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I'm considering applying to chemistry graduate schools within the next six months and am hoping for some guidance in prioritizing aspects. For instance, among my list of considerations there exists: renown of school, programs of interest, appeal of location, amount of financial aid, duration of program, and success of past alumni.

Do others who have already gone through this process have suggestions about how to prioritize these considerations? Were there things in your experience that you thought would be important and ended up not being so. Or visa-versa, are there aspects that you neglected and wish you hadn't?

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    Chemistry is more for conceptual questions relating to chemistry, so I've migrated this to Academia, where it seems to be on-topic.
    – Manishearth
    Jun 21, 2012 at 11:59

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As a second year grad student in chemistry, I would say the two most important factors are if there are multiple professors you could see yourself working for and if you feel like you could spend the next 5+ years of your life at the school/in the area. You are going to be stressed out with work, so you want to enjoy where you're living.

I haven't heard of any US chemistry PhD grad programs that don't pay tuition + insurance + stipend, so I don't think that's much of a worry (I would, however, make sure you get all that).

The renown of the school and success of past alumni is actually less important than you'd think. Grad school is all about your research advisor and your research (i.e. a better professor at a lower tier school is better than the other way around).

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    scientifics is right. Your first priority should be figuring out what flavor(s) of chemistry (analytical, organic, physical, etc.) interests you. Even better would be identifying a specific research area, like photovoltaics, total synthesis, spectroscopy, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, etc. Then, your second priority is finding research advisers working in your field of interest. Pick schools that have more than one person that you could work for.
    – Ben Norris
    Jun 21, 2012 at 23:18
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Prestige.

Prestige is basically the currency of the academic world. And in the current, grimmer-than-death job market for physical sciences, the prestige of the institution you got your PhD from is the main factor in your post-PhD success, or absence thereof.

It might sound stupid, unfair and cynical. Because it is. Your success should be proportional to your own value, hard-work and scientific output. But with 200 to 300 graduates applying for every opening position, even in third-class colleges and small firms, the prestige of your last-attended institution is the actual cut-off. I have personally met people sitting in hiring committees who openly admitted that any application from someone who didn't graduate from a top-10 US programme or EU equivalent (Oxford, Cambridge, ETH) will go straight to the bin without further reading. Only after this first filter has been applied will they actually start going through your publications, letters of recommendation and actual personal achievements.

So yes, all in all, working for an awesome group in a second-class university might trump working in a mediocre group from an Ivy League. But nothing trumps working in an awesome group in a top-tier university, like dozens, not to say hundreds of graduate students do every year. Those same students you will be faced against when applying for jobs and post-docs. So in today's gigantic battle royale of a job market, where less than 10% science graduates actually land a tenure-track position, if you don't have the full package, you don't stand a chance. That's just how it is.

Personally, I simply wouldn't do a PhD in physical sciences again. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't even consider doing one out of the top-10 programmes of your field. It simply isn't worth your time in terms of employability.

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  • These problem true for the whole academia, nothing specific to physical sciences. Actually, the situation is somewhat better in physical sciences.
    – Greg
    Oct 10, 2015 at 19:51

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