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Fall 2013 Chemistry and Biochemistry


Khearts

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My undestanding is similar to djm0017. Unless you score very poorly or extremely well on the GREs then it is unlikely they will have an effect on your application. Realistically the most accurate depiction of whether or not you can be sucessfull in graduate studies will come from your SOP and especially your LORs. A good standardized test taker is not necesarily going to be a good researcher, and vice versa. As such, the people you have directly worked with for months/years writing your LORs will be able to much more effectively describe your potential than any test.

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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! ;)

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Yes, I definitely do know what you mean about the stressing, but I was just wondering what score range I should shoot for as not to draw any red flags on my application because it seems like the subject gre is going to be pretty tough cuz i dont remember most of organic from freshman yr

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Hellooooooooo everyone,

Found this nifty site while stressing over Grad App's, of course. I don't see much about analytical, but I was wondering if anyone here was applying to an analytical chem department? I'm trying to get into UNC-Chapel Hill, which is the #1 in analytical chem. I'd don't measure up on research, and my gpa is slightly above avg, but i'll list them here to help give an idea. 3.7 UGPA, and 3.5 in Chemistry, 3.7 Math (i'm double majoring.) I still have two 4 credit hour classes to take in the spring (P.chem and inorganic) and I wish that I could include that in my transcript....I've done an REU program at UT, and i'm in research now. Our chemistry program, though it's a BS degree, is not ACS certified and it sucks. Just sucks. So research is weak, though I should have done more looking back.

I go to a small private university, so I've been able to teach labs for Gen. Chem 1 (2 in spring probably), and also Calc. Based Physics. I've emailed a few of the professors I'm interested in, and all have responded which is promising. The most discouraging thing i've heard back is that the min. UGPA is 3.8. I made B's in stupid easy courses Freshman year, and I feel like I'm paying for it now.

Other school's i'm applying to are Duke, Wake Forest, GT, University of Texas at Austin, and possible UPenn. I don't exactly want to move out of the south, or go further west than Texas. After my summer in Ohio, I've been ruined for Northern/"Midwestern" schools. As silly as that is.

Any thoughts?

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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.

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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.

Alright, so I should be shooting for above 50th percentile on the subject gre to be considered at the schools I'm applying to. Also I believe I saw in a different thread that someone had mentioned the kinds of questions that usually come up on the subject gre for organic questions (what kinds of reactions are most common to be asked about). Now I can't find the thread again, does anyone know what kinds of reactions that are asked about most frequently on the test because I feel it would be better to get those down than to try to remember every organic reaction.

Thanks.

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If i remember correctly from when i studied, I think the major ones were:

Electrophilic aromatic substituion(know o,p vs m directing groups)

Nucleophilic aromatic substituion(same as above)

Grinyards(R-MgBr)

Aldol condensation

Michael Addition

SN1/Sn2

E1/E2

Addition across a double/triple bound with HX

SOCl2/ PBr3

H202/Bh3 -(I think the major point about this one is that it does anti-markovnikov)

Fiedel-Crafts

1,2-vs 1,4 addition

LiAlh4 and NaBh4

Na/Nh3(l) , Raney Nickel, h2/Pt (basically just ways to reduce a double bond)

Wittig reaction

You should also be able to pick out where the most acidic hydrogen on an molecule is. So like if its on an alpha carbon next to a carbonyl group, a benzylic carbon, etc.

Be able to name compounds, know classes of compounds(terpenes, peptides, steroids, terpenes, etc) and know how to determine sterochemistry as well as E/Z notation for double bounds.

Use should also know how each one affects the stereochemistry and whether a reaction does syn or anti addition. I believe this is essentially all i studied for the the orgo part and there were no big surprises for me. Be sure to know mechanism too, because they like to ask questions about intermediates.

This was sort of hastily put together so I apologize for any mistakes.

Edited by tyther
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Definitely. Though I found what helped me the most was going over previous test to help direct my study. I know that ets sends you one in the mail, but they also have a different one on their site.

Edited by tyther
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Thanks for the study guide, it will definitely help me a lot in preparing for the test, which I'm taking in 2 weeks. Do you think that's enough time to get all of this down while just doing a little refreshing in inorganic, pchem, and analytical?

If you're naturally gifted...then yes :) ..... It would probably take me at least a month to go through all the materials, I'm a slow reader hah.

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I do have the one they sent me and have the one they put up on the website. Additionally, I got a book that has 5 practice tests and downloaded one of the tests from the 1990s that someone here posted.

I am reviewing pchem, inorganic, and analytical pretty quickly because I retained most of that information. It is just the organic I don't remember as much from. I was going to go through all of the chapter summaries in my textbook, but I realized it will be much more efficient to just study the reactions that appear most often on the exam.

