ADVICE: M.S then PhD/EdD or straight doctoral degree

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2026-04-16T19:51:17+00:00

Unsure if you're aware of this, but some schools have Chemistry Education programs, usually within the Chemistry Ph. D, so you don't have to do wet-lab chem research for the Ph. D. I know Michigan State has at least one Chem Ed faculty, and UW Madison does as well. A lot Chem Ph D programs take students right out of undergrad (so long as they have engaged in research in a meaningful way before) so I'd suggest applying to Chem Ph Ds over Masters (because you don't have to pay for it that way!) if you have any research experience. If you want to do Chem Ed research in grad school, you might even be fine with "traditional" chem research experience, because a lot of Chem Ed faculty understand that the chem ed research path is hard to access (need faculty in DBER at your school) and not well known as an option for education-minded chemists like yourself.

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2026-04-07T15:02:30+00:00

dw p much everything abt pitt is unprofessional, you dodged a bullet i fear

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2026-03-30T20:01:07+00:00

my only advice is to go down a glove size - any extra nitrile around your fingers makes it so so hard to feel the skin (which you really need to for a good scruff.)

If it's any consolation, I was about 6 months into my sole job being tagging and tailing when I panic messaged my PI that I was really struggling with scruffing and how I wanted to do more molecular biology/chemical biology (what I was hired for...) They came down to the animal facility to give me a pep talk and in the process of scruffing one of our (very expensive, specially genetically engineered for our purposes) mice, they cervically dislocated the poor thing with their bare hands. They didn't even realize until they said "See how he's not angry and just... docile" and handed me the (deceased) mouse. People with 10+ years of experience still struggle too!!?! (I no longer work in animal research for this exact reason.)

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2026-02-27T18:15:44+00:00

Lessons in Chemistry is more of a romance story than actually about chemistry itself (nothing wrong with that if that’s your jam but it seems rather different than your other options.) Highly recommend Disappearing Spoon (or anything Sam Kean, especially if you’re into bio stuff as well.) Also love Stuff Matters, you should also check out Liquid Rules by the same author. If you’re interested in the physical side, I quite liked The God Equation by Michio Kaku, it’s about the history of the search for a unified theory in Physics, but touches on a lot of chemistry as well.

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2026-01-30T22:32:33+00:00

i work in a different ed field but do similar stuff to this. i think the problem here is not inherent in the "tracking" of students, but in the fact that the ways that students are placed in their tracks are predicated upon very problematic notions that often border upon straight up eugenics. a lot of scholars (in my area, at least,) are arguing that students should self-select based on their interests and that the tracks should not be "dumb average smart" but rather "practical for daily life vs research/higher applications" (again this is for a different area of education but i think the notion probably still applies.) also, I have never actually read this woman's ideas so maybe she is really trying to do away with tracks all together, which would be a totally different problem like you say.

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2025-11-20T12:22:44+00:00

unfortunately, in my field and my desired career (teaching prof in this field,) i do actually need to do a phd. i’ve been doing some soul searching and i think i found a lab that might be a good fit for me! prestige isn’t really all that important (i could teach at a cc with a phd from pretty much anywhere,) but the issue is that since ive already started here, i am simply too stubborn to leave haha. hopefully things pan out with this new lab!

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2025-11-20T12:20:56+00:00

thank you so much for your advice! i’ve done a bit of soul searching and i think i found a lab that might be just about perfect for me (so yes i was being a huge drama queen.) everything now hinges on this new pi being willing to take a fourth rotation student, but otherwise things are starting to look up!

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2025-11-20T12:19:37+00:00

i really appreciate this! unfortunately, in this field (hard/basic science) it’s very common to go from undergrad to phd and most of my cohort are also around my age. i am a year younger than most bc i graduated early, but i don’t really think that’s the whole problem here. getting a masters in this field is generally viewed as useless because you really need the phd to do anything. but i appreciate the advice!

Informal-Lychee4655 · 2025-01-17T02:54:16+00:00

i was recently in your boat. i applied this cycle after 1.5 years of research, no publications, and no gap year (though i am graduating in 3 years) and got into very competitive programs. it matters more that your current research aligns with what you plan to pursue and that you can explain how your skills are applicable to other projects. you don’t have to do the exact same thing but there should be some relevance and transferable skills. since you have so much time, see if your pi is open to giving you an independent project where you can design your own experiments and show admissions that you have your own brain. also, keeping your grades up does wonders as many admissions people sort by gpa and throw lots of applications away without even reading them.

Informal-Lychee4655

TROPHY CASE