synorg

you won't have to look hard to find discussions on here about domestic vs international scores on the standardized tests. the whole thing is skewed. but seriously, these schools are going to accept you if they think you will do good research, or they'll reject you if they don't think so. they're not going to be as concerned about the breadth of your chemistry knowledge.

there's likely not an error in grading lol. my advice is to not spend time in you SoP calling attention to a weakness. spend that space telling them why they should take you, rather than "well i kinda fucked up but i promise it won't happen again because i'm actually smart...i promise." things happen. some people have perfect applications, most don't. as far as deciding send bad score or don't send any score, i don't have any basis to make a suggestion. but i strongly recommend you do NOT call attention to any shortcomings in your SoP unless they had some profound influence in your development as a scientist (i.e. overcoming some setback). a shitty subject GRE score does NOT qualify. it's easy to freak out over every detail in the app, but like i said just try to put your best foot forward and sell your strengths as an independently thinking researcher.

wow shame on me for expecting the national science foundation to have a better way to do this than delete and re-enter recommender info

is there a way to send reminder emails to those writing reference letters (directly from the application)? i don't want them to have to sift through hundreds of emails to find the NSF letter upload link...

NSF site is back up. i just submitted my app no problem. good luck, everyone!

i got 84th percentile on the chem gre. i was admitted to some top schools and rejected from others. that score won't hurt you.

NO IT WON'T! you continue to ask questions as if nobody has ever been in your shoes before. past threads aren't deleted for a reason; go back through and find these answers yourself before asking. having a publication is absolutely a plus, but it's possible to get into top 10 schools without one. the big thing is to show that you cared about research as an undergrad, so you simply need to convey this in your essays for the adcoms. i don't think it'd be a wise move to note that you were mentioned in an acknowledgments section, that might make you sound desperate. just highlight your contributions to various projects and hope for the best. you can't really calculate an expected value for grad school apps, and most of the stuff people worry about here are things they can't change. so spend your time on representing yourself as best you can in your application. in other words, worry about the things you can control.

my feeling is that the only time it would be worth drawing attention to a specific class is if it either a) had a profound influence on your academic/career direction and/or b ) is very obviously applicable to the missions and focus of the agency/foundation which funds the fellowship in question (in this case, the DoD, Army, Navy, etc.)

if you read the instructions, it says "and from any institution at which you have been a graduate student unless you started on or after June, 2012." This seems pretty clear cut to me. Reviewers probably spend 10-15 minutes on each application, do you really think they're going to pay close attention/care about what classes you're in now? If you really wish to name drop a class, then perhaps you could mention it in the personal essay "in the _____ course that i'm taking now at ____ university, i have ______" or whatever

actually, i strongly disagree with your reasoning that a higher score on the gre subject test is sufficient to say one person knows "a lot more chemistry" haha

that's not one of the more popular explanations, but i suppose it could be somewhat of a factor.

there are two reasons for admissions not placing a ton of weight on the subject gre: 1) they don't really care how much i, as an organic applicant, know about quantum mechanics. the same reasoning applies to your situation. there's no way for them to know which questions you did well on 2) the scores of international applicants tend to be abnormally high. it's difficult to say exactly why this occurs, although there is some speculation. the end result, however, is that it's very difficult to accept the score at face value. your general GREs are fine. get above a 50th percentile on the subject test.

guys that's what the term "red flag" means. it's not uncommon for people to be admitted to top 10 schools with subject GREs in the 50-70th percentile range. all the time spent worrying about GREs would be much better spent writing another draft of one of your essays. just relax haha you have months of anxiety ahead, no need to get started before you even submit the apps!

i would think a perfect Q score would be helpful for a pchemist. i'm in organic and i had slightly better GRE scores than you and got rejected by a few places. the GRE is one of the least important factors. sorry for the double post.

i know that not everyone does it, but generally there are enough to get an idea. you missed my main point, however, which is that your scores are good enough for those schools and if you don't get accepted somewhere it's not for lack of competitive GRE score.

you should check out the results page and search "MIT Chemistry," etc. and look at the GRE scores of those accepted. that'll give you a ballpark, but the scores tend to vary more than one might expect. if you get a 4.0 or better on AW, then my guess is your scores will not hurt you. i think the GRE tests are for more of a red flag in the event that a score is quite poor. i wouldn't worry too much about your GREs

there definitely aren't safety schools, but you might want to look at colorado state - they have a few groups whose stuff you might like. also check out UIUC

your recommenders will likely be willing to read over your SOP and offer suggestions. ask them sooner rather than later. either way, you should have somebody proofread your essays to make sure you communicate your motivation well. i don't mean to offend, but it sounds like english might not be your first language. if that's the case, it's OK, you just should pay particular attention to showing that you will be able to communicate science, etc.

your GPA is low but if you are good about communicating your research experience in your apps you should have some nice options to choose from. good luck!

i can't say for sure. but if you're not expecting to do well, i think they'd care less about a subpar chem score. i wouldn't take the physics test unless i knew i was going to have a strong showing. the chem test isn't too bad, and i know most departments don't care too much about it. if i were you, i'd get a practice book and brush up on orgo (general IUPAC naming, nucleophilic attack on carbonyls, sn1 vs sn2, and some aromatic substitutions are the most common questions i believe). are you really that uncomfortable with chemistry? hopefully someone who's doing pchem has some personal experience and can give better advice but eventually you're going to need to just register for a test and move on to the more important parts of the application haha

it's definitely worth noting that the physics GRE is MUCH more difficult than the chem test, and weighed much more heavily for physics grad programs. so, unless you are an absolute stud in physics, i wouldn't count on your score being too high since the others taking the test will prepare much more rigorously (in general) than those taking the chem test. just my two cents...

i wouldn't worry about it. i did undergrad research in chemical engineering/environmental chemistry and applied for synthetic organic and got a couple admits. it's definitely been said before on here that having research experience PERIOD is the most important thing. get feedback from faculty at your undergrad program on your SoP if you're really worried about it, but start off expressing what motivates you to pursue a phd, and hopefully a career, in chemistry. so in short, don't worry about any mismatch in subfields. just do your best in conveying your academic interests. good luck!

do you know how previous chemistry students from your school have done in graduate admissions? i'd ask them or perhaps a few faculty members. i don't think you have any red flags, but knowing how you stack up to previous students from your school should be useful information.

i bet if you took some practice tests, you could get your score into the range where you don't need to be afraid to submit it. i'd be a little gunshy about a 43, but i still don't think that would disqualify you from being strongly considered by most or all of your schools because: 1) chem GRE might be the least important part of the application and 2) you seem to be very competitive in the research department (most important piece of the puzzle) don't think too much about it. just get a book if you can and register for the earliest test and just get it over with.

6616: Several posts in this thread provide percentiles AND schools...what more are you looking for?