process chemist

Someone with an undergrad degree on from a US university is expected to score at least a 500 on each section of the GRE or at least 50% in each section; especially, for Yale. I have a friend a Haitian immigrant friend who got his PhD in Chemistry at CUNY Graduate Center in NY. The only reason he got in is because he had an 800Q, 390V, and a score >90% on the Chemistry GRE. You will need a couple of pubs, or some very exciting letters to go with your profile, because as it stands, your GRE composit is about a 1050, which will not get you past the cutoffs at any school. Your application will literally have to be "rescued" by a faculty member. This does happen (not often), but you usually have to know somebody on that year's admissions board who is willing to put his/her reputation on the line for you. I would suggest that you submit a copy of your CV, and if possible part your thesis, to profs in the programs you are applying to, and explain your research interest and your interest in their research, and hope for the best. But as I said before, if these departments let you "slide" with that verbal score, that is unfair to foreign students who have the same difficulties as you, but have prepared an application package that will leave no room for conjecture on their ability to write and read standard English. You obviously have a M.S. and are very intelligent. But everybody applying to Yale and Stanford is intelligent, have high GRE scores, patents, some have MS with the same GPA as you do, and most if not all have pubs. Do you have your GRE scores from the time you applied to your MS program, if so they will see both scores. If your previous scores are better than the most current ones, I wouldn't worry too much. Your only hope is just to e-mail profs (ASAP-like yesterday) and explain your situation.

You should arrange to take the TOFEL, that would really let the grad schools know your situation. You are a non-native english speaker, and you only went to college here, you should have taken the TOFEL. If the deadline permits, I would take the TOFEL ASAP! I don't thinks that grad schools will be too sensative to your situation, as there are many students from China, the Middle East, etc. who were also not native english speakers, but knew they had to take the TOFEL to show their english skills.

Why did you wait so long to apply to new schools. A 165 M, which is not on the concordiance table mind you, is about a 790-800 on the old scale. A 155 V is equivalent to a 530 on the old scale. There is no need to freak out, because you have at least a 1320. This will surely get you past the cut offs at most schools. But why only three schools. What is your GPA? Do you have research experience? Do you have any pubs? You need to greatly expand your net when applying to graduate schools. My co-worker has a PhD in Chemistry. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Penn, GPA >3.5, excellent GRE scores, and she was rejected by 10 of the 12 schools she applied to. It is not just about good scores, or where you want to live, but its about how you compare to other applicants in that year's application pool. At CalTech, you will have many students w/ GRE scores >1400, CS subject test >85%, and GPAs >3.7. Your competiton in this are some of the smartest people in the world, not just the people in California. Did you take the CS GRE? I am just saying this because seeing your GRE scores (Which are only 50 points lower than you previous attempt), you can get into many more schools. Expand your horizons, and pick schools based upon the research.

If you have GRE scores, they are good for five years. So if you took the GRE in 2007, you need to take it again. I am pretty sure the TOFEL has the same/simular guidelines.

If you school awards you a GTA assistantship, and says you will have partial teachin experience, should I just assume I am teaching a lab? I am in Chemistry

You could get many jobs w/ a B.S. in EE. Just know what areas you want to work in (eg. power systems, etc)

You should find programs that specifically say that their M.S. program is designed for people who want to go into industry. I think UMICH's BME M.S. program clearly states, "the MS program is a terminal degree for those choosing to enter industry" so if you want a MS but change your mind mid stream and say you want a PhD now, that is not gonna fly. You are getting a M.S., so therefore you are interested in reseach (assuming that this is a thesis based MS). If it isn't a thesis based program, you might as well get a job, and have your company pay for you to take some classes to get your M.S. Why do you want an M.S.? If you are already an engineer, most companies do not award higher salaries because you have a master's; they only give higher salaries if you have a PhD, (at least my company doesn't, and we are a leading Fortune 500). It really doesn't make sense to get any degree beyond other than a PhD, because you will be wasting time and money pursuing a M.S. while you could go straight to work; which, is going to be primarily project management and no real engineering. An M.S. in Engineering is helpful to people who majored in physics/chemistry/ etc to get an engineering degree, so that they can find a job. But if you already have an engineering B.S. it really doesn't make sense to get a M.S.

