Fall 2018 Cycle

[ketchup]

1 hour ago, raul.carmo said:

I've heard that the chances of acceptance are lower for international students for several reasons. Are there any chemistry PhD programs in the US known for high international acceptance rates? I've been told that two of the institutions I applied to almost never admit international students and now I am worried about not having applied to the right programs.

Usually acceptance rates for international students are higher at private institutions than at public institutions.

I think this is because at private institutions it costs the same to fund domestic and international students. This is not true at public institutions where a non US citizen's tuition is substantially higher than a US citizen's since the latter can qualify as an 'in-state' student when they've lived in the state for a time.

However there are other reasons why international students may be disadvantaged such as familiarity of school/recommender/grading system... but this is true at any school.

Edited January 4, 2018 by ukchemist

[WenChun]

So i'm a  bit late to the party, but here's my stats

Undergrad Institution: Small international campus of a well known private US university  
Majors: Chemistry (w/ specialization in Biochemistry)
Minors: Applied Mathematics and Urbanization
GPA in Major: 3.44 (chemistry)
Overall GPA: 3.4 
Position in Class: unknown
Type of Student: US citizen, male 

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 164 (87%)
V: 163 (93%)
W: 4.0 (60%)
S:  770 (Chemistry)

Research Experience: 

Started research after sophomore year (was undecided through freshman year) so 2 groups/projects at home university, 1 REU at a public US university.  Focused on a range of topics from materials, organic, and biochemistry.  2 papers in review, 1 manuscript in preparation.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

• ACS International Student Travel Grant
• REU gave me a travel grant for the Top 3 presentation
• Honors Research Grant
• Finalist, National Undergrad Research Competition
• Summer research fellowships
• Named scholarship for undergrad

 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

Miscellaneous Accomplishments or Special Bonus Points that Might Help:

• Presented at 8 poster sessions (both smaller local events and international/national meetings)
• President of the International ACS Student Chapter

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

• Founded a startup incubator
• Lead community initiatives based around connecting our new uni with the local community (education based)
• Managed charitable fund (on committee)
• ACS and ISBC membership

Applying to Where:

All applications are for chemistry PhD with focus on chemical biology and synthetic chemistry unless otherwise specified.

• Georgia Tech
• Tri-institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology 
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne
• Duke
• Northwestern
• University of Chicago
• Cornell
• University of Wisconsin-Madison (IPiB and Chemistry)
• Stanford
• University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
• University of California - San Diego
• University of Michigan 

 

[someth1ngAus]

17 hours ago, raul.carmo said:

I've heard that the chances of acceptance are lower for international students for several reasons. Are there any chemistry PhD programs in the US known for high international acceptance rates? I've been told that two of the institutions I applied to almost never admit international students and now I am worried about not having applied to the right programs.

As ukchemist said, it's usually higher at private universities where tuition is equal. However, you'll find that international acceptance rates are almost always lower (eg at Princeton, it's around 20% for US and around 10% for internationals). I don't think that's a result of international students being more competitive. Many non-US programs are not well-known (ie can't tell if a GPA is actually good) and a lot of applicants come from non-English speaking backgrounds (ie most of Asia/South America/Africa) which is basically a rejection by default. If you actually look at acceptance rates for applicants from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and some Nordic countries where applicants are usually fluent, acceptance rates are usually on-par with US acceptance rates.

[rw16202]

Late to the party! 

 

Undergrad Institution: Large US public university
Majors: Chemistry, Spanish Lit (actually double degree) 
Minors: none
GPA in Major: ???? I literally don't remember, my school doesn't calculate this
Overall GPA: 3.68
Position in Class: ?
Type of Student: US citizen, female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 159 (73%)
V: 159 (83%)
W: 5.0 (93%)
S:  yikes

Research Experience: 

Did 2 years of research in microbio lab (professor was affiliated with chem department) sophomore and junior years, including summers

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: In honors program at my university/got my honors citation

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: orgo I & II lab TA, orgo II discussion TA

Miscellaneous Accomplishments or Special Bonus Points that Might Help: uhh...woman in STEM? 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: member of ACS and Alpha Chi Sigma (chem fraternity)

Applying to Where:

All PhD programs with focus on Physical Chemistry

UVA

Georgia Tech

Emory

University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign

University of Colorado - Boulder

University of Arizona 

Caltech

University of California - Davis

 

Rejected - ?/8

Accepted - 1/8 (Boulder)

Waitlisted - ?/8

Edited January 6, 2018 by rw16202
adding information

[bioinorg]

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Chem Public Research Institution
Majors: Chemistry and Math
Minors: Biochemistry 
GPA in Major: 3.54 (chem)
Overall GPA: 3.23 
Position in Class: unknown
Type of Student: Domestic male/naturalized citizen

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 167 (91st %ile)
V: 159 (83rd %ile)
W: 4.5 (82th %ile)
S:  N/A

Research Experience: 

Stem Cell Cell Biology, Bioorganic Protein Chemistry, Structural Biochemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Undergraduate Researcher of Excellence 

Class of 2018 award for research 

 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

N/A

Miscellaneous Accomplishments or Special Bonus Points that Might Help:

•  

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

• 
  Applying to Where - All Inorganic/Bioinorganic, interested in some biophysical work; mainly spectroscopy 

MIT - Call from PI

UC Berkeley - Waiting

Northwestern - Accepted 

Illinois - Waiting

Chicago - Waiting (Guessing Im rejected?)

