Balancing Act: The Young Person's Guide to a Career in Chemical Engineering by Dr. Bradley James Ridder

Author:Dr. Bradley James Ridder [Ridder, Dr. Bradley James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nonfiction, chemistry
Publisher: Dr. Bradley James Ridder
Published: 2017-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

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1 The Sages’ Shoppe is a family-owned game store in West Lafayette, Indiana, run by Chad and Jennifer Fauber. If you’re down for some Magic, its one of the best shops I’ve ever attended in terms of atmosphere and available play area.

9 What Chemical Engineering Graduate School is All About

9.1 The Goal of Graduate School

“I will either find a way, or make one.”

-Hannibal of Carthage

In your final year of undergraduate education, if you have high enough grades – among other things1 – you can apply to a graduate program and attempt to earn a master’s or PhD. In this section, I will focus mainly on PhD programs. But what actually goes on in chemical engineering graduate school? What do the students and professors do all day?

The overarching goal of a doctoral program, as far as the student is concerned, is to graduate with their PhD. Unlike your undergraduate degree however, which depends merely on completing a battery of difficult engineering courses, graduate school has the added bonus of requiring research publications. Aside from a more difficult course load and several qualifying exams, the great task in graduate school is to publish as many peer-reviewed research articles in high-impact journals as possible within four or five years. A good number of first-author publications to shoot for is three. I was only able to get out two, but some students are exceptionally productive and can graduate with five or more publications [61], [62].

To accompany you in your quest to obtain a PhD, you will choose a professor in the department to serve as your academic adviser. The professor will have a general project outlined for you. One-tenth of the bone will be exposed from the earth, and your job will be to dig up the remaining nine-tenths. The purpose of an adviser is very much like a master tradesman is to an apprentice. He’s there to offer advice and guidance on how to perform the trade. The only difference is that we’re doing scientific research instead of carpentry or plumbing.

9.2 National Science Foundation Fellowships

“While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.”

-Groucho Marx

During my second semester at Purdue, our professors strongly encouraged us to apply for National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellowships. NSF Fellowships are prestigious, highly-sought-after four-year grants from the federal government to pay your salary during your time in graduate school – among other things. They restricted to U.S. citizens and permanent residents [63]. Getting an NSF Fellowship is basically manna from heaven in the world of graduate school. If you score an NSF Fellowship, you can work for any professor in the department, even ones who don’t have any grant money coming in. After all, they’re not paying you – the Feds are. Furthermore, NSF Fellowships by themselves look great on a resume. I found out the hard way that by doing my master’s degree at USF I had disqualified myself from getting an NSF Fellowship. This was a tactical error on

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