Any chemistry majors here?
>>7887294
Almost with a BSC in Chemistry; however, switching majors to Chem. Engineering.
Hello
Yeah, I'm specializing in medicinal chemistry, second year.
>>7887298
There are too many graduates for the limited number of jobs. Some prospect given was something like ~16,000,000 people competing over the same ~3,500,000 jobs. Then you have the recently rampant H1B visa program where foreigners are being hired for your prospective job at half the wage.
>>7887303
Fuck that's shitty. I didn't think chemistry would be so saturated.
>>7887304
Everything is fucking saturated now, you're best bet is to immigrate to a piece of clay and find your own country.
>>7887309
This. The world is turning away from science for the sake of profits. We need another Kennedy to start pushing for scientific objectives for the country. Otherwise it's just a bunch of scientists competing for few jobs, and the ones in the few jobs a majority are doing filler research.
>>7887316
Hopefully when Trump wins he'll increase scientific research funding, and reduce gibsmedat's spending.
>>7887351
..Do employers look at your years spent at community college?
Chem major here going for an accelerated 4+1 program in nanotechnology
>>7887360
Bump
>>7887294
Going for a Chem/Math double major here, planning on going to grad school after I get my bachelor's. I've got very little interest in finding an industry job, research is where I want to go
>>7887298
It's pretty saturated, but it's not as bad of a case as psychology is, there are definitely more chemistry majors than jobs seeking for chem majors though. In the US, you'll be really lucky if you don't need to move out of your state to get a job.
>>7887294
Why is that solution boiling over a flame and not in a roundbottom flask on a mantle for equally distributed heat?
>>7887303
>rampant H1B visa program where foreigners are being hired for your prospective job at half the wage.
FUCKING KNEW IT
FUCKING LIBERALS ALWAYS MAKING FUN OF ME WITH THE SOUTH PARK MEMES
THEY ARE TAKING OUR JOBS
FUCKING REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
>>7887294
orgo undergrad here, got an paid internship at Enamine ltd.
>feelsgoodman.png
>>7888850
Heating mantles only work optimal at the maximum volume flask you can place in. Also, all the cool kids use Bunsen Burners and methane, not pleb-tier joule heating.
Starting Chem next Semester, though I think I'll switch to Chem Eng seeing as job opportunities seem low. May as well go in another path with equally low opportunities but bigger salary.
>>7887384
>Nanomeme
Coursework of nano ?
>>7889436
If you want to work with tubes and barely do any actual chemistry at all, go for it.
>>7889793
Pure chemistry sucks
Applied chemistry (what is done in ChemE departments such as kinetics of complex reactions) is fun
Tubes are fun
Tubes are fun
>>7889937
bls stop reminding me how autistic I am for persuing pure chemistry ;__;
>>7888709
doubt it. get good grades at uni. at least a masters is recommended in chem. otherwise do ChemE
>>7889937
...you mean ChemE? that's not "applied chemistry". that's ChemE.
chemistry graduate as of two months ago here.
Still delivering pizzas; no job yet. Not smart enough for grad school.
>>7888927
I haven't seen anyone use an open flame for anything chemistry related (besides sealing ampules) since the one time I tried to make drugs in my closet and sophomore year highschool chemistry before that.
>Science and Math
Chemistry is neither of those.
>>>/his/
Chemistry (biochem concentration) and Dramatic Art double major.
Don't want to go to grad school for chem, recently decided I shouldn't try for med school, now I'm dedicating my time to be a lighting designer. Just trying to finish my chem major since I'll essentially be done after this semester.
>tfw still do better than the other chem majors who actually give a shit about what they're doing
>tfw I've had theatre work for the summer literally offered to me that pays more than majority of chemistry internships and I actually get to have fun while working
STEM is literally a fucking meme.
Chem E here
Fuck off we're full...
Honestly though, why would you major in chemistry in this day and age. All of STEM is getting saturated and engineering isn't much better.
>>7890599
Care to offer some better majors?
>>7890668
Biology
>>7890599
Everything is saturated. It's a competitive world and a high school graduate isn't gonna amount to anything unless they have a combination of luck and a good idea with opportunity.
>>7890668
material science
Taking Gen-Chem 1 & 2 over the summer. What differentiates them from the shit in Chm 101? I mean what are they really about, just expanding on 101 or teaching completely new aspects?
Bumping jobless losers thread
>>7887294
can any of you guys help me, I have a stupid question, is C11H12N2O2 + Ca(OH)2 = C10H12N2 + CaCO3 + H2O, basically im what im trying to say is, would calcium hydroxide go through a decarboxylation reaction with tryptophan to make tryptamine.
>>7887297
Hey me too.
I actually opened /sci/ today looking for something interesting to do a literature review on.
