SunnygirlDiana

Hi guys. Quick question: In my undergraduate years, I worked in an organic methodology/catalysis lab, and from what I heard and experienced, organic chemists have a reputation for working very long hours each day (usually about 10-12). For those of you studying at universities with a top 30 research program in chemistry, and are in Analytical, Inorganic, Biochemistry, Physical, or Theoretical chem labs, how long is a typical graduate student's average workday? I was just curious if it was really true that only organic chemists would work these really long hours even at the top universities! xP Please let me know, thanks!!

Hi again. No problem. i was never really someone that worried about things much...even if they weren't going so well...which is a lot of the reason why i'm not so great a student LOL, and why i like trying to console others. I can tell you are a good student though because you DO worry which has both positive aspects in regards to producitivity and focus, and negative aspects in terms of just feeling worried hahaha! As for Danishefsky, he's probably emeritus now. He's in his 80s i think, and his name doesn't come up under faculty/research groups at columbias website. Of course, you can always e-mail him now and ask or e-mail the department after you get in...although in general, it might not be the best idea either to work for someone whose too old/extremely late in their career!

BTW I just noticed from your (UWChemE) signature that you speak German! That's so cool! You're a true chemist! ;P

Hi UWChemE. Stop worrying, it won't help -- and there's actually nothing to worry about too LOL. I'm pretty similar to you in that I was also a Chemistry and Engineering double major and my GPA of course sucked because of engineering. When I applied this year and now I had a 3.3 overall GPA and a 3.7 chem GPA, which of course, is not stellar compared to pretty much everyone else on here. I had an F and two Withdrawals throughout my transcript and Cs every semester. One of my teachers thought it might be a problem but probably not because research is the most important factor in the end. I think especially if your GPA is above 3, you don't have to worry. So far I got acceptances from Princeton and Caltech to name a few, so I don't think you should be worrying about GPA "shooting you in the foot" because its definitely not that important compared to your outstanding letters and good research experience, or else I couldn't have gotten in anywhere either lol!! Schools are a bit weird with the timing of their acceptances I've noticed and a lot of times, the quality of the applicant does not correlate with the "lateness or earlyness" in which they hear back. And just because youre not one of the first to hear back, doesnt' necessarily mean they're less interested in you either. For example, I had a friend who applied to UC berkeley that I thought was highly qualified in terms of everything (even had 3 publications and a really high Chem GRE, american student), who just heard back Friday...and UC Berkeley had been accepting for a good 3 weeks already. I also have not heard anything from UC Berkeley but this doesn't mean I have been worrying and completely ruling out that they will ever accept me! lol! Overall, I'm just saying that even if you experience a delay in receiving your admissions, don't worry about it - -these guys have hundreds and hundreds of applications to process to just their chem departments! and I'm sure they get a lot of qualified candidates like yourself and have to think a lot too. I think your credentials are very good, so just hang in there! Good things come to those who wait

I was called by Professor Brian Stoltz and my friend who also got in was called by Theodor Agapie. Organometallics, what is your top choice school? We got into some of the same programs...

Yes, I do agree with Deltagrey on this actually....I think I didn't articulate my thoughts well before. What I really meant to say is that if you think you don't have a strong GPA, you can try to compensate for it by doing really well in your Chem GRE and Verbal General GRE as well. Overall, I really don't think any of these are as important as your research credentials and letters of course (as we can also see from Deltagrey's case!) There are some exceptions though like Harvard that might care about all of these things though xP But I think generally, most of the top 30 schools can be quite lenient about GREs and GPA! For example, I also had a friend who got into UW Madison with a 2.8 overall GPA so you will definitely have a shot! It looks like your research credentials are pretty good. Just one piece of advice I think could be helpful: definitely try to get some "publishable data" by the time you apply! The process of publishing -- supporting information, submission, revisions, turnaround, etc can be really long and messy and you don't necessarily have to worry about having the paper actually out and accepted by that time. But even having a "first author manuscript in preparation" or "manuscript in preparation" will be very advantageous as admission committees can also tell if you have impressive publishable work just by seeing a very polished, professional research summary (for example, one of my friends applying this year didn't publish, but had a lot of good data, made a nice research summary, and noted "first author manuscript in prep" and was admitted to top programs like Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton and Yale!). I think this could increase your chances for admission too as research is the most important factor for grad schools!!

Hi luviviandore. I can answer your question confidently now as I have just applied to chem grad schools this season for Fall of 2015. If you have a 3.0 or above, I think you can definitely get admitted. I have a 3.3 GPA now (and when I applied) and so far I have been admitted to Princeton, Columbia, Caltech, Northwestern and UC Irvine. I only applied to top 15 schools really, with the exception of Irvine, but their organic program is really great! The only other school I have yet to hear back from that I am interested in is Harvard....and if I could even be admitted there, then I would say that anything is possible for you (as Harvard is probably one of the most conservative schools)! HOWEVER, I will say that from talking to various people on admissions committees, i DO think that the Chem GRE is very important -- if you could get anything like a 780 or above, that would be great and good enough for any program in the country really! In addition, many professors have told me that the GRE Verbal section is the most important one, so try to score at least 90 percentile if you can. I think arguably, these two factors are more important than your GPA. But of course, the most important factor is if you excelled in your research (which can also be reflected by your rec letters) and have some research fellowships or other awards (in my case, I published three papers in relatively high impact journals (one in Angew Chem), and I also had an international fellowship in Germany). Best of luck to you in your application process! Just try to get your GPA above 3.0 and you will be in the green. - SunnygirlDiana