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Hellooooooooo everyone,

Found this nifty site while stressing over Grad App's, of course. I don't see much about analytical, but I was wondering if anyone here was applying to an analytical chem department? I'm trying to get into UNC-Chapel Hill, which is the #1 in analytical chem. I'd don't measure up on research, and my gpa is slightly above avg, but i'll list them here to help give an idea. 3.7 UGPA, and 3.5 in Chemistry, 3.7 Math (i'm double majoring.) I still have two 4 credit hour classes to take in the spring (P.chem and inorganic) and I wish that I could include that in my transcript....I've done an REU program at UT, and i'm in research now. Our chemistry program, though it's a BS degree, is not ACS certified and it sucks. Just sucks. So research is weak, though I should have done more looking back.

I go to a small private university, so I've been able to teach labs for Gen. Chem 1 (2 in spring probably), and also Calc. Based Physics. I've emailed a few of the professors I'm interested in, and all have responded which is promising. The most discouraging thing i've heard back is that the min. UGPA is 3.8. I made B's in stupid easy courses Freshman year, and I feel like I'm paying for it now.

Other school's i'm applying to are Duke, Wake Forest, GT, University of Texas at Austin, and possible UPenn. I don't exactly want to move out of the south, or go further west than Texas. After my summer in Ohio, I've been ruined for Northern/"Midwestern" schools. As silly as that is.

Any thoughts?

I heard that UNC favors students from North Carolina a lot more than other state schools favor students from their own state. So you being from North Carolina is a plus there.

Make sure to phrase your SOP carefully and not say or imply that you think your school's chemsistry program "sucks". Grad schools will wonder if that is how you would be talking about them in the future and not take you!

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there are two reasons for admissions not placing a ton of weight on the subject gre:

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.

One of my professors said that GRE Chem is higher for internationals because they study only chemistry classes throughout their 4-5 years while we take 1-2 classes per semester and at least as many non-chemistry classes. It is normal that they should know a lot more chemistry.

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If you're naturally gifted...then yes :) ..... It would probably take me at least a month to go through all the materials, I'm a slow reader hah.

I agree :) It is not impossible, but you need to be a very fast reader and a very fast learner ;) If you have another option, do not try it. I had my Biochemisty interview as a part of my MS application, a few years ago. I was a bichemist, and I only had 5 days to do the refreshment for Biochemistry. I would score full in that interview style exam in Biochem but I just could make it 80%. It was enough to get me at the top of the list but I was so disapponted with myself because I missed a very, awfully simple question on that interview: The drawing of the L,D isomers of any amino acid I would like to draw. :angry: So, Be very cautious on easy stuff ;)

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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.

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Yeah, timing was fine for me on the test, I was just surprised with how many biology/biochemistry questions were on this test because I hadn't seen anywhere near this amount on previous exams I took for practice.

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I'm just updating my post from last time:

Stats

GPA: 3.2/3.3 for Major/Cumulative

GRE General - Q:164(90%) V:162(89%) AW 4.5(73%) Chemistry GRE: 740 (59%) I think this is an acceptable(but not great) score for the schools I am applying to. Wish it was higher though to make up for my gpa.

Experience- 2 summers and an academic year

1 publication to a fairly high ranked journal which I was first author(pending acceptance) rejected :angry:

1 poster presentation at a conference

1 talk at conference

Also I was TA for a gen chem lab and worked in the chemistry stock room for a summer

2 solid LoR and 1 alright one

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I'm just updating my post from last time:

Stats

GPA: 3.2/3.3 for Major/Cumulative

GRE General - Q:164(90%) V:162(89%) AW 4.5(73%) Chemistry GRE: 740 (59%) I think this is an acceptable(but not great) score for the schools I am applying to. Wish it was higher though to make up for my gpa.

Experience- 2 summers and an academic year

1 publication to a fairly high ranked journal which I was first author(pending acceptance) rejected :angry:

1 poster presentation at a conference

1 talk at conference

Also I was TA for a gen chem lab and worked in the chemistry stock room for a summer

2 solid LoR and 1 alright one

What are you applying for?

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Faraday,

I'm applying for Ph.D programs at UChicago, Northwestern, UI-Urbana-Champaign, UBoston, UMichigan, Washington State University, SUNY, and U Wisconsin.

Edited by tyther
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Got my score back from the October chemistry GRE: 830 (83% below). I was wondering how this stacks up for top-tier schools... I know it's not the 99th percentile, but I don't really have any idea if this is decent/mediocre/a bit low. I'm a domestic student, if that makes any difference.

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