Thinking of getting into chemistry, please advise

[Rosenphelia Godot]

Hey everybody. 

 

Nearly 3 years removed from college--graduating with a lib.arts degree. Since then, I've gotten tremendously into science. I read about it daily and even have various textbooks for scientific fields that I read. More specifically, I've been reading a lot about exoplanets. 

 

So, yeah, I really love space and space exploration but I don't have the mathemetical abilities for astrophysics, yet I would ideally want to pursue something involving space in some capacity. From reading all the science textbooks I have, seems like it'd be most realistic for me to do chemistry but I love space, that's the issue. 

 

Also, at 25 it'd be potential life-dooming if I messed it up. 

 

So what do you guys think I should do? Like I wouldn't know the first thing about going back to school as an adult. Obviously, I know I'd have to get a bachelor's degree first but I'm posting here because I'd be pursuing graduate study afterwards. 

 

Have any of you ever gone back to school after your initial run? Is it worth it? 

 

Thanks so much. Please don't be mean or judge me.

[DropTheBase]

I'm not an older student, but at least three of my classmates were. They started their chemistry bachelors degrees between 24-27 and are all now in graduate school. All of them are very happy with what they're doing. 

 

From my conversations with them, they told me the second time around was easier. They weren't sure if it was because they were just older or the stress level wasn't as high as their previous jobs. So I wouldn't worry about "messing up." 

 

It's certainly a long road from where you are now to the end of your graduate studies, but I imagine most chemistry PhD students are in grad school because they genuinely want to learn more about nature.

 

---

 

On a separate note, that's fantastic that you want to get into science! Astrochemistry is actually an emerging field. In an age where we will actually start landing on other planets and asteroids, someone is going to have to analyze the chemistry! The most recent rover sent to Mars, for example, possessed spectroscopy equipment. How about just getting to other places in space? A chemist has to figure out the best rocket propellant, the most efficient batteries to run space equipment on, and of course make the materials that will convert energy (i.e. solar panels, thermoelectric materials...etc.). 

 

And that's just space! Chemistry is everywhere. You can study pretty much any sub-division of chemistry and see how the knowledge concepts directly apply to your daily life. 

 

DTB

[Eatin' Biscuits]

I'm about to graduate with my 2nd Bachelor's degree this week at age 37. My first degree was in Poli Sci from a SLAC and my new degree is a double major in Biochemistry and Chemistry. The way I looked at it was.. I still have probably 30 years of work ahead of me, so it's worth some time/money investment to get a job I actually like. That wasn't going to happen without getting a whole new degree so I quit my job and went back to school. Most schools I looked at (including the one I attended) only required me to take the courses needed for the major and waived the foundations/general education requirements. I took my freshman chemistry classes at community college so it only took me 2.5 years to finish the second time around.

 

Like DTB's classmates I found the 2nd degree a lot easier. I treated my coursework as if it were my job. I went to the library at 8:00 every day to study, and if I wasn't in class or in lab then I was studying more. At 5:00 every day I shut down and went home to my family. For me, it was absolutely worth it. I should note that my wife makes enough money that I didn't have to go into debt to do this. If you do go back you should do it knowing how it's going to affect you financially and recognize it doesn't guarantee that you end up in your dream job when you're done. 

[Rosenphelia Godot]

Thanks so much! 

 

How did you afford it, Biscuits, if you don't mind me asking? Did you just take out more loans? And did you have a full-time job while you were getting your 2nd PhD? 

 

@DroptheBase: Thanks. Do you happen to know how your classmates did these things as well? 

 

Now, assuming I wanted to do astrochemistry, how would I find out what are the best schools for that?

[DropTheBase]

@DroptheBase: Thanks. Do you happen to know how your classmates did these things as well? 

 

Which things?

 

Now, assuming I wanted to do astrochemistry, how would I find out what are the best schools for that?

 

It's a very very new field. There are no good schools for it yet! 

 

The best thing you can do is get the best fundamental chemistry education degree you can (i.e. undergraduate schools with strong chemistry programs, in general). The process for finding those schools is the same as for any other major.

 

After that, you will hopefully figure out which chemistry sub-field you like most, and different graduate schools are more prestigious than others for certain sub-fields than others. For example, UNC's graduate school is famous for analytical chemistry and Scripps is famous for organic chemistry. But you're still a long road from having to worry about which graduate school you want to attend.

 

DTB

[Rosenphelia Godot]

Which things?

 

 

It's a very very new field. There are no good schools for it yet! 

 

The best thing you can do is get the best fundamental chemistry education degree you can (i.e. undergraduate schools with strong chemistry programs, in general). The process for finding those schools is the same as for any other major.

 

After that, you will hopefully figure out which chemistry sub-field you like most, and different graduate schools are more prestigious than others for certain sub-fields than others. For example, UNC's graduate school is famous for analytical chemistry and Scripps is famous for organic chemistry. But you're still a long road from having to worry about which graduate school you want to attend.

 

DTB

 

Thanks, man!

 

Re: Other things, the things I mentioned to Eatin' Biscuits in the earlier part of the post: Money, and the like.

[Eatin' Biscuits]

How did you afford it, Biscuits, if you don't mind me asking? Did you just take out more loans? And did you have a full-time job while you were getting your 2nd PhD? 

