ghostar

Would it hurt to report a chemistry GRE of 730 (58%) to schools that strongly recommend it (some even says looked favorably)?

Ugh, I can't read, just saw that your interests are in physical chemistry & materials. Never mind my question

Which program are you applying to (i.e. what type of chemistry)? I'd definitely recommend having a recommendation letter from your internship.

Hi TakeruK, thanks for your super detailed response! It’s helpful to hear from a current graduate student about these things. I agree that advisor preference is highly specific to the student - I can already see some differences in our preference for advising style Also agreed with your statement that no advisor is perfect. I’m still curious though if there are any definitive characteristics of good/bad advisors that do not depend on student preference. In your case, for example, is it possible that an advisor who meets all the criteria that you listed could still be a bad one for your graduate education? Since the main purpose of grad school is scientific training, and our advisors are supposed to play a significant role in this process, I’m wondering what distinguishes the good/bad advisors in this aspect. What are examples of good/bad advising in scientific training?—maybe I should have phrased the question this way.

What are some characteristics of good (and bad, for that matter) advisors in chemistry? I’ve heard phrases such as “the most important thing is to find a good advisor”, “person is way more important than project” quite frequently, but I just realized that I don’t know what a good/bad advisor really means. This issue especially surfaced when I talked with some grad students I met this summer who claimed to have significant qualms about their advisors. They mentioned things like expecting weekend work, embarrassing them in group meetings by grilling them (and only them, not other group members) with nit-picky questions, requiring (as opposed to recommending) them to apply for external fellowships, but to me, those things don’t sound too terrible. A common theme in these students’ comments was that their advisors have way too high of an expectation, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, as I would much rather have an advisor that expects too much than too little. What these students were describing sounded more like “bad relationship with their advisors” as opposed to “bad advisors,” which I don’t think are the same thing. I’d appreciate any input you guys have on this topic, examples of good/bad advising from personal experiences would be especially helpful. Thanks.

Who cares?

You joined a PhD program with the intention of leaving it the next year? I'm not sure how the admission committees would see that. Seems unprofessional to me.

It may be a long time since the professors themselves went through the grad school process, but still, I'd hope that they are way more familiar with the process than the students are. If not, I hope they know younger professors who are in better positions to help. My belief that students should take initiative to seek out help still stands. Well, I did too, so let's hope admission committees don't reject me for having spent two years of my undergrad at a CC! Going to CC doesn't prevent you from doing research, however. Again, talk to your professors. They may not have research labs themselves, but they definitely know other faculty at bigger institutions who might be willing to take in a student of their close friends. This is how I got my first research opportunity. I hope this post encourages, rather than discourage, those students lacking access to research opportunities at their own institutions to talk to their professors about anything possible.

Unfair for students coming from the background that you describe, yes, but not unreasonable from the graduate programs' perspective. If students are considering grad school as an option but are not familiar with the system, I'd say it's the job of their professors to inform them and help them find opportunities that will prepare them for grad school. On the flip side, students should take the initiative to discuss their academic interests and future directions with their professors. You're comparing apples to oranges by comparing grad school to college. Colleges is more similar to secondary education in that it consists mostly of going to classes and doing some extracurricular activities. Grad school is different.

I see. I understand the problem of finding research opportunities at SLACs because I go to one myself. Like Cookie said, try to explain very clearly in your SOP what you have learned from your experiences in the molecular biology & organic synthesis labs, and how they inform your research interests for the future. Why are you interested in continuing organic synthesis? How can your research experience in molecular biology be helpful for your graduate research? These are questions that I would be curious about given your story and would be good to keep in mind as you work on your SOP. The TA and presentation experiences are helpful too. Definitely mention them, but don't belabor them too much. When looking for graduate programs, I'd strongly recommend looking at where the PIs doing interesting research are, as opposed to the school name & program ranking. I've met professors who turned down offers from various top 10 schools to go to University of Kansas just to work for Dale Boger, for example, and this worked out well for their careers. Try to find PIs who are researching topics that you find interesting, look in the current literature and see what research catches your attention. .

My apologies, part of the mistake was in my misunderstanding of OP's post. Perhaps I should re-phrase the question this way: If you considered grad school as a future option in your freshman year, why didn't you seek out research experience much earlier? What made you consider grad school if not the research experience? Like, everyone? At least everyone who is interested in studying science. This is not an unreasonable expectation for freshmen planning to major in the sciences. Even most high school students know this. OP, my recommendation for you would be to stay in your current RNA virology lab and continue working on your project. Do you enjoy what you're currently doing? Do you have any ideas for future experiments you would like to try? If so, I would strongly recommend that you speak with your advisor to discuss future research directions and any opportunity for independently-proposed research. This experience will be highly valuable in grad school. I'm sure he/she will appreciate your taking initiative and be open to ideas, too, or I hope so.

Grad school is all research. How could you have been sure about wanting to go to grad school without understanding the importance of research experience? This leads me to question your motivation & preparedness for grad school. Like you said, your research experience is very limited. It's very hard to accomplish much in a single semester, much less in organic synthesis, especially if you're starting out fresh and taking time to learn all the techniques. Did you have prior experience doing organic synthesis research? What exactly did you accomplish in the two labs that you worked in? Having a well-defined research interest for grad school does nothing to help your application. Anyone can go ahead and say in the personal statement that "I have a very strong interest in <insert topic>." What matters more is the evidence for your stated interest, and this is why previous research experience is so important. Undergraduate research experiences help the applicant realize whether or not he/she enjoys research in the first place, and if so, they help inform his/her future research interests. Given your research background, I would be hardly convinced by your reasons for wanting to attend grad school (i.e. something besides "there's nothing else for me to do") and being interested in the specific fields you mentioned. Another thing is letters of recommendation. LORs are extremely important in grad school applications. A student who worked few years in a single lab will have a much stronger LOR than a student who only dipped their feet into the project, and you'll be competing with other students who have spent multiple years on each of their multiple projects, FYI.

3.93 GPA, Goldwater Honorable Mention, 2 manuscripts submitted for publication, ACS presentations, diverse research experiences.. I'm a little (*sarcasm*) confused as to why you are concerned. Assuming that all your personal statements & recommendation letters are superb (which seems valid), an admission committee would have to be real dicks to reject you because of GRE Verbal score. Are you international? If not, I wouldn't worry and focus on the rest of your apps instead. Good luck on Chem GRE!

Hello everyone, I unfortunately received a score of 152 (59%) on my GRE Verbal section. How much impact will this low score have on my overall application? Is it worth retaking? Also, I wonder if there is anything such as an "implied minimum" for the Verbal score (i.e. as long as the score is above some threshold, the admission committee doesn't care what it is). FYI, I got 170 on Quantitative and 4.5 on analytical writing, and my GPA is 3.6 (major 3.9).

Hi everyone, I am a second-year undergraduate chemistry major who just began working in a professor's lab this semester. I would like to work with this professor throughout my college years, as she is the only professor in my field of interest (organic chemistry). However, she is going on sabbatical during my junior year, which would create a gap year in my undergraduate research career. What do you guys suggest that I do during what could potentially be a missing year of research? Is there anyone on this forum who has been in this situation, undergraduate and/or graduate? The current juniors in the lab, who would otherwise be doing their senior theses with this professors, were told to ask other professors in the department for their senior project. Should I do something similar and work in another group in a different field (i.e. inorganic, biochemistry) for a year and come back to the organic lab my senior year? I am ultimately interested in attending graduate school in organic chemistry. Thanks in advance.