What to study during the summer before starting?

[la_bonera]

Hello all!

 

I'm getting ready to start my PhD in organic chemistry. Just out of curiosity (and boredom, and anticipation), I'd love to see what others are doing during the summer to help prepare for their program.

 

I wasn't able to continue my research this summer since I'm no longer an undergraduate student and so I've been feeling pretty bored and concerned that I might be losing my skills. Silly, I know. Mostly I'm just trying to focus on enjoying my time off and the extra time with my family before the big move. I may or may not try to brush up on some reactions and gen chem stuff before I start teaching this fall.

 

For those that have already been through this, what did you do during the summer that was helpful and worth your time? What was bad? 

[EthanL]

Are you from AR or moving to AR for your PhD? I just graduate from UA Fayetteville. I don't see many people on here associated with the state. 

Do you know the primary focus of your project? I already have a pretty good idea of what I'll be doing, so I've been gathering a ton of papers to start reading. The project is outside of my previous research field, so I have a ton of stuff to learn, though.

I've also been using my brother's university ID to access Nature and other journals just to stay caught up with what's going on in the broad science community.

 

I've been struggling to find things to do as well, so I'll be interested to hear what other people have been up to.

[la_bonera]

Are you from AR or moving to AR for your PhD? I just graduate from UA Fayetteville. I don't see many people on here associated with the state. 

Do you know the primary focus of your project? I already have a pretty good idea of what I'll be doing, so I've been gathering a ton of papers to start reading. The project is outside of my previous research field, so I have a ton of stuff to learn, though.

I've also been using my brother's university ID to access Nature and other journals just to stay caught up with what's going on in the broad science community.

 

I've been struggling to find things to do as well, so I'll be interested to hear what other people have been up to.

 

Hi! I just graduated from UofA in Fayetteville! I'm going to go to CU-Boulder for my graduate work. I have a few options for what group I end up joining. I'm not entirely sure if I want to go the classical synthetic organic chemistry route or something more organic materials related, so at this point besides reading some publications there's not a lot I can do. 

 

Unfortunately the sophomore organic classes at UofA weren't as comprehensive as I would have liked. I'm pretty sure I need to go back and teach myself the last 10 chapters or so to learn some carbon-carbon forming reactions and basically everything about carbonyl chemistry. 

[EthanL]

Ha! Probably saw you around campus at some point, then. 

Having options for research groups is nice, but I guess that doesn't help you focus on readings right now. 

I dont remember much of anything from Organic I/II. I'd try to relate, but I have no idea what I did/did not learn. I guess that may be an indicator that I didn't truly learn anything at all.

Edited June 18, 2015 by EthanL

[eeee1923]

From my experience with grad level ochem - review your sophomore reaction mechanisms and reactions. Basically the classes will start to reveal why the sophomore level ochem has to be simplified to such a degree. Overall a bit of textbook reading + journal reading should be fine. Relax a bit since you won't be getting another summer where you get 3 months off