so47

I mostly agree with the previous posters. Lab experience is always a plus and definitely will help your application. In my opinion, f you want to go into a PhD program, take the lab. You will be much more prepared for the lab intensive environment. Also, a lot of schools are changing what they look at in applications, instead of focusing on GPA and test scores they are looking more into lab and research experience, and the recommendations that come out of it. As far as ACS certification goes, it is better because they will consider you a more proficient chemist if you have it. Having said that, I am attending a Top 20 school and there is at least 1 of my incoming class of 43 who is not from an ACS accredited program, but the overwhelming majority are from ACS programs. So if you have the option, I would go for the ACS, especially since your school has both options, you don't want to look like you were taking the easy route. Hope this helps!

Well, that sucks. I am NOT looking forward to that part of TA-ing. Oh well, better to know ahead of time!

I'm a bit amazed reading this thread, but I guess things must be different in non-science fields. I'm in chemistry, and all the grads students at the schools I visited and the school I am attending dress VERY casually. As in like jeans, and T-shirts, and a minority may actually wear a button-down or sweater. But since the grads main function is lab, no one expects you to wear dress clothes in lab because they would just get ruined! Pretty much the only rules are wear closed toed shoes and long pants. At the grad students at my undergrad institution dressed the same, so I am really not worried about it. Yeah, we don't look as authoritative as if we dressed up more, but we when teach lab we generally are the only ones who wear lab coats which helps. I'll have nicer clothes for conferences and poster sessions and such, but other than that I'm pretty much going to be dressing the same as I did in undergrad, other than the fact I will prob be more careful with wearing short/tight clothes since I will most likely be teaching freshmen, and I don't want to give them any excuse to oogle or say anything inappropriate of that nature.

Yup! Though I didn't get any notification that they actually received the hard copy, so here's to hoping! lol On another note, my department emailed us today saying that we needed to register for this particular course number for the summer so our accounts are active for our training session in July, but it's not allowing any of us to register for it. They said we have to enroll in this thing by the 24th, which would be fine if they could get it to work! If they don't fix it tomorrow, I'm up a creek without a paddle since I am leaving for vacation for a week! Hopefully I will be able to get on the internet there.... PS- so I haven't yet submitted the ID form yet (being picky about a pic lol) but do they just mail the ID card to you after you submit it? Has anyone done all that yet? I'm hoping to have the card in my possession before I get there so I can have my bus pass to get to campus the first few days. Thanks!

I agree with this, and even would go as far to say that she is being kind with her estimations. The Chem GRE is a really grueling test, that is notorious for full blown chem majors to do poorly on, especially domestic students. International students tend to score higher (mass generalization, I know) but they are also held to higher standers for that score because of it. Let's put it this way, I am a chem major who gets very high grades and in general am a very good standardized test taker, studied hard for the exam, and still I got 11% percentile on the Chem GRE's. That said, I also got into top 10 and 20 chemistry programs, so they obviously don't care that much about it. Going into the test, I was told in general that if you are a domestic student and get a 50% percentile on the Chem GRE, you are golden. Aiming for a 70% percentile may not be realistic. My point is, definitely study for it since you are at a disadvantage without the chem background, but don't kill yourself over it. Most schools don't even require it. Of the 5 schools I applied to, only 2 of them required those scores. And since I was not happy with my score, I did not send it anywhere that didn't require it, since I felt it would only hurt me and it can't be held against your application if you don't submit them. You mentioned that you did not care about ranking, and from experience it's the higher ranked chem schools that require the chem GRE. My honest advice would be to not bother with the chem GRE and focus on taking p-chem classes, maybe over the summer. That will mean more to a school than you sending them a test score they don't really care about. Especially because if they follow America Chemical Society guidelines, you may be required to have taken X amounts of courses in p-chem to enter the program. Hope this helps!

Oh I'm not sure about the loan stuff, but I did see there was stuff in the "Student Center" thing online that had a loan application and such. Try looking on there and see if that is what you are looking for.

I got what I assume was a welcome packet in like March, but it didn't have anything ground-breaking in it, just a couple brochures for the graduate school and university housing. Haven't received anything else in the mail for a while. Have you been receiving the emails to fill out the forms online? Those are really important, deadlines are coming up soon!

My field is chemistry, so I can tell you what I know about that area. Most of the top-tier programs in their field do not offer terminal Master's degrees. Meaning schools like Harvard are not going to admit students for only a Master's. Like you said, you can receive a Master's if you choose to leave the PhD program early (not necessarily fail, though that occasionally happens. More often that people decide it's too long, family reasons, issues with their advisor, etc). It probably depends on what type of career you want to go into as to how much that matters (ex: in industry it matters less than in academia), but yes might be a risk of someone who is familiar with the system thinking that you just couldn't hack the PhD. There are schools that do offer terminal masters programs, especially those that also offer part-time grad programs (which the top tier schools also do not usually allow), BUT these programs rarely provide funding. Their reasoning is that grad students are the heart of research institution, so PhD students who are there for 5+ years are a better investment than a 2 year masters student. You just have to do some research to find out what schools offer Master's, I promise they exist! Good luck with your search!

