AkashSky

Ah. The reason I ask was because I was wondering if it was possible to take advantage of the tuition waiver to take some extra graduate courses that are not necessarily related to your main PhD. If it would take away too much time from the PhD, I can see myself taking an extra course every now and then in business, but I don't know if I want to commit to the full masters or not.

This is a well written post! It is clear from your passion in chemistry that you should definitely do your chemistry phd now, because you don't want to regret this decision 5 years later because being in a lucrative profession that you absolutely hate is much worse than being payed low doing something that you love. As for stanford/ harvard, if its required, its probably required for a reason so yes, I think it will most likely hurt your application. This being said, there is no reason to assume that you cannot be accepted because you dont have a chemistry GRE. However, since the odds are lessened, I think you should consider only applying to either harvard or stanford and spend the rest of your time and energy on perfecting your applications to your target schools. You don't want to spend too much of your limited resources on something that is a worse bet from the beginning.

In all honesty, you should email the schools what the average GRE of accepted applicants were. After doing so, you can determine whether your GRE will hinder your application or not. (From what I have heard however, is that the GRE does not seem to play a huge role in admissions compared to letters of rec and research experience, so if you GRE score is below what the school average is, you are not out of the running, unless its abysmally low, like under 50 percentile)

Hello gradcafe! Is it possible (has it been done?) to do a PhD degree in a certain field while at the same time getting a masters in another?

I think you should retake if you have enough time to study and improve your verbal, and get it to at least 150. A lot of programs in the united states have graduate students teach, and if you have a low (Below 50 percentile) verbal score, it makes the university think you are not proficient at English and thus not suited to teach.

Well since you have a lot of good experience and a really high GPA, (and assuming great letters from your experience and stuff), you are free to not have a stellar gre and not be penalized for it. Despite that, if you are applying to top schools, you need to be in 50 percentile to make sure its not held against you. I would really try to raise your math to 50 percentile if you can. With that it seems you would be set to go assuming your SOP and writings are amazing as well.

Alright! Finally my turn to contribute to this. I already wrote what I felt about the experience on my blog, so if you want to check it out here is the link https://akashmsky.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/the-gre/ However, If you would rather read a TLDR, I'll put one right here. First few practice tests: ~160 quant/ ~150 verbal (don't remember exactly what they were) Kaplan 166/160 q/v ETS #3 165/160 q/v Actual Test 167/161 q/v and I will update this as they give me the writing portion.

As long as your Toefle is good I don't see any need. Other stats way outweigh your so-so gre verbal.

I think 18 is a lot, and you should only apply to those 18 if you would be happy going to any one of them. Personally, I would apply to 8-10 schools, but it really depends if they all appeal equally to you.

I'm interested in materials science, energy, and surface chemistry, although I am nothing more than a dilettante in these areas. Hopefully going to grad school will change that. I am not familiar with the literature at all in the area that I'm interested, but saying I put some time in and reading up on it, what part of my application would I mention it?

Yes, I took QM and not Staf Mech, (although I was planning on taking it and Chemistry thermo, but my university cut a lot of course requirements for graduation since the average student in my major was taking 5 years to graduate, so I thought that I may as well hustle a little and finish earlier since its now do-able). Even if the courses are very different, shouldn't taking 1 help understand the other since the material is similar?

Well, from what I have heard, if you have no research experience, you are kinda screwed as far as PhD programs go. As for masters, I think that you should be able to get into a school. I made a thread similar to this and what a lot of people told me is that GPA/GRE scores do not help you get in, but keep you from being kicked out. One person told me that a software screens candidates at their university for their scores and then they look at the people who pass the first screening. What seems to matter most is the letters and research experience and SOP.

Should I mention that I continue to work in this research lab until I graduate in spring? (which would make for a full year of research experience before entering the graduate program). I've already talked to the professors who are going to write my letters, and have scheduled coffee/lunch with them in 2 weeks, (after midterms so they will have more free time). Is there anything specific I should mention to them that could make my letters stand out more? I also don't have work experience (other than the research experience but I don't think they are the same thing), but I'm going to answer the solid reasons why I want to pursue higher edu, and commitment to lab in the writing requirements, (SOP, etc). Thank you for your insight bucky!

Thanks for the feedback Eigen! Ah, I kinda procrastinated on the research so I kinda just panicked last year school year and applied to whatever was available. I was accepted to the neuroscience lab, and from what I've heard from other people, any research experience is valuable for the admissions committee, any in my case it was either neuroscience research experience or none. Your concerns for my background are valid, but I can't really do anything to change them so I will most likely have to make due with what I have/ am. Also, Chem-E is similar to physical chemistry in terms of the math and physics courses needed, along with the thermo and another things. I think the only thing I didn't take was a statistical mechanics course. My P-chem professor told me to mention that specifically and emphasize why I would be a good candidate even though my major is Chem-E. My trouble will be finding a way to make the neuroscience research relevant to chemistry research. I plan on talking about the general things that research experiences give, like critical thinking etc. Any specific advise on this?

