Chemistry grad school prospective

Graduate School
1

<p>Hah, I can't believe I'm back on this website again...college applications...Whew.</p>

<p>Anyways, I'm in college now (woo!) in Canada, second year chemistry (major) program. </p>

<p>Here's some dilemma that I'm facing right now I'm hoping you can chip in your two cents. Thank you.</p>

<p>This is my current situation:
I could possibly fail ochem-1. I've been studying this subject absolutely the wrong way the whole semester. (i.e. memorizing and not being detail-oriented), and it's too late to reverse this process. This I assume is going to affect my GPA quite severely, not that I had a good GPA to begin with my first year (I had a 3.22 my first year). I do have two..and a half years ahead of me (1 more year if I decide to do co-op).</p>

<p>I do love chemistry (and am doing o-kay in other courses like inorganic chem, analytical chem, and calculus 3), and I intend on staying in this program and going onto pursue a higher education degree, like ph.d.</p>

<p>Here are my questions:
1) What is the difference between getting two seperate degrees (masters, ph.d) and just going for the ph.d in the first place?</p>

<p>2) With more effort and luck, I should be in a lab position and improving my grades starting next semester. I'm going to work hard for that upward trend, now that I've started kind of low...Can I expect my resume/application to go through the top 10 schools in Chemistry by the time I apply to graduate school?</p>

<p>3) If I do decide to do a co-op program (basically an internship program of 'job experience'; I work four school terms, do school six terms, total of 10 terms/5 years), is this any benefit to me applying to graduate school? I mean, job experience is nice, but I'm really trying to 'avoid' getting a job by choosing to stay in school for another six years of my life...???</p>

<p>Gnarly and/or nice comments/insights/advices appreciated.</p>

2

<p>A masters in science serves a very different purpose than a Phd. A PhD is training to do research and is a de facto requirement for executive level positions in industry (not that a PhD imparts any sort of management training). A masters can either serve as a bridge for weaker applicants to a Phd program or can be an endpoint in and of itself. Some masters programs are application specific eg. Masters in biotechnology, masters in public health etc which would help a early to mid career professional advance. Other masters provide the basis for being a career lab tech. It is much more difficult to get funding (salary, insurance and tuition) for a masters whereas it is standard in a Phd.</p>

<p>Instead of a coop which sounds like a tremendous amount of time and effort, perhaps consider picking up a lab job on campus. The pay (several years ago) was in the 7.50-8.00 an hour range and offered the opportunity for independent research. You do need to make sure that you aren't just going to wash dishes the entire time and you will get guidance from grad students or post docs in the lab. And yes, research experience, be it in an academic lab, or through a coop is vital to a strong app for a Phd program.</p>