>>7890991
They’re garbage busy work. Both of them. Really just expanding on 101, because not everyone who will take Gen 1 will have taken 101 before. A shit house of memorization of terms, a dash of understanding and an extremely lite sprinkle of plug and chug formulas. Lab can be ok, but is mostly above.
Chemistry / Environmental Science double major here
>>7890771
Really? I doubled Chemistry because I figured it would be more valuable and marketable than Biology. What makes you say that?
>>7891070
I was asking myself "really" too but biology is just the meme shit tier major according to this board so not really thinking it means anything
>>7890528
>I haven't seen anyone use an open flame for anything chemistry related (besides sealing ampules)
Tfw that's me, sealing ampules for annoying shit like bromine. If I ever heat any substance with a bunsen burner, it's always in a crucible and I'm just trying to dehydrate some salt. I use a hotplate for heating anything else because muh magnetic stiring. And yes I know that a heating mantle is far superior because it reduces the amount of time needed to start up a distillation because it heats up the entire flask unlike a hotplate that just heats the surface of the glass that's touching the plate.
>>7890599
What else do we major in? Business? Which is 10x more saturated?
>>7891104
>biology is meme shit tier major
>legitimately love biology
kill me
>Chemistry
>be me
>taking Chemistry 101
>memorize this
>memorize that
>memorize
Yeah, I do not even know why you people choose Chemistry as a major. I seriously hope there is actual interesting things above the 100 levels.
>>7891164
In the EU, it's just as much of a shit tier meme degree as any science degree, which, in non-/sci/ words, means just fine, great even if you're aiming for academia. If you're in the US though, you are kind of fucked.
>>7891175
What fucking schools are guys going to where chemistry is memorization? Like 75% of Chem 1 at my school is math. I calculated the de Broglie wavelength of a golf ball in flight in chem 1
>>7891178
Why is it different between US and Europe?
>>7891175
What are you even memorising? We learnt a bunch of formulae but that's the only real memorising I can think of.
Or are you counting things like functional groups as being memorisation?
>>7891182
We didn't even need to memorize formulae at my school. They even say when teaching them that we don't need to memorize it since it's given on the tests and in the real world you can always google it in 2 seconds at any time. The only memorizing I can think of is that by the time of chem 2 we were generally expected to know atomic mass of common elements like oxygyn, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc. off the top of our head. They never said "you need to memorize this".
>>7891186
We were expected to remember certain things like the ideal gas equation, osmotic pressure, Gibb's free energy etc. It is not like any of them were hard or long things to remember.
biology, chemistry, biochemistry triple-major. I couldn't decide.
>>7892726
Wouldn't doubling in Bio and Chem make the biochem major basically automatic from course overlap?
>>7892776
pretty sure biochemistry is a completely different thing to both biology and chemistry
>>7893807
It is pretty different but like that Anon said there could be a fair bit of course overlap between the majors. There would definitely be uniquely biochem units though.
>>7891070
its a joke.
>>7890599
>go into business anon! don't you want to own a company and make millions?
business is worthless now
>go into law anon! don't you want to be a successful lawyer and make bank???
Law is oversaturated to astronomical levels now
>go into medicine anon! don't you want to be filthy rich while earning the respect of everyone that knows you??
would be dead-in-the-water tier if not for the absurd admission requirements. This leads to more whiny "i cant get a job with my biology degree" 20-somethings than anything.
>get a degree in engineering anon! dont you want to make a lot of money right out of college?
this is the next field to become oversaturated if not already. I hear engineering being thrown around these days like its the new "premed" for people who dont want to be a doctor. for fucks sake, back home my neighbor is starting college next year and he wants to start mechanical engineering despite having 0. nada. zip. no interest in math or physics at all. the only reason he wants to go is because some guidance counselor somewhere listened to how he wants to design cars and said "hey maybe you should do mechE?". you know that's exactly what happened. you know he barely did any research on the subject besides seeing the salary (which he undoubtedly liked). and you know that hes going to start his engineering degree, and drop out by the end of first year.
All fields are finished. Im generally left on the political spectrum and believe everyone should have the right to education, but college is being pushed WAY too hard these days. Be prepared to be better than everyone else or you are going to flounder. glad I was able to land a PhD for next fall, otherwise my chem degree would be worthless. being honest with myself, theres a chance it may still be after.
>>7893807
its pretty much chem. i got into a pure chem PhD with a biochem undergrad easy.
>>7891030
>C11H12N2O2
>C10H12N2
>"="
Oh man. You shouldn't use the empirical formula to try and identify anything with constitutional isomers. That's lesson one.
Decarboxylations can be tricky business. In general, facile thermal decarboxylation doesn't really work besides for beta-ketoacids and analogs with similar electronic structure/negativities (draw a mechanism when in doubt.) TCHA decarboxylation to THC is a good example to show this general idea isn't as limiting as it first seems.
