Chemistry PhD: Which one should I attend?

[Sara94]

Hey Everyone.

There is very close to April 15th, so I need to decide as soon as possible. But I really don't know which program is better. I've been accepted into the following schools :

1) University of Notre Dame-Chemistry

2) Virginia Tech- Theoretical Chemistry

3) Clemson University-Chemistry

Chemistry Ranking: UND> VT> Clemson

Stipend: UND > Clemson > VT

I am not sure about my future research direction. If I choose VT, I might do theoretical chemistry research. And if I choose UND, I will do analytical chemistry research. The research environment and school location are very important to me. Could you please give me some advice? I am very appreciated! Thank you so much in advance! 

[BlakeNMR]

2nd year bio-analytical chemist here.

My thoughts:

- Compare stipend to cost of living. This is different than stipend amount alone. You don't want to be worrying about making ends meet in your city while in the throngs of teaching, taking classes, finding a research group, and doing research. 

- Fit with a research prof is most important, and if they have a big name in your field, it matters less where you go. However, even though rankings don't *really* matter, they still instill first impressions and people think they matter so they do matter. If you're not sure exactly what you want to do, going to a more highly ranked school will ensure that whoever you do end up working for is a higher impact PI. Look at the list of students who got the NSF GRFP--I'm sure there is a direct correlation between school rank and # of awards offered to school. 

- Be sure whatever school you go to has minimum 3 people you would be happy to work for--start talking to them now and see if you can do a rotation in one of their labs this summer to assess fit. If you only have 1-2 profs who you want to work for, and for whatever reason it doesn't work out, you get stuck in a program that doesn't match your research interests or you have to go somewhere else.

- What sub discipline of theoretical/analytical are you thinking? If it's bio-related, look for a school with a strong medical program and seek a prof who applies the analytical technique to collaborations with these medical professors. I would also go with analytical over theoretical based on job prospects, but I'm biased.

Without knowing your situation, I would pick UND based on my criteria. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck on your decision.

Edited April 9, 2019 by BlakeNMR
clarify a few ideas

[Sara94]

1 hour ago, BlakeNMR said:

2nd year bio-analytical chemist here.

My thoughts:

- Compare stipend to cost of living. You don't want to be worrying about making ends meet in your city while in the throngs of teaching, taking classes, finding a research group, and doing research.

- Fit with a research prof is most important and if they have a big name in your field, it matters less where you go. However, even though rankings don't *really* matter, they still instill first impressions and people think they matter so they do matter. They also bring in high impact professors who you can more easily collaborate with since they're in the same dept. Look at the list of students who got the NSF GRFP--I'm sure there is a direct correlation between school rank and # of awards offered to school. 

- Be sure whatever school you go to has 3 people you would be happy to work for--start talking to them now and see if you can do a rotation in one of their labs this summer to assess fit. If you only have 1-2 profs who you want to work for, and for whatever reason it doesn't work out, you get stuck in a program that doesn't match your research interests or you have to go somewhere else.

- What sub discipline of theoretical/analytical are you thinking? If it's bio-related, look for a school with a strong medical program and seek a prof who applies the analytical technique to collaborations with these medical professors. I would also go with analytical over theoretical based on job prospects

Without knowing your situation, I would pick UND based on my criteria. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck on your decision.

Thank you so much. I'm interested in computational chemistry. While considering finding jobs, I would choose analytical chemistry. I don't have much background in the bio-related research, would this be a problem for me?

[BlakeNMR]

Happy to help.

I didn't have any background in bio when I started grad school, but I saw that a lot of funding is in medicine; many pure-chemistry innovations require impact in the bio realm to stay relevant and get funded. All of my grad classes have been some form of biochemistry to fill in the gaps. I'm not doing pure biology (chem with biochem concentration), and I think part of getting your PhD is learning enough of other fields to know where your research fits and how you can provide value in a collaboration that may be more high impact. Of course this varies and there are exceptions, but don't be afraid to learn it--you'll have a lot of great mentorship opportunities from people who know their stuff.  

In your case, for example, computational chem can include molecular dynamics simulations, which are frequently applied to elucidate interactions between biomolecules.

I welcome more traditional chemists on this forum to provide a differing perspective for OP. 

Edited April 9, 2019 by BlakeNMR

[Sara94]

1 hour ago, BlakeNMR said:

Happy to help.

I didn't have any background in bio when I started grad school, but I saw that a lot of funding is in medicine; many pure-chemistry innovations require impact in the bio realm to stay relevant and get funded. All of my grad classes have been some form of biochemistry to fill in the gaps. I'm not doing pure biology (chem with biochem concentration), and I think part of getting your PhD is learning enough of other fields to know where your research fits and how you can provide value in a collaboration that may be more high impact. Of course this varies and there are exceptions, but don't be afraid to learn it--you'll have a lot of great mentorship opportunities from people who know their stuff.  

In your case, for example, computational chem can include molecular dynamics simulations, which are frequently applied to elucidate interactions between biomolecules.

I welcome more traditional chemists on this forum to provide a differing perspective for OP. 

Thanks for your suggestion! There are also some professors in UND doing computational chemistry. Therefore choosing UND might be better for me.

Again, thanks so much!