3 answers
Cheyenne
Student
Bedford Heights, OH
1
Question
Updated
514 views
What was the hardest thing about getting through schooling for a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and why? Also, did you go on to use your degree? #Spring25
What was the hardest thing about getting through schooling for a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and why? Also, did you go on to use your degree? #Spring25
Login to comment
3 answers
Karin P.
Lecturer, Academic Advisor, Career Coach
727
Answers
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi Cheyenne,
Choosing a major is difficult, and going off to college can be nerve-wracking. But this is not a decision that locks you in for the rest of your life. You can choose focus areas and specialties within chemistry. You can even change majors if needed. You can add qualifications after you obtain your bachelors to get to where you want to be. Give yourself a year, take courses in and outside of chemistry, find out what the other people on campus are doing before you decide if chemistry is the right choice for you.
Everybody is different. Different people like diferent things and find different things difficult. Some people don't like physical chemistry. Some people don't like lab work. Some people are good at synthesis. Some people are good at analytics. Personally, I hate organic chemistry, and anybody who enjoys thermodynamics is a freak /s\.
Chemistry is such a broad field, you don't know yet where it might take you. Maybe you'll work in a lab, but maybe you'll be a computational chemist and work on a computer. You might end up in environmental chemistry and analyze soil and air samples. You might end up in toxicology and help solve crimes. You might end up in cosmetic chemistry and launch your own skincare line. You might end up a materials chemist and develop new materials that can replace plastics and help save the environment. You might end up in pharmaceutical chemistry and develop new cures for diseases. You might use your degree in chemical sales or become a product manager for analytical equipment. You might go into scientific communications and write about the newest discoveries. There is no end to the opportunities. It's all about finding your niche.
You are qualfied to enroll for chemistry? Congratulations! You are young, smart and educated! You got everything going for you! Don't start from a point of "oh, everything is going to be terrible and difficult". If you ask people, most will tell you that their university years were the best time of their lives. Enjoy! Learn, inside and outside the classroom. Find out who you are and where you can go!
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
Choosing a major is difficult, and going off to college can be nerve-wracking. But this is not a decision that locks you in for the rest of your life. You can choose focus areas and specialties within chemistry. You can even change majors if needed. You can add qualifications after you obtain your bachelors to get to where you want to be. Give yourself a year, take courses in and outside of chemistry, find out what the other people on campus are doing before you decide if chemistry is the right choice for you.
Everybody is different. Different people like diferent things and find different things difficult. Some people don't like physical chemistry. Some people don't like lab work. Some people are good at synthesis. Some people are good at analytics. Personally, I hate organic chemistry, and anybody who enjoys thermodynamics is a freak /s\.
Chemistry is such a broad field, you don't know yet where it might take you. Maybe you'll work in a lab, but maybe you'll be a computational chemist and work on a computer. You might end up in environmental chemistry and analyze soil and air samples. You might end up in toxicology and help solve crimes. You might end up in cosmetic chemistry and launch your own skincare line. You might end up a materials chemist and develop new materials that can replace plastics and help save the environment. You might end up in pharmaceutical chemistry and develop new cures for diseases. You might use your degree in chemical sales or become a product manager for analytical equipment. You might go into scientific communications and write about the newest discoveries. There is no end to the opportunities. It's all about finding your niche.
You are qualfied to enroll for chemistry? Congratulations! You are young, smart and educated! You got everything going for you! Don't start from a point of "oh, everything is going to be terrible and difficult". If you ask people, most will tell you that their university years were the best time of their lives. Enjoy! Learn, inside and outside the classroom. Find out who you are and where you can go!
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
annette babakhan
executive assistant
3
Answers
San Jose, California
Updated
annette’s Answer
you will have long hours in the lab to find the answer to what is missing or which element you have in your sample to test. When you get result you will be very happy. yes with Chemistry degree i worked more than 20 years. There is so many opportunities in pharmaceutical, data center, diagnostics....
Robert Rossi
Many things! But mostly chemistry and chemical engineering
79
Answers
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Updated
Robert’s Answer
For me it was surviving Organic Chemistry, which is quite different from the other chemistry subfields. It is more like learning a foreign language than a math course, and while I'm great at math and numbers, not so much foreign languages. As a chemistry teacher, I found most college students struggled through either organic (and sometimes inorganic) or physical chemistry, depending on whether they were more chef/foreign language or numbers people. Unfortunately, pretty much every chemistry degree requires that you survive both.
I have definitely used my chemistry (and chemical engineering) training over the years, but I was a chemical engineering undergrad and chemistry graduate student. I taught college chemistry for about half my career, then (when the millenials came and I stopped enjoying teaching them) switched to writing college chemistry textbooks and fixing scientific instrumentation...which are much lower stress and don't require interacting with people as much (which I find exhausting).
Chemistry is a very broad field with wildly disparate applications, so it's hard not to find a niche with it, whether that ends up being measuring THC levels in pot, coming up with names for new drugs, or helping to solve crimes in a crime lab (or, like me, staying away from anything that has to do with any kind of drug, legal or otherwise: I did electrochemistry and worked on solar cells).
I have definitely used my chemistry (and chemical engineering) training over the years, but I was a chemical engineering undergrad and chemistry graduate student. I taught college chemistry for about half my career, then (when the millenials came and I stopped enjoying teaching them) switched to writing college chemistry textbooks and fixing scientific instrumentation...which are much lower stress and don't require interacting with people as much (which I find exhausting).
Chemistry is a very broad field with wildly disparate applications, so it's hard not to find a niche with it, whether that ends up being measuring THC levels in pot, coming up with names for new drugs, or helping to solve crimes in a crime lab (or, like me, staying away from anything that has to do with any kind of drug, legal or otherwise: I did electrochemistry and worked on solar cells).