Considering Graduate School?

Dear Chem and Biochem majors,

If you are considering going on to graduate School, you should take a look at this guide produced by the American Chemical Society.

http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/students/graduate/planning-for-graduate-work-in-chemistry.pdf

If you have some interest, I encourage you to engage in undergraduate research at an early stage in your time at GT.  This will help you decide if graduate school is a good choice for you and also help ensure that your applictaion is competitive. Good graduate schools look for students with considerable prior research experience and ideally publications/presentations that have come out of their research, as this best indicator of a good outcome in graduate school. As experimental research is not quick, it is important to start relatively early in your time as an undergraduate.

Nationally only ~65% of students entering chemistry PhD programs leave with a PhD.  The most common reason for a student to leave graduate school without an advanced degree is that the reality of graduate school is different from the student's expectations. If you have spent a significant amount of time doing undergraduate research at GT, you will already have a good picture of what life in a high quality graduate program is like.

Best wishes, Angus Wilkinson

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Angus P. Wilkinson

Professor and Associate Chair, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering (Courtesy)

Georgia Institute of Technology

901 Atlantic Dr.

Atlanta, GA 30332-0400