Cornell - Same as Chicago?

Michigan - Accepted 

Georgia Tech - Waiting

Texas - Waiting 

Research >>  Grades 

 

 

[singinglupines]

Cross posted from the other thread haha.

Undergrad Institution: Ohio University
Major(s): Forensic Chemistry
Minor(s): French
GPA in Major: 3.35
Overall GPA: 3.49
Position in Class: ? 
Type of Student: Female, domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 158
V: 162
W: 4.0
S: N/A

Research Experience: Two summer internships, 1.5 years of undergrad research.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Been working for five years since graduation, three years in my field, two years teaching English abroad.

Special Bonus Points: Female in STEM?

Applying to Where:

University of Washington - Analytical Chemistry

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor - Analytical Chemistry

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - Analytical Chemistry (Accepted!!)

University of Arizona - Analytical Chemistry

[Flyera]

Considering a good amount of offers have been sent out by Berkeley and Northwestern, does anyone have any insight into a waiting applicant's remaining chances of admission to these schools' programs?

[pchem2018]

I haven't looked much into Northwestern (as I didn't apply there) but I have a friend who got into Berkeley last week and he said that the professor he spoke to said the organic committee just finished their first round of acceptances, so if you're looking into going into physical or something like that they might not have finished looking at applicants (that's the boat I'm in). Additionally, if you look back at the results page over the past few years, you'll see that they give probably about half their acceptances in the second half of January, and from the people that have posted it looks like organic usually gets acceptances first before physical. I don't know if you're applying to physical, but if you are that might give you some comfort.

[Flyera]

I applied for physical and targeted biophysical/chem-bio groups in my application. I know at least one person on this site has gotten into Berkeley for physical, but that's interesting info -- thanks!

[Zinniak]

Anyone like me who hasn't heard back from a single school? I'm already starting to panic...

[raul.carmo]

Guys, how bad is it if one of your references submit the LoR after the application deadline? Some programs I applied to were open until Jan. 1 and this professor just uploaded the document today, now I am worried that this have killed my application.

Edited January 8, 2018 by raul.carmo

[raul.carmo]

1 hour ago, Zinniak said:

Anyone like me who hasn't heard back from a single school? I'm already starting to panic...

Me too, but most schools I applied to are only sending acceptances after Jan 15 so I am trying not to panic. Waiting is the worst part though, I'd prefer to do 10 GREs in a day than waiting over a month to hear back from schools lol

Edited January 8, 2018 by raul.carmo

[boulderboi]

1 hour ago, raul.carmo said:

Guys, how bad is it if one of your references submit the LoR after the application deadline? Some programs I applied to were open until Jan. 1 and this professor just uploaded the document today, now I am worried that this have killed my application.

Don’t worry about this. I ended up having to change recommenders AFTER the deadline for all of my schools because my original recommender went off the grid. All of the schools said it was fine. They understand that’s the aspect of the application you have the least control over.

[bioinorg]

1 hour ago, Zinniak said:

Anyone like me who hasn't heard back from a single school? I'm already starting to panic...

Where'd you apply? 

But honestly, I wouldn't panic - some PIs are just settling back from holiday and put off apps until after the new year, give it a little more time 

[raul.carmo]

4 minutes ago, bioinorg said:

Where'd you apply? 

But honestly, I wouldn't panic - some PIs are just settling back from holiday and put off apps until after the new year, give it a little more time 

Yes, specially if you are a late applicant like I am (I applied on christmas day to most programs). Also, there are schools that only start to send decisions after Jan. 15 so you should be fine. Try checking the admissions board to see if people are receiving offers from the institutions you've applied.

Edited January 8, 2018 by raul.carmo

[Flyera]

The most recent offer from Berkeley is pretty intriguing. GPA of 3.3 and no chemistry score.

[raul.carmo]

4 minutes ago, Flyera said:

The most recent offer from Berkeley is pretty intriguing. GPA of 3.3 and no chemistry score.

Maybe strong research experience/publications ??? I know people that went to Berkeley with a GPA lower than 3.0 but were lucky enough to be in very active research groups and ended up with >5 1st author publications when they graduated. 

[pchem2018]

30 minutes ago, Flyera said:

The most recent offer from Berkeley is pretty intriguing. GPA of 3.3 and no chemistry score.

The applicant did say they were shocked. I have heard of stranger things, and I assume that something else in their application caught the admission committee's eye.

[KentuckyFriedChemistry]

On 1/2/2018 at 5:18 PM, KentuckyFriedChemistry said:

I’m a little late to the forum, oh well  

i think my main issue is that I’m worried I’ve reached too high in terms of schools and that I’m going to have screwed my self over. I really specifically want to do green-inorganic chemistry I know for a fact so I’m hoping that me already knowing want I want to do and being very specific with it will help me? Who knows, but any thoughts are appreciated!