If you are really hedging on verbal, you should probably be trying to get into the 80'th percentile, which is around 160 i think. As long as your other stuff is good, your somewhat above average GRE for verbal isn't going to hold you back, but its not actually helping you.

Thanks for the feedback cookie! I guess I was right in putting those two schools in the dream category ;x. But I do have 1 question, since I what I listed for my GRE is "Low" what would be considered an average score? What about a high score?

the link to the image is http://imgur.com/qRJg6lr in case the forum thing doesn't work. The other choices not visible are d) 84 e)132

That is significantly better research experience! Between the schools you are applying to, which are your reach and target?

I have a similar profile, except that my Rec letters and research are weaker than yours, but I have a stronger GPA. I also have Berkeley as a dream school! From what my professors told me when I was talking to them about graduate school, they said that having a low GPA isn't a big deal if you have solid letters, research exp, and Gre scores because these things compensate for it. I'd say you have a pretty good shot. Since you are going for analytical chemistry, why not apply to purdue? They have a highly ranked analytical chemistry program. If you want to read over my post ill link it here:

Hey, I'm Akash and I'm going to be applying for a chemistry PhD with a specialization in physical chemistry come fall of 2016. I am currently a chemical engineering major and I have a strong background in mathematics, physics and chemistry, so I feel that this PhD is a great fit for me. My Current Cumulative GPA is 3.452, with my Major GPA being 3.69 (I kinda suck at humanity courses, and I refuse to take them pass no pass because i'm retarded and sincere) By the time I apply (Dec 1) , I will have had ~6 months of research experience (3 months full, 3 part) in a Neuroscience lab. I might be close to getting a publication, but I don't think it will be out in time for the application cycle. In addition, I think that my letters will not be the best, but they will be average, (the letter from my supervisor will be great, the letter from a professor i know moderately well should be okay, and my last letter will be from a professor that I've only taken 1 class with). I will be taking the GRE October 22, ( for the first time, kinda last minute :x, but I have been studying for this for the past 2 months) and will be taking the Chem GRE shortly after (Been studying for this for a month so far). From my practice tests I am expecting no less than 160 in the quantitative section, and at least 155 in the verbal section. As for the Chem GRE, I honestly have no idea what to expect for my score. I am hoping that I score higher than the 50 percentile. Also there are limited practice tests for it online, and most of my studying has been from reviewing my old chemistry text books. Currently these are the schools that I am applying to. (I may apply to another, as I still have time to research professors, I have researched the professors for all of these schools and have narrowed down the ones who conduct research I am interested in). Dream: UC Berkeley; Harvard Reach: University of Minnesota Twin Cities Target: USC, Princeton University; UCLA I also searched online/emailed these universities for their average Gre and Chem gre scores, and is how I ranked them from Dream to Reach to Target. However, my question is this, will having 6 months of research experience, average letters of recommendation, and a 3.452 cumulative gpa hurt, help, or do nothing at all to the arrangement that I have above? In other words, have I accurately assigned dream, reach, and target to the above schools? I'll edit this post as I receive my actual test scores.

bump <3

Well, if you know the 30, 60 90 rule (2x = hypo, root3 x = long side, x=short side), you can solve the question in 2 steps by computing the "height" of the triangle by pretending that 12 is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, with other side lenths 60 and 90. This will lead 6 root 3 as the height, which you can then multiply by 1/2 base to get area which is 15 root 3

Increasing your verbal score cannot be done overnight, as mastery of the English language is something you do over your lifetime. Magoosh wordlist is probably your best bet, although I wouldn't expect that much of an improvement in your verbal score. I would also recommend just getting use to reading passages and answering questions of equal length to the GRE test, in other words do as much practice as you can simulating real testing conditions. Just make sure that you take it at your peak condition.

Hey guys, So i've taken about 4 GRE practice test so far, and I am consistently scoring in mid-low 160s for math, and mid 150s for verbal. As for the verbal however, I've noticed that my score on section 4 (The second verbal portion) is always SIGNIFICANTLY higher than my score on the first verbal section. As for the math portion my score is pretty constant throughout. Is there a difference in difficulty going from section 3 to section 4, or is it just me?

I don't think you should retake since you got really good verbal and quant scores. Also, if you are scared that the institutions you are applying to think you are a bad writer, you can prove it to them otherwise by writing a really good personal statement.