<p>I know what the rankings say (usually listed among the top ten), but what exactly makes UIUC considered as one of the best universities for chemistry? And how exactly does it compare against others?</p>
<p>because the guy that wrote my chemistry textbook(and his wife) are profs there</p>
<p>Because the have the top 10 level of profs and facilities.</p>
<p>They got some of the best researchers and that’s what the <em>department</em> rankings are about. On the other hand, quite a few of those “upper-teir” schools don’t really have the best researchers in many of their departments. I don’t wanna name them but you know which ones I am talking about 
By the way, Big Ten rocks in department rankings.</p>
<p>Ok, so the research facility is excelllent. But what about the undergraduate program itself? I recently got accepted so I’m just curious.</p>
<p>^ Undergrad chemistry programs are small. You can work with profs doing leading research.</p>
<p>“They got some of the best researchers and that’s what the <em>department</em> rankings are about. On the other hand, quite a few of those “upper-teir” schools don’t really have the best researchers in many of their departments. I don’t wanna name them but you know which ones I am talking about By the way, Big Ten rocks in department rankings.”</p>
<p>UVA!! UVA!!</p>
<p>"Chemistry
The chemistry department has 25 tenured/tenure-track (TT) faculty from CLAS and two
members from other UVA schools. Most faculty members are active researchers. The
department prides itself on the interdisciplinary work carried out by its faculty as well as
the breadth of technical areas represented. The department ranked nationally as
number 42 in USNWR’s 2007 graduate program rankings and could not maintain even
this relatively low standing, dropping to number 50 in the recently released 2008
rankings. This is too low for UVA’s research aspirations. The department may not be
big enough both to produce top quality undergraduates in relatively large numbers and
achieve eminence in graduate research. It lacks the necessary infrastructure, TA’s and
other support for graduate students.
The department has sought for many years to grow to 28-30 faculty members on a
sustained basis in order to carry out their programs and raise their national rankings.
They participated in the successful BOV distinguished faculty recruitment and recently
made an offer to a highly regarded junior person. One measure of their current standing
is that retention of faculty members is a real issue. For the requested growth and to deal
with faculty recruited away, they seek permission for two recruitments per year for
several years. In addition to faculty lines, the limiting resource for recruiting new faculty
is startup support.</p>
<p>If I were comparing multiple chemistry departments for undergrad, I would scour the websites for a comparison of course offerings, research topics, number of faculty, number of graduate students, resource cores (mass spec, sequencing, gc, hplc etc) and any outside groups like chemistry tutoring, chemistry majors club, journal clubs etc. Something else you might want to do is email with some current undergrads in the program to see how difficult it was to get a lab job, how well prepared they were for research, what professors they liked etc. Best of luck</p>
<p>Ok, good idea belevitt. Do you have any ideas on how to contact the undergrads? </p>
<p>Has anyone already done this research before I pursue it myself? Thanks for everyone’s help!</p>
<p>barrons-- wow-- UVA has the same number of faculty members as Brown’s chemistry department?</p>
<p>That’s surprising.</p>
<p>@haldir, the right way to go about contacting undergrads in the department is through the administrative asst. These people are amazing resources and will likely be able to tell you everything about each undergrad. They also tend to be friendly as they deal with people all day anyway and that takes a specific personality fit. Send a polite email and I bet you will find what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! To anyone else reading this thread, feel free to give feedback as well.</p>