think they're a lot more important outside the STEM fields than within them.

I think these distinctions are more important when you're, say, comparing top 10 schools to sub 150 ranked schools. Most of even the top 50-75 schools are going to be known pretty well, depending on who you choose to work with. And if you're comparing a #9 school to a #29 school, both are likely to have cutting edge research, good funding for graduate students, good conference attendance, and an international alumni base. Looking at funding is always important- how many NSF career awards, NSF/NIH (insert your funding agency of choice here) grants? How many students on prestigious external fellowships? How many editorships in well known journals within the department? Looking at the seminar speakers can also be quite helpful- if you're pulling a lot of top names for speakers, that means your department has the pull, collaborations, or personal relationships to get those people to come visit. But asking personal questions to potential advisers is also really helpful- if they have tight relationships with big names at other schools, that's really important. It doesn't matter that there's some other prestigious professor in your department (or at the university) if you're not personally working with them enough to get recommendations/referrals from them. I have two prof's who both went to top 10 programs.... And both say that if they had to do it over again, they'd have gone to a smaller program for their PhD and gone to the top 10 institution for a post-doc.

Also depends if you want to stay in academia or not. In the sciences, at least, ranking is important... But the ranking of your post-doc is much more important than your PhD. So go to that small friendly department (that's not too horribly ranked), make good connections, do good work, and do a post-doc or two with a big name boss at a big name university. I'll also note that who you did your PhD with is often way more important than where you did it- if you happen to work for a lesser known prof at a really well known school, that can often put you behind someone who worked for a well known prof at a lesser known university. And when it comes to industry, I think the school name matters, but not often so much by how they're ranked. Some schools are known for good collaborations with industry, and that's more important than being a "top 5" school. Similarly, it's more important that your research was noteworthy than that you went to a big school. What I've been told is to not completely discount rankings, but go where you'll be happy. Do well, get lots of publications, and put in your time networking, and you'll probably do fine. I went to the lowest ranked school of the three I was accepted to- it was the best fit. And my boss here is well connected to big names in our field, which means if I do really well, I can probably get a post-doc with some of the top names in the field. And that will go a lot farther than getting my degree from a "higher ranked" university.

I took my wife to all of my graduate school interviews... I paid for the extra airfare (if applicable), but she was invited to the dinners I had with the faculty members, etc. She obviously didn't come to my interviews at the department, but it gave her a good chance to look around the school and the city. I found the prospective faculty seemed to like it as well- it gave several of them a chance to bring their spouses to the dinners, and made the whole thing more congenial. I was, however, married- which might have effected it to some degree.

I've also learned (from getting passed down notebooks that make no sense whatsoever) that the notes you make in lab books need to be understandable to someone else, without you there to explain them. Hence, designating what reaction/sample you're working on, brief explanation of mechanisms/theories, etc. Also helps a lot when you're going back to notes that are 3 years old and trying to write something detailed from them.

I use Endnote to organize all my papers. Past that, I keep a lab notebook for my Synthetic work, and another notebook for my biological work. I record all my notes, observations, amounts, calculations, etc in these. Each project I'm working on has a 3 ring binder with 5 dividers, in which I keep relevant notes, paper segments, and all the hard-copied data from that project (instrument printouts, spectra, etc). When I reach a mid-finish point in a project, or segment of one, I type up all my experimental procedures, data, etc. I also try to do semi-regular typed progress reports with experimental sections, future aims, spectra, etc.

Very few MS programs are funded at all, much less fully funded. I can't off the top of my head think of a fully funded MS program, and in fact our school actively attempts to discourage MS students. I'd wait until you've refined your research interests and gotten more experience before you start making a list of target schools. Especially get recommendations from prof's you do research with, they might know people somewhere that will make it easier for you. They'll help, but not compared to what you need (IMO). Put the time into research. I agree. If you can't get funding somewhere, you shouldn't be going there. Either it's too much of a "reach" school for you, and they're looking for a bit of extra funding via your tuition, or the school itself isn't well funded. NRCS rankings just came out for this year, they're a good place to start. This site is probably the best on statistics. Most schools probably accept 1/10 or thereabouts- some more, some less. No idea. Again, check the NRCS rankings- most have average graduation time and attrition rate. The 50% stats are pretty common across schools, though. Very school dependent. Ours funds for at least 7 years, and on after that depending on the PI. Most programs run off of PI based funding, so it depends not only on the department and the school, but also your boss. I stayed a 5th year to finish writing my undergraduate thesis, and I know that helped a ton getting into grad school- it was a full year spent doing a lot of research, and resulted in better letters of rec, as well as more research experience/a publication for my CV. Grades don't matter that much, but research matters a lot. We have several students that were close to 3.0 averages as undergrads, but they all had several years of research experience and stellar LoRs. On the other hand, good grades won't balance out a lack of research experience. Back to the research interests: You said transition metals, but that really isn't a field of research in inorganic chemistry. Transition metal chemistry can be applied to organometallics, bioinorganic chemistry, inorganic photochemisty, etc. You need to pick an area based more off of end results. You had asked earlier about research out of your immediate field- and if you're interested in organometallics, organic synth. research is a great place to get started- you'll need to synthesize all or most of your own ligands in grad school, so having a firm background in organic synthesis is a huge step up.

