janadias

I agree with the above comments that you should read papers and abstracts to find appropriate groups for. However as you research interests seem a little broad, that may take a while. One website that I found helpful when I was applying was Peterson's guide: http://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools.aspx Hopefully that may narrow down your options a little bit

Not exactly what you're asking but may be useful advice. This first thing that I would do contact programs and research groups, and see what your chances of getting accepted are. Describe your skills and qualifications. If you want to join a Theory group and you're good at math, you might not even have to take the Chem GRE. You can also look for schools that allow students from one department to work with professors from other departments. For example you can apply to a physics program (which for you might be easier to get into) and then choose to work in a Physical Chemistry group. We currently have one such student in our group. And lastly, if you're interested in Computational Chemistry, and since you were an electronic engineer major, you may want to try and find groups that do research in computer hardware/software for chemistry (not that many but there are a few). They may take you for your electronics skills while you learn chemistry on the side.

Yes, that's exactly what I thought. Ta-ing would take a helluva lot more time!

Auditing is usually my preferred choice. It's less stressful and I learn as much. And I'm not planning to take more than one course per semester. Thanks!

I know this is a late response but hopefully you're still following this topic. I think the advice give here is very good, and I'd take it, however I'd like to emphasize that your criteria for choosing a school should not be based on it's popularity (the so called "big schools") - regardless of the field you choose to pursue, it should be primarily guided by research interest. I cannot emphasize this enough!! It's not a job that you can force yourself to do it; you must really be passionate about it, otherwise you may end up miserable or even alcoholic (there a few such cases). And I will add that particularly in Computational, good groups are spread throughout. Of course you have Martin Head-Gordon at UC Berkeley and John Tully at Yale, but you have have currently amazing work being done at Temple, USC, UMN, Iowa State, Michigan State etc., that are not considered "top schools." I just wanted to get that out there. As for the MD thing, I come exactly from the same place. A lot of people give into their parents and do it anyway, so congratulations that you took the matter into your own hands. For me, the pressure was so big that I had to lie to my parents about taking the MCAT and applying to Med schools, even though I secretly had applied only to graduate schools. To this day they believe that I didn't get accepted, that's why I choose graduate school lol. It's not that I'm afraid to tell them, but I just never bothered because I know they'll get extremely annoying. Even now my dad sometimes asks me if I can still apply and drop out of grad school with a masters. It is a genuinely comical situation.

I'm finishing my first year as a graduate student in a Theoretical Chemistry group. Today I found out that I don't have to TA next year, or for the rest of my PhD, so I've been thinking of making use of some of my time to take or audit some additional math courses. Now, I know a lot of people will say that I should spend that time doing research but I don't think devoting just a few hours a week to an extra course is going to make that much difference. The issue is whether that course will be beneficial for me... The primary reason that I want to take math courses is that I really enjoy it, and that's also the reason I went into theory in the first place. Second, my research is mainly in theory ( little application) so it's important that I have a good and broad understanding of the underlying mathematics. And thirdly, somewhat related to the first, my goal is to stay in Academia but move more towards Physics or Applied Math, rather than chemistry. Talking to people in my university resulted in polarized opinions - some think it's a great idea, others think it's a waste of time. So, I'd like to know if there is anyone in a similar position as me who has actually tried this, and what their opinions are. Was it helpful? Was it useless? Were you better learning it yourself? If you did take math courses, what were they? If you have any opinion on the matter please feel free to comment. Thanks!