u/Ambitious-Stuff-05

I’m a rising senior in chemistry wanting to do a phd in organic chemistry and go into big pharma. I currently am in an internship at a well known pharmaceutical company and I absolutely love it!! (Dream job territory)

However, every time I talk to my family, I feel shamed for enjoying chemistry and wanting to work in big pharma. My family is on the whole hippy, supplement/essential oil, chakra cleansing type path. They work in reiki healing, life coaching, etc. As a whole they are very supportive people who have the “you can do everything you put your mind to” mindset, which is great. But I feel a lot of judgement for wanting to work in synthesis.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? It’s tough because they have always been really supportive but not anymore. They believe that big pharma is evil and that we should just live off the land, I guess.

I’m applying for organic chem programs and last year I saw UC Berkeley brought back the GRE requirement with little warning. Do you expect other schools to do the same?

I’m applying for organic chem programs and last year I saw UC Berkeley brought back the GRE requirement with little warning. Do you expect other schools to do the same?

I recently had a zoom meeting with a top professor at caltech. They said they would love to have me in their lab if I got in the program, but I thought it was their decision who gets it. Did they say this just to be kind or do they not actually choose who is admitted?

What GRE score should I be aiming for to have a good shot at the organic chemistry PhD program at Yale? I will be applying this fall and am studying for the GRE right now. Any advice appreciated! ☺️

What GRE score should I be aiming for to have a good shot at an organic chemistry PhD program at Yale? I will be applying this fall and am studying for the GRE right now. Any advice appreciated! ☺️

About my starting point:

My diagnostic, zero studying GRE score is 155 quant (ran out of time and had to guess 😭) and 158 verbal. I know that I can definitely get my quant up. In the first quant section I got 3 wrong, and in the second one I was so tired that the questions took me way too long with the tiny calculator so I got 7 wrong (huge blunder). The verbal also felt like a fluke because I didn’t know most words but used educated guesses.

Vocab mountain has been very hard for me while working full time. Quant is a breeze but I have trouble finding the motivation after years of calculus/linear algebra. I haven’t really touched geometry since I was 14 so it’s hard reminding myself that I do in fact need the help.

Throwaway account but I am happy to share that I have saved 30k 😅 this never would have been possible for me without this sub so thanks for the journey!

I am hoping to have ~40k by May when I graduate university (I went to community college first where I was able to save a bulk of this money then got a full ride at university, where I continue to live frugally). ☺️