In the case of alpha amino acids, this paper http://chemistry.mdma.ch/hiveboard/rhodium/trp.decarbox.enone.html is useful. It seems to suggest the reaction occurs through an intermediate functional group interconversion. Investigate various ketones.
You aren't the first to think of this. The reductive alkylation will really kick your ass unless you know what you're doing. Spoiler: methyl iodide gives you a quaternary ammonium compound and the presence of even small amounts of acid leads to competitive ring closure with your aldehyde. You better have a good idea how to safely handle reducing agents and be ready for weeks of disappointments and a LOT of primary literature. Also, you might get your legs broken.
>>7891030
Do NOT use empirical formulas ever again for this, please. It's understandable if it's simple shit such as HCN being diluted with NaOH to form NaCN + H2O. Also, unbalanced chemical equation just makes the situation worse especially since you nor anyone else knows how much of a yield you're expecting, how much reactants you'll need, etc.,
>>7893807
At least at my school there are only like 3 classes specific to biochem. Bio and Chem majors at my school both require at least 1 biochem class (principles of biochem for bio and biochem techniques for chem I believe) anyway.
>>7894438
I agree. I'm the env sci/chem guy and I'm pretty much looking at making a mediocre amount of money for the USGS/F&WS/etc. or being a teacher. Both of those are things I enjoy but I wish I could be looking at a higher degree of success for a double major. Even if I get into grad school my prospects are basically to be a professor. There are a LOT of guys at my school that would be better off at a trade school, a highly underrated option.
>>7891186
>and in the real world you can always google it in 2 seconds
Yeah...this is why I came across three engineering majors a few weeks ago that did not know what 5 divided by 10 is equal to. Why bother--you can just do it on a calculator.
>>7891180
Not the guy you asked, but hes talking bullshit. Here in germany it will be extremely hard to find a job( 800 new jobs every year vs. 10000 graduates)
You will not be homeless, cause we have a good social system, but it will be bad and not a fun experience after graduation.
And since here everybody graduates with a 1,3 to 1,0 in biology it is really hard to show the employer, that you are better than the rest.
I'm double majoring in CS and bioinformatics right now, maybe bioinfo is somwthing for you.
Changed my major from biochem, because of the reasons i listed
>>7895372
What does 1,3 to 1,0 mean? Does that mean everyone does well?
>>7895661
1,0 is an A, 2,0 is an B
I have no idea what the equivalent gpa would be.
Basicly most people have a nearly "perfect" grade
>>7895760
My understanding of GPAs is
4 point GPA:
0 Fail
1 Pass
2 Credit
3 Distinction
4 High Distinction
7 point GPA:
0 Fail
4 Pass
5 Credit
6 Distinction
7 High Distinction
7 point GPAs exist solely to fuck up your GPA if you dare to fail a subject. Naturally the US uses the EZ-PZ 4 point GPA system.
>>7895760
Ah, ok. It's the opposite in the US, an A is a 4.0 and a 1.0 is a failing grade
>>7895805
Ok , so here a lot of people, probably the majority, have an 4,0 GPA, so even with good grades it will be hard to find a job.
You'll need work experience, contacts and a lot of luck.
>>7895908
What is Chemistry like in Germany? Specifically something like Medicinal Chemistry. I know I see a lot of papers and products related to my major coming from over there.
>>7895908
Is that a product of only the very best getting into your schools or your schools having pushover grading? Someone with a valuable degree like chemistry or engineering and a 4.0 in the US can basically stroll into any job they want.
>>7895921
Honestly i only studied biochem for a year, so you should take my words with a grain of salt.
Still I informed myself for months, before swtiching majors, so i think i know at least a little bit about the job market.
Here in germany we have historically a big chemical industry, Bayer for example, were the first ones to produce organic dyes.
Still we have too many graduates, even in traditional chemistry. You'll get a job, but in positions that may not be interesting for everyone, sales representative or something like that.
We have a huge problem with academia though. Since 2007 you cant be a postdoc endlessly, cause of a new law. After a certain amount of years( I think 3), the university either makes you a professor (which they wont) or you lose your job. You can make a new postdoc afterwards, but after a certain amount of years its prohibited by law.(you can only be X years a postdoc)
So after this time you either are a professor or you are practically unemployed.
The problem is, that for majors like biochem, there is not much else than doing your postdoc.
The other problem is, that the number of people graduating is only rising, so it'll get worse.
All in all, the times are pretty hard right now.
>>7895977
Thats true for chemistry here too, the problem lies in the biology majors.
>>7896049
Ah, right. Pretty much all pure biology majors over here are boned as well if they don't get into med school.
