Columbia Chem?

[Guest chem2006]

trying to decide which school for chem phd. anyone know about chem department in columbia?

do you think it is a good place to go for a chem phd? any input is appreciated! Thanks

[Guest Guest]

Have you visited? That tells you most about a school, especially schools that are in the caliber of Columbia. Columbia is obviously very well-respected and they have a very strong chemistry faculty (at least for organic). Go wherever you got along with the professors best and go with wherever they have the most exciting research to you.

[Guest chem1006]

i am going to visit columbia next weekend. the reason i asked this question here is that i feel people won't tell anything bad about the school or the sale days. at least, that is my impression from my previous visits. so, i really need some unbiased advice. thank you very much! i really appreciate it.

[Guest Guest]

well, Columbia definitely has a good academic reputation (one of the top among Ivies). The only one with a better reputation (for organic, anyway) is Harvard. Which branch of chemistry are you in? Because reputation is highly dependent on the field. For instance, Harvard is wonderful in organic chemistry, but their inorganic chemistry department is practically nonexistent.

[Guest chem2006]

I am very interested in organic, that is why i applied to columbia. i understand that they have a very strong organic branch, but i also heard from people in other schools that columbia is aging. :roll: maybe because they just don't want to say anything good about other schools. but this is indeed my main concern. thank you very much for the reply!!!! are you also chemistry major? if so, which school are you going to?

[Guest Guest]

ah ha! so you haven't heard about the, not one, but TWO new chemistry hires in organic!!! Apparently, the guys are really really sharp, and they'll be at the visit weekend (which I'll also be attending...)

[Guest chem2006]

nice! columbia is my top choice! hopefully, we will be classmates this fall!

[Vanderboy]

Hey Everyone,

I'm a bit late to the party but hopefully someone can help me. I'm applying next year for the 2011 Fall semester. I know I'll apply to Columbia, NYU, Stony Brook, and Rutgers, prolly Princeton and maybe Cornell too. If you can't tell i'm trying to stay within a reasonable distance to NYC for personal reasons. I have a detailed profile of what I've done but in a nutshell...

Vanderbilt University Chemistry, 3.33 GPA Q800 V610 A5.0 Chem 680, 3 years UG research, no publications. Lots of course work when OSU classes are included, very biochem oriented. Ideally I'd go to Columbia and work for Cornish or Breslow but there are plenty of profs there i'd love to work for.

Do I have a shot or am I setting myself up for failure?

Should i retake the Chem GRE or maybe the BIOCHEM one?

[prolixity]

Your GREs are fine. Don't sweat them. I got into top schools with a lower chem GRE score than you.

[so47]

What prolixity said, unless you're international, though I doubt that from your AW score. They tend to hold higher standards for international students. I didn't apply to Columbia, but I got into and am attending Cornell next year with GRE's lower than yours. The only thing you listed that MIGHT hurt you is GPA, in general the GPA's of those who got into Cornell this year ranged from 3.5-4.0. (One of the profs there listed them off to us, without names of course) But if you have good letters of recommendation, you can probably make up for a slightly lower GPA. They will love your 3 years of research experience though, regardless of not having publications.

Don't sweat it to much, but definitely give yourself a healthy range of schools to apply to, which the ones you listed appear to be. It has gotten really competitive these last few years with the economy so bad. For instance, I applied to 5 schools, got into Cornell which was the highest "ranked" (~9), got rejected from one of my safety schools (rank ~73), and got rejected from Yale which is not "ranked" as high as Cornell for chem (~15). Not that rankings mean too much, but it just goes to show you can't really anticipate where you will get in. If my guess had come true, I would have got in everywhere but Cornell, which definitely didn't happen!

Good luck! I think you will be fine, you are way ahead of the game! I hadn't even taken my GREs this time last year