I guess it depends on the department. In our department, you have to have approval of your PI and write a thesis to get a MS... So you need to tell your PI early enough to write up. We had one girl who waited until the semester she wanted to graduate (close to the end), and her PI told her she'd need at least another year before he'd consider her to have earned a masters. So if your program has any ambiguity, talk it out early to make sure you get out when you want to get out. If you automatically get a stand-alone MS at the end of this semester, then it's a more personal decision- I'd still tell your PI early, because I think it's the best way to maintain a good relationship in the future... If you wait too late, you don't give her a chance to prepare for you leaving, so to speak. Granted, this is all written with an STEM slant, so I'm not sure about the humanities.

I'll throw in my 2 cents... I don't think it would look bad, but there are distinct benefits. Of course, if you're feeling kinda burnt out and want the time off, it's important to start fresh too. I started in July, and it was a huge benefit to my first semester. By the time all the other first years got to campus, I'd settled into the town, been working in a lab for a month and a half, had been checked out on all the departmental instruments, met the profs, and knew most of the current grad students. I ended up staying in the group I started with in July, so it also gave me a huge edge on research- even over people who started in their permanent group at the start of the semester. Being able to get a research space set up and start settling in without having to worry about classes was great. The administrative staff are also not nearly as busy, which made getting paperwork in much faster and less painful. It was also nice to move in and have some time to get situated and used to the school before I was having to get to campus for classes at specific times. The others in my cohort that were juggling starting teaching, classes, and research all in the same week had a rougher time, imo. I took May and June off, which made for a nice break before school.If you want to travel, you could take those two months to travel, and then still start early, perhaps.

I'll echo this, too... If he's up for tenure and worried about it, he can't be that senior in the department. As to the rest, he seems quite unreasonable in his expectations- although it may be something more specific with the circumstances that he's upset with. It is also really field dependent... But yeah, a publication by the end of your first semester, unless you're wrapping up someone elses work seems a bit far-fetched.I could see wanting one by midway through your second semester- or to at least be getting close to publishable data, depending on the field. As was also mentioned, you did want someone who would push you... How likely is it that you can pick things up, and get the results by the end of the semester? You still have a good bit of time to work on it. If so, then you may be able to push through and salvage the relationship with your boss.

Any idea what area of inorganic chemistry? Since you have little interest in organic chemistry, I'm assuming it isn't much in the way of organometallic chemistry... Or even synthetic inorganic chemistry. And since you have no interest in biochemistry, I'm guessing it's not bioinorganic work. This leaves more in the range of characterization/photochemistry, as well as the abovementioned materials science applications. Slimming down the area will help a lot at identifying good programs. From your posts, I suggest you really don't know... And with only a month of research experience, that's quite understandable. I'd buckle down and spend this semester and the summer doing a lot of research, and see where that leads you. If you're interested in an academic position, which are at the moment extremely competitive, then I'd try not to go to the same institution where you did your undergrad- at least not for the PhD. It might be a good idea to stay and do your masters as a means of getting more research experience- and apply to a PhD program elsewhere. The worry people have when hiring someone who did too many degrees at the same institution is that they haven't been exposed to as wide of a range of students, faculty, and research labs as someone who moved institutions between degrees- it's not a deal breaker, but it will certainly make you seem a bit less desirable in the long run. If you're interested in industry or teaching at a 2 year college, you might do fine just getting your MS and working from there. Refining your research interests and your career interests will help a lot in choosing a path and school.

I'd just take the next 9-10 months to get a ton more research experience, and bring up the GPA. If you had good research experience, the GPA wouldn't be so bad... But a 3.2 GPA is going to hurt, at least some. You'll need good GRE scores to counter it. As for a Masters helping.... Terminal Masters programs are kind of looked down upon by most doctoral programs- they're not much of a stepping stone. You'd be better off postponing graduation and getting some research experience where you are. Before I can advise you as to good target schools, what area of chemistry are you interested in? And what do you want to do with the degree?