<p>I'm almost through my second year studying chemistry (analytical concentration) with a math minor at Northwestern and I'm on track to graduate a year early. My total gpa is 3.860 and my course-related gpa is 3.864. I just joined a research lab in the winter and will stay here for the summer doing research. I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to fit everything in for next year, so I was wondering what my priorities should be. If I take a 4th class each quarter (a normal load) instead of 3 I can make my math minor a major (math classes are definitely my easiest and would boost my gpa). I also want to make sure I devote enough time to research during next year. I was thinking about a senior honors thesis but I honestly don't think I can do all of that while trying to apply to grad schools. I would like to get into somewhere like Stanford or Cal Tech ideally, but I'm also looking at places like Arizona, UNC, and Texas. Should I focus on the math major and some time in lab, or take a lighter course load and try to do an honors thesis and more lab work? Any opinions on going into industry for a year before grad school? I guess I'd like to know what would be most important to focus on besides gpa, letters of rec, and gre scores.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m of the opinion that my senior honors thesis was tremendous in preparing me for the independent work required in graduate school, and getting more lab experience helped me prepare for the lab work required here (I’m in an interdisciplinary psychology program that does involve lab work). When you do a PhD, courses diminish to a small amount of importance. And any second majors are only useful for what they bring to your first area of study. The extra lab work (especially if it results in a presentation or a paper) and the honors thesis will be far more valuable - both on your application AND in the experiences that it will give you - than taking two more arbitrary to make a math major (and really, whether math was your major won’t matter if the difference is only two classes - they get to look at your transcript, too, and will appreciate your math grounding if it helps the chem).</p>
<p>As for working, well I went straight through, and when people ask me I always say a year or two off can’t hurt. It may give you some focus and it can prevent burnout. Only advice is that if you do make more than the average science stipend (which is around $30,000 now), take whatever the rest is and save it for grad school necessities. Most people say the hardest part of transitioning back into an academic program after taking time “off” is living on a student salary. Wasn’t hard for me because it’s more money than I ever made.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation this year, and I talked to my adviser and he recommended that I stay the extra year so that I have more research and such when I’m applying for grad school. He also told me grad schools care very little how ‘fast’ you get your degree and more on the quality of work you did in your years there.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I decided to add a third, fairly unneeded, major. It will allow me to stay here all 4 years and get all the research done so I’ll at least have one published paper as first author by the time I apply. Additionally, a senior thesis can’t hurt. Maybe even take some grad classes if they let you.</p>
<p>Also, don’t underestimate the difficulty of upper level math classes. At my university the highest class required for a math minor is differential equations, where as for a math major, abstract algebra and real analysis are required. I typically spent an half an hour a week on differential equations on a non midterm/final week, and about 2 on a mid term week. on the other hand I spent about 15 hours a week on a non midterm/final week and close to 25 on a midterm/final week per class in abstract algebra and real analysis.</p>