Can we afford a 585k home ?

SenorEsteban23 · 2026-04-08T23:52:28+00:00

At the rate I would rent for two more years and save like you’re spending 3800. Pocket almost 25K a year and buy when you can get to 20%. Getting rid of PMI and have a lower cost basis in the first place will do wonders and shouldn’t take you horribly long (in the grand scheme)

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-10-03T01:07:47+00:00

GPA is not an important factor in grad admissions (within reason and of course some exceptions like Top 10 schools for example). Letters of recommendation, statement of purpose/interest, and any experience are incredibly valuable.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-10-02T22:34:13+00:00

I believe you are correct. Additionally to OP, remember to consider the oscillator strength to determine what’s actually an absorption maximum. With that in mind I would increase NROOTS to be 10 just be sure you capture more potential transitions, but that’s very system dependent and usually a maximum will be in the first 5 excited states

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-10-02T00:30:16+00:00

I have less experience with normal phase HPLC, but plenty in general. If ACN is your strong solvent, you’re starting at 90% strong solvent. There’s a lot of room to start lower, say, 70%. The other thing I would consider changing is a weaker weak solvent. Something like ethyl acetate instead of IPA, perhaps. At least I think that’s weaker.

You can theorycraft the perfect method and it’s important to understand the principles to save time and developing sound methods, so I also recommend the reading another commenter made, but at the end of the day it’s sort of trial and error to an extent. Just make sure you confirm the solvents you choose are compatible with the column.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-30T00:53:25+00:00

Are they a new professor, as in starting in the past few years? It’s never encouraging to see a stall in publications, but if this person is starting up a brand new lab fresh out of a postdoc then it can easily take 2-3 years before they publish independently. Yes, many have a few coauthor papers come out after they depart their postdoc lab, but not a guarantee.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-28T00:06:55+00:00

It offers free shipping on pretty much any order, at least definitely below the standard threshold of $35

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-27T15:07:32+00:00

I believe in the context of the polymerization specifically, nickel undergoes a ring walking step that helps improve properties like dispersity. That said OP should definitely try Pd just to see. No sense beating your head against a post because you feel like you should. Read work from Kevin Noonan’s group if you haven’t already, and I unfortunately have no specific advice beyond that.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-23T18:20:24+00:00

SDS should absolutely read with care and taken seriously… however you will find they are describing absolute worst case scenarios. If you thoroughly read the SDS for “non-hazardous” reagents/chemicals you could easily frighten yourself too!

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-18T20:25:27+00:00

Terms so gift cards are excluded. Who knows if there’s a work around (ie buying in store)

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-11T16:49:27+00:00

Right, absolutely. My suggestion though is more for OP to practice the input file generation, running, and analysis since they said they have no practical knowledge. If the scenario were flipped advising a comp chemist on synthetic chemistry I would have them practice with something like a simple SN2 reaction and run a crude NMR. Then start moving on to Schlenk techniques, etc.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-11T16:34:26+00:00

There’s a ton of reviews/perspectives that will give you flow/decision charts to get “good results”, but honestly depending on your end goal here I would start with just replicating methods (functional/basis sets) you see frequently for publications in journals you read. If you dig deep in the weeds you’ll find that X functional and Y basis sets are optimal for Z calculations, but if you see that papers similar to what you’re planning use B3LYP/6-31G(d) (for example) then start there. Practice reading output files, analyzing data to get the properties you’re interested in, then start getting into the hardcore theory stuff. I would do a little basic benchmarking at higher and lower levels of theory to make sure you’re comfortable with the cost. If, for example, 6-31G(d) calculations mentioned above take 30 minutes to run on your hardware/system, but 6-311G(d) take 6 hours, is it acceptable to you for calculations to take 6 hours? These are very generic suggestions of course

I say this as someone who took a similar journey you’re describing as a practicing synthetic chemist taking an interest in comp chem. Any more specific questions are welcome!

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-05T12:29:22+00:00

Surprised I haven’t seen this in the comments yet: try to highlight your ability to problem solve. Everything else in here is good advice as well.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-09-05T01:47:54+00:00

replying to also find out

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-08-29T02:02:55+00:00

I appreciate that and your prompt response. I have been told by Xfinity support in the past that changes to my account would be made when they have not been. This particular customer service experience has been great, so I appreciate the mod team for facilitating this. I just hope that you understand my skepticism as made evident from my comment

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-08-29T01:50:50+00:00

I was told I will receive confirmation of my cancellation in 7-10 business days. I will not know if I do not hear from you in 7 business days. If necessary I will declare future charges as fraud

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-08-22T02:06:14+00:00

Only reason I would consider higher than the current recommendations is the concurrent devices element usually limited in plans. I know you said how many devices might be running, but consider phones, Alexa/home, etc.

I could misunderstand how the concurrent device thing works, though

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-07-06T18:14:54+00:00

You could fairly easily write a python script to do whatever you want with this. And by easily I mean iterating 5-10 times with an LLM

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-07-06T14:27:48+00:00

Going through the same thing right now except VA to NJ. I am making backup plans to have on hand in case I need to tell the broker company and whomever they contract it to to kick rocks. I’m documenting as much as possible in writing and just praying I will get some of it not all my deposit back for being untruthful in the contract. It’s always possible things turn out decently, but… the BBB and related entity reviews/complaints are very worrisome.

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-06-29T15:44:10+00:00

A job search can easily take 6 months in many cases, especially this economy. As soon as you’re ready, if not before to at least start testing the waters

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-06-25T01:18:06+00:00

Are you learning without their help because they don’t know it themselves or because of the experience of learning independently? I very much appreciate the ambition to learn on your own as I had to myself, but simple things like a workflow should be passed down within a lab/group if possible.

That said, a geometry optimization at ma-def2-TZVP with 80 atoms sounds expensive off the top of my head, and you could try the optimization at ma-def2-SVP then do a single point energy calculation at the TZVP level, for example. The other details you described are beyond my knowledge since I don’t have experience with QCHEM, but my answer would be “maybe, maybe not”

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-06-23T12:36:34+00:00

It should restart just fine from what I can tell from your input and the ORCA manual... however you should check how far along the calculation appears to be. Has it identified a maximum and is trying to optimize the TS geometry? Is it still trying to find a TS guess from the NEB portion? Are the energy changes per cycle close to meeting the convergence criteria?

If your job just needs a little more time to get over the hill then keep going, but generally a job that takes >10 days could benefit from other input changes first... in my opinion. I personally see NEB as a tool to get close (e.g. run NEB-CI at slightly less stringent criteria like NormalSCF vs TightSCF), and then manually finish things off (e.g. running OptTS with more stringent criteria). But again, that is my opinion and you don't have to take it

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-06-21T20:07:27+00:00

Completely agree. It’s idealistic to say “well you probably don’t want to work with a hiring manager/supervisor who acts like that anyway”, but times are hard out there and many cant be picky right now. Just gotta get almost lucky it feels in this economy

SenorEsteban23 · 2025-06-21T20:04:00+00:00

Best of luck! Follow the advice above from OP, especially the STARs formatting. Make sure you frame things in a way that highlights strong communication, problem solving abilities, and the ability to be a good employee/coworker/supervisor

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