By the time you get to the PhD level, grades are not the most important thing anymore, not by a long shot. Actually, it can be frowned upon, for reasons such as your "panic attack" after getting an A-. The programs generally don't give a crap about your grades as long as you don't get put on academic probation. They want you to be focused on research, and if you are the type of student who is freaking out about an A-, then you may wind up taking time away from your research to strive for A's, and honestly, programs do NOT want that. Probably the type of lesson your prof who wouldn't budge on the half a point from a A was trying to give you. I think the grade-obsession is a very immature approach to grade school.You say your grades dropped this year because you took too much on, but do you expect less from grad school? If you are looking for a funded PhD, not only will you have the full load of classes, but you will probably be TA-ing and doing research too. The average work week in grad school is 6 days a week, and anywhere from 50-70 hours depending on the advisor. And as you can tell from the reputation value this post has given you (in case you don't know what it is, the red number at the bottom right hand corner of your post), I think you REALLY need an adjustment in your priorities. This post came off as a narcissist who is being insecure and seeking validation from everyone that you are still wonderful. I am sure you are a great student and you didn't mean it that way, but still, that is how you are coming off to your peers, and could in the future to professors and other grad students. You need to build networking and relationships in your field, and honestly no one is going to want to listen to stuff like this. So pretty much the overall message of my post is chill out! Get over the grade-obsession, because it's not going to get you anywhere in life. Re-taking the GRE's is not going to help you any more if you are already in 90th percentiles, A-'s are not going to kill you. The best thing you can do for yourself is chill out, and focus more on research in your MA, get more publications, and really make sure your recommendations and SOP are awesome. I am sure you will get in, just think you need to see the big picture more instead of obsessing on a 4.0. To put it in perspective, in my undergrad I had a 3.65 GPA, 75-80th percentile GRE's, and I got into and am attending the #9 ranked program in my field, and an Ivy. What got me in was my 3+ years of academic and industrial experience, and stellar recommendations. So RELAX!

DEFINITELY get a stronger letter from an industrial supervisor instead of a crappy one from a prof who doesn't know you well. It will be glaringly obvious who really knows you and how you work. The requirements depend from school to school, but usually for mine they asked for at least one academic recommendation, and the rest had to be from people in the field. I used 2 professors and 1 supervisor from industry, and got into top 20 schools in my programs. I would be slightly concerned about the length of your relationship with your recommenders though. If you look at the recommendation form, they almost always ask how long they have known you, and at the time that they write the recommendations, the internship supervisor and research project advisor sound like they will have only worked with you for a few months. So just be wary of that, and review all your options. If you don't have anyone else that you can ask (were you close with any profs at your Community College? I think the quality of the letter and their relationships with you is more important than where they teach), then just you REALLY have to work your butt off to build a personal relationship with them, so it doesn't sound like a generic letter of rec. This is also hard though, because some people are hard to get to know that fast. After writing this I feel like I sound like a Debbie Downer! But truly, it sounds to me like you have a good shot, you just need to be aware of where you need to improve your application. Good luck!

I agree 100% with this. He shouldn't have made a change to the course like that in the middle of the term, but you could hurt yourself a lot more by ticking off this prof and other people in the department. I would try talking to the prof in person to explain your view, but I wouldn't go any further. I also ask, is the grade important for the sake of a grade, or does getting a C put you on academic probation? If the latter is the case, I would def talk to the professor and politely ask for his help. If it's just your pride, just let it drop. Not worth the repercussions.

Thanks for everyone's input with how easy/difficult it was to do a name change making your Maiden name into a middle name! It was very helpful! I really like this option the best, and will probably wind up doing that when I get married. I really feel strongly about having my family all have the same last name, but I don't want to risk my professional identity. My next questions are this: When you fill out official forms and they only have a place for a middle initial, do you use your given middle name or the maiden name's initial? And when you publish/become a professor, do you use both, and the journal will print both names and not make them initials?

Yeah, it does get a bit hard to stay fashionable, depending on how cold it is. I have nice wool pea coats that I love, but they aren't warm enough for me for the bitter cold that we get at my parents over the winter (below zero!) When the weather gets that bad, I suck it up on put on my huge Columbia brand winter coat, which is not fashionable at all but the warmest thing I own! Where in the cold-ness are you moving too? Hard to guess from your signature, but I'm from NY and if you are going to Stonybrook, they actually don't get much snow. Other than this past year they got a huge blizzard right before Christmas, but they typically are fairly mild over the winter (temperatures are mediated by the ocean )

I highly recommend 180s for earmuffs ( http://www.180s.com/ ) . I hate hats (mostly being a girl because they screw up my hair) but these earmuffs go behind your head and not only don't screw up my hair, but they are much more comfortable too. And I can even hear my people on my cell phone through them, which is a plus!You can find that at any department store, or even BJ's or the like in the north during the winter months. You can probably get them at EMS or Dick's as well. I also like the types of convertible gloves/mittens that have the flap that you can fold back and have your fingers free...not sure what they are called, some people call them hobo gloves lol but they are also great for doing things like dialing the phone or opening the door with gloves. Here is a pic http://www.amazon.com/GO-Gloves-Convertible-Mittens-Mens/dp/B000BPUHIO Oh an scarves are great too, especially for the wind. Can use it to cover your face when it's really biting cold!