What kind of schools should I look at for Chem phd?

[erickkwangg]

Hi!

I am currently a senior (domestic applicant) at ucla and am planning on applying for an interdisciplinary/analytical chem Ph.D. program for Fall 2016. My stats are as follows:

3.45 overall GPA and 3.4 major GPA. The greatest detriment to my GPA has been organic chemistry, in which I have never gotten above a B in any of my 6 organic classes so far. I am going to try to explain that organic chemistry is definitely not my forte nor what I want to focus on in grad school, so hopefully they overlook my GPA a bit.

GRE 170 quant 163 verbal (98th and 93rd percentile). Estimating around 60-75th percentile Chem GRE score.

~3 years research experience in one lab; 2 middle author papers will most likely be published by graduation (one probably in a impact factor >8 journal) but neither will be published by the time i submit my application, and 1.5 years of experience in another lab concurrently. In both labs I worked mostly on analytical instrumentation with biological applications.

Most likely three very strong rec letters.

I am just wondering that, based on my stats, what kind of schools should I look at as "safeties" and whether I should bother applying to multiple top 10 schools, or focus more on lower ranked schools? Location doesn't matter to me as long as it's in the US.

Edited October 25, 2015 by erickkwangg

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

Hoboken Community College (HCC)

[Bioenchilada]

Purdue has the highest ranked analytical chem program and I'm a student there, so you can ask me questions if you'd like.

[Eigen]

Hi!

I am currently a senior (domestic applicant) at ucla and am planning on applying for an interdisciplinary/analytical chem Ph.D. program for Fall 2016. My stats are as follows:

3.45 overall GPA and 3.4 major GPA. The greatest detriment to my GPA has been organic chemistry, in which I have never gotten above a B in any of my 6 organic classes so far. I am going to try to explain that organic chemistry is definitely not my forte nor what I want to focus on in grad school, so hopefully they overlook my GPA a bit.

GRE 170 quant 163 verbal (98th and 93rd percentile). Estimating around 60-75th percentile Chem GRE score.

~3 years research experience in one lab; 2 middle author papers will most likely be published by graduation (one probably in a impact factor >8 journal) but neither will be published by the time i submit my application, and 1.5 years of experience in another lab concurrently. In both labs I worked mostly on analytical instrumentation with biological applications.

Most likely three very strong rec letters.

I am just wondering that, based on my stats, what kind of schools should I look at as "safeties" and whether I should bother applying to multiple top 10 schools, or focus more on lower ranked schools? Location doesn't matter to me as long as it's in the US.

Suggesting schools without knowing your particular interests within analytical chemistry is pretty useless. 

Fit it is a huge factor. 

Similarly, safety schools aren't really a thing. You still need to have a good research fit with them. 

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

Suggesting schools without knowing your particular interests within analytical chemistry is pretty useless. 

Fit it is a huge factor. 

Similarly, safety schools aren't really a thing. You still need to have a good research fit with them. 

This. The best thing to do is ask a scientist you trust about suggestions that are particular to your specific interests. Other than that, you pretty much have to go look at every program individually and see where the interesting projects are

[Eigen]

If you're having trouble finding programs, my general suggestion is to start from the literature.

Find cool papers you're interested in, see where those authors are. Check out the rest of their work.

It gets you familiar with people in your field, but also lets you find people who you'd really fit with.