<p>I keep hearing all these negative things about majoring in chemistry, but I can't really put myself to major in anything else. Does anyone have anything positive to say about majoring in Chemistry?</p>
<p>It’s a pretty cool major if you are interested in Chemistry. There are a lot of industries you can work in depending on if you specialize (materials science, pharmaceuticals, medicine, dentistry, petrochemicals, etc.) Labs can be fun since they are hands-on. Chemistry also leads you into a lot of graduate programs.</p>
<p>Other than it is interesting and can prepare you for professional school there are very few positives to majoring in Chemistry or Biology. There are extremely poor job prospects for graduates and if you are lucky to get a job at all companies will abuse the heck out of you because they know very well that they can.</p>
<p>If you really want to go with chemistry, you should be thinking about school beyond the bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>At the bachelor’s level there aren’t a lot of jobs. Many production labs such as Abbott don’t hire B.S. level chemists any more, but hire through temp agencies instead. Even jobs formerly held by bachelor’s level chemists, such as forensic science lab positions, are increasingly going to PhD holders instead (not because the work requires a PhD, but because “Dr. LabGuy” sounds more authoritative to a jury than “Mr. LabGuy”).</p>
<p>There are jobs available to B.S. level chemists, especially if you get training in the use, and better yet maintenance, of analytical instrumentation. If you want to teach high school, you can probably find a job provided you have a teaching certificate. A lot of high school chemistry teachers today were bio majors in college. The recent teacher strike in Chicago revealed that the average salary of a Chicago public school teacher is $76k/year; where I live high school chem teachers average more like $46-52k/year.</p>
<p>After a B.S. or B.A. in chemistry, there are a lot of roads you can take – grad school, medical/dental/pharmacy/vet school, law school, or business school all come to mind. With a chemistry degree and a law degree you can prepare yourself for working as a patent lawyer for a chemical corporation like Dow or DuPont, for example. A chem degree and an MBA will help put you on the more lucrative management track at a larger firm (as opposed to the less lucrative technical track where you’re doing actual lab science). Your job prospects out of grad school will depend on the nature of the work you’ve done, who you worked for, and how effectively you network at conferences and such. Teaching positions at local community colleges often pay more than non-tenure track instructor positions do at state flagship universities, and with the higher cost of colleges, more people are turning to community college for basic coursework.</p>
<p>Or if you love math as well as chemistry, consider chemical engineering instead of chemistry. It’s a completely different approach to the material – more mathematical and less conceptual – but job prospects are better and salaries are higher.</p>