Has anyone done this before? How is it?
Always the question is: Why?
Is it because these are both interesting to you?
Is it because there is a job where you need both?
Or is it better to major in Chem, and then take extra Math courses as electives?
Or perhaps you might like Chemical Engineering, which has some math and chem?
Albany doesn’t offer chemical engineering. I’m currently doing a math minor, but I’m been thinking of doing math in grad school too. My goal is to get a masters in oceanography or environmental chemistry along with math to help me prepare and have my research topic before I apply to a PhD program to study meteorology. However, not sure if I need a math major to pursue math in grad school. Will I be okay to just stick with minor in math or double major in math and chemistry just to sure.
I would talk to your adviser/other professors in the areas of your interest to see what math is needed for those goals. it may be that you need a few, but not as much as a major, which you can do either as a formal minor or just as electives.
Math + chemistry is a pretty common double major pair, some schools have it as a specific combined major program through the chemistry program. There are a lot of parts of chemistry that are very math-heavy. This combo prepares students to work in theoretical or physical chemistry (this includes things like computationally simulating how proteins fold, or designing nanostructured materials with unusual optical properties).
The math courses required for most chem degrees are just calc 1-3, linear algebra, and sometimes intro statistics, there’s not that much course overlap, so it could take an extra semester to finish all the course work unless you have transfer or AP credit.
Chem + physics or CS are also pretty common (at least amongst the people I’ve met in chemistry grad school).