 

I quit my job and just went to school full-time. My wife's income supported us so I didn't have to take out any loans.

[AaronSankey]

I'm not an older student, but at least three of my classmates were. They started their chemistry bachelors degrees between 24-27 and are all now in graduate school. All of them are very happy with what they're doing. 

 

From my conversations with them, they told me the second time around was easier. They weren't sure if it was because they were just older or the stress level wasn't as high as their previous jobs. So I wouldn't worry about "messing up." 

 

It's certainly a long road from where you are now to the end of your graduate studies, but I imagine most chemistry PhD students are in grad school because they genuinely want to learn more about nature.

 

---

 

On a separate note, that's fantastic that you want to get into science! Astrochemistry is actually an emerging field. In an age where we will actually start landing on other planets and asteroids, someone is going to have to analyze the chemistry! The most recent rover sent to Mars, for example, possessed spectroscopy equipment. How about just getting to other places in space? A chemist has to figure out the best rocket propellant, the most efficient batteries to run space equipment on, and of course make the materials that will convert energy (i.e. solar panels, thermoelectric materials...etc.). 

 

And that's just space! Chemistry is everywhere. You can study pretty much any sub-division of chemistry and see how the knowledge concepts directly apply to your daily life. 

 

DTB

Chemistry is surely everywhere.. No aspect in our life is without chemistry. So there is plenty to work and learn

[bsharpe269]

if you dont want to get an entire bachelors again since you already have one, you could look into doing a postbac. I know med students who switch field sometimes do them and they basically fill you in on all of your basic science classes and include chemistry through orgranic. If you get involved with a professor there in chemistry research then I think that you would be in a good place to apply to masters programs.

 

The undergrad to phd route works well too... just wanted to throw in another option!

[AaronSankey]

I'm not an older student, but at least three of my classmates were. They started their chemistry bachelors degrees between 24-27 and are all now in graduate school. All of them are very happy with what they're doing. 

 

From my conversations with them, they told me the second time around was easier. They weren't sure if it was because they were just older or the stress level wasn't as high as their previous jobs. So I wouldn't worry about "messing up." 

 

It's certainly a long road from where you are now to the end of your graduate studies, but I imagine most chemistry PhD students are in grad school because they genuinely want to learn more about nature.

 

---

 

On a separate note, that's fantastic that you want to get into science! Astrochemistry is actually an emerging field. In an age where we will actually start landing on other planets and asteroids, someone is going to have to analyze the chemistry! The most recent rover sent to Mars, for example, possessed spectroscopy equipment. How about just getting to other places in space? A chemist has to figure out the best rocket propellant, the most efficient batteries to run space equipment on, and of course make the materials that will convert energy (i.e. peimar solar, thermoelectric materials...etc.). 

 

And that's just space! Chemistry is everywhere. You can study pretty much any sub-division of chemistry and see how the knowledge concepts directly apply to your daily life. 

 

DTB

Chemistry is surely everywhere.. No aspect in our life is without chemistry. So there is plenty to work and learn

Anybody else interested in Chemistry..

[Schrodie]

It's never too late! 

[prolixity]

Thanks so much! 

 

How did you afford it, Biscuits, if you don't mind me asking? Did you just take out more loans? And did you have a full-time job while you were getting your 2nd PhD? 

 

@DroptheBase: Thanks. Do you happen to know how your classmates did these things as well? 

 

Now, assuming I wanted to do astrochemistry, how would I find out what are the best schools for that?

 

 

Okay.  You are interested in astrochemistry and that's fantastic.  Here's a photo of my desk, just so you know that I know what I'm talking about.

 

You're going to need mathematical skills.  This is true of even just vanilla chemistry, but especially true for astrochemistry.  Many of the big problems in astrochemistry are solid-state problems, and the experimental setups to probe these systems involve surface analysis.. and these require mathematical skills.   You're going to need to know how dynamic dipoles behave on metal and oxide surfaces; you're going to need to know how light interacts with substrates, how terminations of bulk produce electronic surface states, how physical and chemical adsorption works, how to account for quantitative measures in mass spectroscopy, how to develop microkinetic models for fundamental reactions on surfaces, etc. etc. etc.  

 

It's not easy, but it's not impossible either.  You'll find the experimental setups (UHV chambers) to be very fun to play with, very easy to break, and very frustrating to fix.  You'll learn more spectroscopic techniques than you ever imagined existed (In my four years of surface science, I've performed:  XPS, UPS, ISS, LEED, Quantitative temperature programmed desorption, Quantitative temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy, Quantitative isothermal desorption spectroscopy, Quantitative isothermal reaction spectroscopy, RAIRS, HREELS, TAP, AES, STM, di/dv stm.. all sorts of analyses).  To be an effective researcher, you will have to know how to write scripts for automated data analysis and most importantly, how to solve differential equations.  There's no getting around it.  You will need to know physical chemistry better than your peers in your undergraduate institution.

 

As far as places to be:

 

Anywhere with an established Astrophysics/Astronomy department will likely have an astrochemist or two.  Syracuse, Harvard, University of Hawaii, Princeton, a bunch of places in Europe, and a ton of other schools out there will do you well.  

Edited April 25, 2014 by prolixity