 

 

 

Undergrad Institution: Small Regional Public School

Major: Chemistry 

Minor(s): Liberal Arts
GPA in Major: 3.2
Overall GPA: 3.4
Type of Student: Domestic, Male
GRE Scores (revised)
Q: 165(94)
V: 156(62)
W: 4.5(82)
S: N/A


Research Experience: 
I’ve done research since spring semester when I was a freshman  I worked in a pchem materials group for a year and helped to design some lab experiments on environmental and green Chem. Then I switched groups to do organic synthesis, designed some curriculum around green chemistry as well and now do medicinal synthesis. I also have done two summer internships (one in a food science QC/product development lab, one in solid state chemistry R&D)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)
I’ve done lab and reagent prep along with lab and instrument trouble shooting for the department as a job for 3 years and now I’ve started doing SI/tutoring/Coteaching a chemistry class for health professions majors this year  

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
I’ve been really active at my school in general. Had a lot of ambassador positions and sat on some committees(part of the reason for my lower GPA in retrospect but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

I’ve led our student ACS Chapter for 2 years and been an officer for 3. 

 

I’ve done a lot of student outreach specifically for STEM/Chem and have set up and designed some demos and events on my own. 
Special Bonus Points: 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i should have really good letters all around. All three profs know me really well and like me and have worked with me closely. 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (can you guess my favorite emoticon?)

My GPA is loser than most but it has a very solid  upward trend so maybe that will help me out some. 

Applying to Where:

-Uni of KY

-Uni Of Oregon

-Oregon State

-Notre Dame

-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

-Brown University (my number 1, I’m in love with a lot of the schools aspects and there’s a professor there whose work I think is some of the coolest chemistry I’ve been exposed to) 

- Uni of Minnesota 

-Colorado State

-Michigan State

-Arizona State

-Uni of Washington 

First Acceptance today! From Arizona State!

[gg.rose]

I still haven't heard back from anywhere... am getting concerned :/

[PhilChem94]

8 hours ago, gg.rose said:

I still haven't heard back from anywhere... am getting concerned :/

Me too. I've seen some people receiving offers from 4 out of the 5 universities I applied to. Is it time to panic?  

[apc68]

On 11/20/2017 at 6:45 PM, apc68 said:

Undergrad Institution: Small, private liberal arts college
Major(s): Chemistry
Minor(s): French, Mathematics and Astronomy
GPA in Major: ~3.4, although my school doesn't calculate this
Overall GPA: 3.6
Position in Class: -
Type of Student: Domestic female

GRE Scores:
Q: 163 (85%)
V: 163 (93%)
W: 5.0 (93%)
S: Chemistry to be reported


Research Experience: 2 years research on metallic nanoparticles and their catalytic activity under an organic professor(I have no interest in organic, but my school has one chem research advisor and one biochem, so I had no choice), selected to present at a poster session at the national ACS conference in San Francisco last April.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Member of my school's honors college (rigorous Great Books program), member of Sigma Zeta Honors Society, Quaker Chemical Research Scholar, Summer research scholar at my own school. 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Lab prep assistant freshman year, Gen Chem TA the past two years, chemistry tutor, president of my school's ACS Student Chapter for 3 years.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I think it's all been covered. 

Special Bonus Points: Some connections? I've been in contact (back and forth email) with a professor from UPenn whose research I am very interested in; my advisor is close friends with the associate dean of the college of science at Temple and we will likely meet within the next few weeks. 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Two very solid rec letters from Chemistry professors (one was my research advisor and the other I TA'ed for), one good rec letter from a physics professor who likes me but we are less familiar. 

Applying to Where:

Princeton- Physical chem

UPenn-Physical chem

Temple- Physical chem

Drexel- Physical chem

USciences (maybe? I've heard weird things about USciences & their deadline is in march)- Physical chem

UDel- Physical chem

Staying in the Philadelphia tri-state area is more important to me than applying to the best schools.

 

Received my acceptance from Temple yesterday! I know it’s not a top program but the research really intrigues me and I got a very good package. 

[someth1ngAus]

2 hours ago, PhilChem94 said:

Me too. I've seen some people receiving offers from 4 out of the 5 universities I applied to. Is it time to panic?  

Depends on historical admissions - do they tend to do rolling admissions or does it seem like people get admitted all in one go?

[gg.rose]

4 hours ago, PhilChem94 said:

Me too. I've seen some people receiving offers from 4 out of the 5 universities I applied to. Is it time to panic?  

yeah me too i cant tell if its rolling admissions or just theyve sent them all..

[rwoodward]

18 minutes ago, gg.rose said:

yeah me too i cant tell if its rolling admissions or just theyve sent them all..

 

5 hours ago, PhilChem94 said:

Me too. I've seen some people receiving offers from 4 out of the 5 universities I applied to. Is it time to panic?  

I'm also worried... but also remember sometimes it is unclear whether the offers received are for all disciplines (Organic/Inorganic/Physical/Chem Bio) or just one! It can be seen from last year's results that often physical will send out offers at a different time to organic and a different time to inorganic again etc...

I reckon next week could be a big week for offers.

Edited January 9, 2018 by rwoodward