Ic hemist ry EDITOR: GEORGE H. MORRISON EDiTORlAL HEADQUARTERS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: 202-872-4570 Teletype: 710-8220 151
Choosing a Graduate School
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The ACS Career Services Advisory Board recently published a booklet, “Graduate Programs in Chemistry” (Education Division, ACS, Washington, D.C., 1983), that provides undergraduate chemistry students with preliminary information about graduate programs in chemistry in the U.S. The information, presented in tabular form, indicates the institutions and the graduate degrees (masters and doctorate) awarded in the various areas of concentration (analytical, inorganic, organic, physical, biochemistry, and chemical physics). Brief program descriptions are summarized at the end. According to the report, “analytical chemistry, the field in which most chemists work, is a broad area that encompasses both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis such as spectroscopy, microscopy, microanalysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, and chromatography in the identification of materials and compounds. Subdisciplines could include analytical separation, instrumentation, and spectrochemical and electrochemical analysis.” Whether or not this is a good way to describe analytical chemistry to a prospective graduate student is subject to debate. An analysis of the data in this report reveals some disturbing facts regarding the availability of graduate programs in analytical chemistry. Of the 179 institutions listed that grant the PhD in three or more areas of concentration in chemistry, 40 do not offer analytical chemistry. This is particularly distressing because the report states that this is the field in which most chemists work. In contrast, only four of the institutions do not offer the PhD in inorganic chemistry, and all offer organic and physical chemistry. It should be noted that the information in this report, which was compiled from responses to a questionnaire, does not agree with that presented in the 1983 “ACS Directory of Graduate Research”-which should be considered a more reliable source. A number of departments listed in the report as not offering an analytical PhD do offer it, according to the directory; thus the list of 40 reduces to 31. Among these are the University of California at Berkeley, MIT, and Northwestern. Of particular concern is the fact that graduate study in analytical chemistry is presently not offered a t some of the top universities, such as the University of Chicago, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale. Most of these schools had world-renowned graduate analytical programs in years past but, apparently for “elitist” rather than scientific reasons, they have chosen to narrow their research. Fortunately, there are many more excellent universities that do offer a PhD in analytical chemistry, and those of us who have the opportunity should encourage our better undergraduate students who are pursuing graduate study to seek out those institutions that teach all of chemistry.
The American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the editors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the American Chemical Society. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 56, NO. 13, NOVEMBER 1984
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