<p>I want to be a Chem Major since I'm not exactly sure on what to do in my future. If I decide to pursue Pharmacy, a Chem major seems like a great major, and the same for Pre-med. My only issue is how many students actually do pursue a Chem major at Rutgers, and is it really a hard major? </p>
<p>Also, if I do decide to major in Chem, can I still do a double major or would it be better to just do a minor since Chem is a credit intensive major?</p>
<p>Thank you to anyone that helps.</p>
<p>If you think you may want to do pharmacy, and get accepted, I would go that route first. It’s easier to switch into chemistry than into pharmacy.</p>
<p>From what I hear from my son is that the Chemistry Dept is not that great and they have many problems. Ask other Chemistry majors to confirm.</p>
<p>have also heard that Rutger’s Chem dept is weak.</p>
<p>chemistry department is not great. There have been rumors going around that the department was in probation for its grading system. </p>
<p>IMO the professors are bad, you will teach yourself. On the other hand, physics department is probably the best non-engineering science department.</p>
<p>My daughter separately applied to, and was accepted by, what i believe were the three completely separate schools of arts and science (which would include chemistry), engineering, and pharmacology. I believe pharm is the hardest school to get into, followed by engineering. So, i question whether you could “transfer” to pharm from chem, or whether you’d have to essentially start over, formally apply to that school, and maybe even take different freshman chemistry classes. This info may be confusing on the rutgers web site so you should just phone each department and ask.</p>
<p>Btw, what i asked my daughter was why she’d want to pay for six years in an intense pharm program to land a career counting pills in the back of a drugstore, or driving from doctor’s office to doctor’s office to hand out samples. I’m also concerned that the field will soon be saturated and all that extra tuition won’t have payback.</p>
<p>In six years, with two years where you’d be paid to go (as a teaching assistant), you could get a masters in chemistry, a better salary than in pharm, and have fun doing research in a multitude of areas for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>Rutgers chem department is above average, well respected and will get you into the grad school of your choice for that masters. So, my point is, don’t get too caught up in the current pharm phad if you think you’d rather do chemistry.</p>
<p>I only heard a bit about this. My d’s friend was a chemistry major at rutgers. She said the grading was brutal and inconsistent. She said some profs graded harder than others. That often tests scores were curved, but that profs wouldn’t explain the curves ahead of the finals, so a lot of students had no idea if they were going to pass or fail. </p>
<p>Gee. That sounds exactly like the way all chemistry departments have always functioned. Certainly my undergrad and grad schools were like that. </p>
<p>My d’s friend, who was used to a high school system where you could precisely calculate your grade average by getting a test score on-line an hour after a test, couldn’t handle this old style teaching. She switched to bio.</p>
<p>So, anyone thinking of majoring in science, brace yourself for the reality that you will most certainly have classes in which you will be handed a test with a score of 54%. Hopefully, you will then discover that that was the highest grade in your class and it’s equal to an A+.</p>
<p>I did some checking and found that pharm’s six year program leads to a doctor degree? This sounds too good to be true, but that’s certainly what the web site implies. I’m still not clear on this since pharm offers several combinations of options, and i’m still not clear on what all is involved and what programs lead to what degrees. Some of which sound very sophisticated (pharmacetical chemistry…wow), all sound very competitive.</p>
<p>Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy provides a doctorate degree of pharmacy. The program is very difficult. Many people do it for the money, but don’t understand that you have to actually enjoy it or you may fail. If you fail pharmacy school you essentially will lose the pharmacy credits but will keep the regular classes needed. </p>
<p>Also after year 3, you pay graduate fees so it might be all loans that you don’t want to have if you fail out during then.</p>
<p>Chem dept is pretty bad as well.</p>