Le Chemistry Thread for Der Chemistry Types

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

So, I made a thread panicking about having to take organic chemistry this semester. It turns out that I have a knack for it and I really enjoy it. I've moved by plans from Molecular Biology major to Biochemistry major in hopes that more organic will be present, however, is there a such thing as an organic chemistry major?

grungebox

That's usually a specialty within a general chemistry major, I believe. I'm a grad student, and the organic chemists I've had to work with all have chemistry degrees.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

The thing is I have amassed a good deal of biology credits, so if I pick straight up chemistry, I'll set myself back a year. Anyone have any experience with a biochemistry major?

Dman

Some quick googling reveals that many universities have biochemistry majors (if this wasn't already known). So if your university doesn't you might be able to transfer to one that does.

Djeet

P. Chem (Physical Chemistry) was the guantlet course for Chem\BioChem majors as I recall. You'll need good calculus skills to get through it. Chem/BioChem majors tend to have a pretty structured set of coursework, so like you said you may have to delay graduation a year or more depending on how far you are into your current coursework (Biology?) and what your plans are for grad school (M.D.?). Or if your school has a deep set summer courses you could do that, but some of those classes are going to be pretty brutal getting crammed into a summer session. Talk to a Chem major adviser at your college of Natural Sciences (I'm assuming that's the college for Chem)?

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Djeet wrote: »

P. Chem (Physical Chemistry) was the guantlet course for Chem\BioChem majors as I recall. You'll need good calculus skills to get through it. Chem/BioChem majors tend to have a pretty structured set of coursework, so like you said you may have to delay graduation a year or more depending on how far you are into your current coursework (Biology?) and what your plans are for grad school (M.D.?). Or if your school has a deep set summer courses you could do that, but some of those classes are going to be pretty brutal getting crammed into a summer session. Talk to a Chem major adviser at your college of Natural Sciences (I'm assuming that's the college for Chem)?

Yeah, I hear everyone dreads physical chemistry. I'm slogging through a basic p.chem course and thank heavens for curves. I'll have to shoot an email or two out.

grungebox

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud wrote: »

Djeet wrote: »

P. Chem (Physical Chemistry) was the guantlet course for Chem\BioChem majors as I recall. You'll need good calculus skills to get through it. Chem/BioChem majors tend to have a pretty structured set of coursework, so like you said you may have to delay graduation a year or more depending on how far you are into your current coursework (Biology?) and what your plans are for grad school (M.D.?). Or if your school has a deep set summer courses you could do that, but some of those classes are going to be pretty brutal getting crammed into a summer session. Talk to a Chem major adviser at your college of Natural Sciences (I'm assuming that's the college for Chem)?

Yeah, I hear everyone dreads physical chemistry. I'm slogging through a basic p.chem course and thank heavens for curves. I'll have to shoot an email or two out.

Really, it depends on your goals. If you enjoy organic chemistry (keep in mind that my above post meant that "organic chemistry" is a subset specialty of general chemistry; biochemistry is almost always a separate major), and are considering chemistry research, you should just take on the additional year. A year now is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Your decision also depends on what parts of your organic chem class you enjoyed; you might not get any of that in biochemistry. My gf was a molecular biology major (and now mol. bio grad student), aced organic chem without breaking a sweat and loved the class, yet she hated biochemistry classes.

SanderJK

In my opinion, homogenic catalysis is the most interesting field in organic chemistry. I'm not fully aware of what paths to take to get there educationally, but I would encourage you to seek it out. It's been a bit since I last read up on it, but the molecules they build are just very intriguing on multiple levels (On how they synthesise, how they determine appropriate metal ions, tuning them with sidegroups etcet).

The other main path I see is towards pharmaceutical synthesis. The big companies (Pfizer etcet.) employ a lot of organic chemistry promovendi for their early on chemistry development. Note that they tend to higher promovendi rather then masters though.

Rook

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud wrote: »

The thing is I have amassed a good deal of biology credits, so if I pick straight up chemistry, I'll set myself back a year. Anyone have any experience with a biochemistry major?

I did my UK degree in biochem, and am currently finishing off my phd in it. As far as I'm aware, most biochem courses end up drifting far more into cell biology/molecular biology and really have very little to do at all with chemistry. You might find something interesting if there's a heavy structural biology/biophysics side but you'll really want to read up on what specifically they're doing as part of the course.

In my mind, if you're really liking your organic chemistry, stick with it.

valtzy

i'm an undergrad in biochemistry with a year left and i'd have to agree with rook on this one. Most biochem courses drift far more into cell bio. there is one exception though, molecular biology will look at things with a biological twist (how the cell as a whole works) while the biochemist will look systems with a chemical twist i.e. oxidations/reductions, energy released, transition states, synthesis of various metabolites.

i had a course in metabolism last spring that had a severe organic chemistry bent to it, pretty much identifying the reactivity of certain side chains (acid halides are always on top, amides on the bottom) and figuring out which reactions are oxidation/reduction. aggravating but absolutely glorious.

if you're really into organic chemistry, you should probably stick with it as a chemistry major. sanderjk has a point on pharmaceutical synthesis. a lot of the larger companies utilize medicinal chemists (organic chemists who know some bio) to synthesize lead compounds and various derivatives. on the plus side, you still get to use the volumes of reactions you learned to synthesize these bad boys.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

valtzy wrote: »

i'm an undergrad in biochemistry with a year left and i'd have to agree with rook on this one. Most biochem courses drift far more into cell bio. there is one exception though, molecular biology will look at things with a biological twist (how the cell as a whole works) while the biochemist will look systems with a chemical twist i.e. oxidations/reductions, energy released, transition states, synthesis of various metabolites.

i had a course in metabolism last spring that had a severe organic chemistry bent to it, pretty much identifying the reactivity of certain side chains (acid halides are always on top, amides on the bottom) and figuring out which reactions are oxidation/reduction. aggravating but absolutely glorious.

if you're really into organic chemistry, you should probably stick with it as a chemistry major. sanderjk has a point on pharmaceutical synthesis. a lot of the larger companies utilize medicinal chemists (organic chemists who know some bio) to synthesize lead compounds and various derivatives. on the plus side, you still get to use the volumes of reactions you learned to synthesize these bad boys.

hmmmm, yeah isn't regiospecificity fun? I think so! Yeah, people look at me and go o_O when I say I enjoy organic chem. Ugh, I shall consult with the chem gurus on this.

GameHat

The thing about "organic chemistry" is that the phrase is so damn broad as to be meaningless.

I work with a few PhDs in my immediate group. One is a chemist, no clue what he studied but his career has been in unsaturated polyesters (coatings, composite polymers) his whole life

One is a chemical engineer. He's pretty much worthless (shame to a noble field). He drinks a lot of coffee, occasionally works with coatings (alkyds)

The last is another chemist. My boss's boss. He works with me, with unsaturated polyesters for composite polymers.

Pick a field that you want to go into - biotech, academia, whatever. Then do a bit of research to find out what people in these fields actually study. Pursue degree accordingly.

...but there really is no such thing as an "organic chem" major, IMO. Sure, there are professors of organic chem (on the academic side: synthesis, analytical; on the industrial side petroleum, biotech, food) - but they all have a specialty. Figure out what interests you in chemistry and go after that.

romanqwerty

My uni has a major called pharmacology.

If thats your sorta thing, look into what uni's offer something simmilar.