I am facing this also w/ my Boston essay. I already wrote a strong SOP, and i don't really know why this is here. But I asked my brother who had a simular experience @ Georgia Tech. I think what they want you to do is to articulate a science experiment and results. My old company had this model called C.A.R. (Context, Actions, Results). So you should lay out the context of the experiment (why you did it), the actions you took (experiemts, and designs), and the results achieved. This is pretty much like a technical essay. When you say "why i did this work," don't say because my PI or a post doc told me, put some context to it like, "in Dr. Astion's lab were investigate the ETS pathway inhibotors, etc." For the actions just say you designed some test, don't say a post doc did developed the test and I just ran it. For results, don't just say, "we were able to synthesize the compound," say, "were sucessfully synthesized the compound ____________ with a yield of X%. This work lead to a publication/poster/communication or allowed the lab to develop expertise in X" I wrote these things for 5 years, and they really don't teach you how to write a "technical essay" in school. Ideally it should be only one page, include maybe a couple of figures. But the biggest thing is they want to see what YOU did as part of the research team. On these sights we see so many people talking about getting pubs as an undergrad, which is diffucult to achieve; however, some of these people with these pubs were only added to the author list as a bonus. They may have just run the experiments that the post-doc or their PI designed, and really didn't contribute anything to the success or failure of the effort other than their time doing technician work. You have to highlight what YOU DID. Did you read an iteresting paper, write a proposal, and present it to your group? Did they accept it? What test did you design, not a post doc or your PI, what did you do? What intersting piece of data did you mine to better understand the processes of the phenomina you are studying? Remember to use " I " alot rather than " we". Did you develop a model that helped the group understand the data better? Just jot down your research experience (s) and answer these types of questions and you should be fine. I am also a chemistry applicant, and these are just some questions I came up with when writing my own supplemental essay. Best of luck, and hope to see you in Boston in the fall!

How long does it take to get your official letter via snail mail. I got my first admit last week, and it had a pdf attached with the "more official letter."

They are ACS exams you take during orientation. This site is from a guy at harvard, and it provides pretty much every example for undergraduate organic reactions.

Clemson is a pretty homogenous place (mostly white). I spent an entire summer there and I could not get a hair cut the entire summer (I am african american). You will have to probably drive to Greenville where there is alot going on. Greenville is about 30 min. drive from Clemson, and has a beautiful downtown. The area is pretty tolerant, however parking is horrendous. Every student has to park their cars in the football parking lot.

Just got my first acceptance. My stats are not as superlative as most on this site, but I got into a funded MS program w/ a GTA ($22K). Just waiting on UMass Medical and Michigan Applied Physics.

I just hate being "screwed" by people I trust. My recommendors are not profs, they are former co-workers who have not responded to some of my e-mails for the past 21 days. Thankfully, my PI from college agreed to write for me. But I bust my ass studying for the GRE, writing essays, spend >$3,000 for test prep, transcripts, etc. and to have it all go to waste because some f-tard decided to go on vacation. If I sound mad, it is because I am. When I first took the GRE I got a 1190 (580Q, 610V), after studying and busting my ass I pulled off a 1350 (720Q, 630V), which will at least get my app. looked at most, if not all of the schools that I applied to. All this hard work down the drain.

I asked two of my former co-workers/mentors to write letters of recomendation for my applications. I received three letters out of a eight needed. I only have two applications complete, and I have one fellowship application complete. I have deadlines on Jan. 1-Jan. 15. I am so frustrated right now, I spent thousands of dollars preparing for the GRE, getting transcripts, and getting essays critiqued. What should I do, these are the only guys who can vouch for my research ability after my college years. It is if they just said, "enough". They have not been responding to my e-mails, or the reminders sent from the graduate school, and I don't know what I did to piss them off. Can they only take one letter, because I only have one guy writing for me, and I don't know anyone else who can write for me?

Just doing some research and came across a great resource to brush up on some organic rxns for prelims. http://evans.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/problems/search2a_selectKeywords.cgi

@synorg Thanks for the add. I was aware that the shooter was not a student, but I think it is more a sense of campus security. I went to a small HBCU and the administrations built brick and iron gates around the university because the "locals" were robbing students on campus.

I have all my materials in for Virginia Tech, and all I need to do is submit my application; however, I have an eerie feeling about applying there because of the recent string of shootings at the school. I am applying to this school to fulfill an obligation for a fellowship that I am applying to, and I cannot change my choice of universities. Should I still apply?

My SOP is 1350 words long. I have a really long reasearch history, and I don't have a word limit on it. Should I shorten it to ~1000. As it stands, my SOP is roughly 3.2 pages long.

Are you ordering them to get a heads up on prelims? I don't think you can order them, but you can order a study guide.

If they agreed to write they they should write it. I feel bad for badgering them for the letters, but I have to look out for #1. Sorry if that is harsh, but its your future. I send e-mails to my LOR writers every morning to ensure they are on task.

I know what you all are saying, but to be safe >720 is probably a good guideline.

@contretemps Congrats. If I were you, I would be out on the town shaking my tush after receiving such great news.

I am applying to Graduate school, a mixture of MS and PhD in Chemistry. While trying to finish my applications, I accidentially submitted an application with self reported GRE scores, which were abysmal. I have re-taken the GRE and did excellently (+1350). The school has no official scores, but are they still reviewing my application with the self reported scores. Can I be rejected because of this. Also note, the official deadline for submission of all documents is Feb 1st.

google: NSF-REU programs. There is a list on the website.

@dilon1211 just look at the program pages, and see where you can possibly fit. But most biomedical science programs have deadlines of Dec 1st - Dec 15. Few have deadlines past Jan. 1st. so you need to get cracking. I hope you have you SOP, transcripts, and you LOR writers lined up because you are cutting it close. For example UMich PIBS scores fit into your range, but when you apply, you have to wait for 24-48 hours to receive a secure ID to start you applications. There deadline is Dec. 1st and it is an excellent program