Selecting a Graduate School for Training in Chemistry' JOHN R. SAMPEY Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina
H .
UNDREDS of G. I. Joes and Janes are asking the question, "Where shall I go for graduate work in chemistry?" When I faced the same question a t the close of World War I, one of my professors offered the following suggestions: "University A has the most beautiful campus in America. University B has a wonderful school spirit. University Coffers nothing but hard work." After a quarter of a century have wechemical educators anything more helpful to offer the veterans of World War II? The American Chemical Society has prepared, after a decadeof thorough study and investigation on the part of its Committee on Professional Training, a list of approved institutions for undergraduate training i n chemi~try.~ To many of us engaged in teaching undergraduates in liberal arts colleges, the minimum requirements of the ACS committee are decidedly too professional for a student a t the undergraduate level. We question the wisdom of a student's taking a minimuin of 45 to 50 hours, out of his 120 hours for the Bachelor's Degree, in any one subject. The medical profession is not unanimous in advocating strong specialization in the natural sciences in premedical training. The chemical profession should afford the undergraduate more time for the study of the social sciences and the humanities if members of our profession are to make the contributions expected of them in our complex and confused postwar world. Has not the testimony of scientists before Congress on the pending bills on science legislation revealed to some of us our glaring lack of such broad training? And on the other hand, where will one find more eloquent appeals for scientists to move out into new positions of leadership in the world of tomorrow, than those made a t the Westinghouse Forum on "Science and Life in the W ~ r l d ? " ~ Already educators in our institutions of higher learning are making plans to correct the wave of professionalism found in the teaching of undergraduate courses in science. There is a definite threat today to take the teaching of all first-year science courses away from the science departments of all our colleges and universities.' The work of the ACS Committee on Professional Train-, ing has helped precipitate this crisis. Since we cannot expect a list of "approved" graduate departments of chemistry for some time, if a t all,' what objective tests or standards can we suggest that a stu-
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Presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 110th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago. September 9-13, 1946. Chern. Eng. News, 24, 1491 (1946). 3 Ibid., 24, 1324 (1946). ' Science, 103, 734 (1946). 1
dent can himself check before deciding on a graduate school? With Uncle Sam footing the bill for the veteran, the usual pressing question of finances is relegated to a position of secondary importance, where i t belongs. For students, however, veterans or nonveterans, for whom the financing of graduate training is a hurdle, Dr. Alexander Silverman's study, presented a t the Atlantic City meeting of the Society, on scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships granted by graduate schools, should prove helpful. Assuming a student desires the thorough training which will enable him to pursue a research career, even though he may later find himself teaching the science or employed in a plant, a sales office,or as an executive in a chemical industry, he will do well to note where the leaders of research in America took their graduate training. The 250 starred chemists and chemical engineers in "American Men of Science," 7th Edition, is as representative a group of such leaders as one can find. The universities granting the largest number of earned advanced degrees to this group are listed in Table 1. TABLE 1 U N ~ Y B B S ~GBANTINO TI~L ADVANCEDD B O B B * STAXRBD ~ ~ CHBMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENDINEkRS'IN "AMERICAN M E N 09 SCIBNCB," 7TH EDITION Uniarrlil~ California California Institute of Technology Chicago Columbia Cornell
No. of masters' demeel
No. of doclarr'
5 1 4
21 5
?
9
degrm
18 6
Haward Hopkin* Illinois
M.I.T.
Michigan Ohio state Fennsvlvania
Foreign
.
9
51
It is significant that 16 American universities were selected as the place for their training for the doctorate by two-thirds of the starred scientists. Attention is also called to the fact that 51 of the group received their doctorates in foreign institutions; this is partly accounted for hy the fact that 30 of the group also took their undergraduate work in European countries. The advantazes accruinz from the selection of an institution which has the reputation of attracting superior students cannot be overemphasized. The competition during student days will certainly prove more stimulating, and more than one student in such an institution
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SELECTING A GRADUATE SCHOOL FOR TRAINING I N CHEMISTRY has reported that he learned as much from the grilling of fellow students in a pre-Ph.D. club as from the faculty. Furthermore, the larger achievements of one's superior classmates will continue to exert its driving force for greater personal effort thmughout life. And, finally, one often gains as much through thoughtful acts of friends in high places as through his own conscious efforts. The caliber of the faculty must ever remain a determining factor in the selection of a graduate department. The prospective student can check for himself how many of the research staff are starred men in "American Men of Science," or the volume and quality of their research published in the Society's journals and monographs, or what offices they have held and what honors they have won from scientific societies, etc. While every graduate department seeks to be strong in each of the major fields of chemistry, the fact remains that a department is usually stronger in one field than another. And the selection of a major professor is even more important, for he not only directs the student's research and assists him to find a job, but he remains a personal friend and scientific godfather in after years. This latter consideration has led many a graduate studept to cast his lot with a promising younger member of a staff
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rather than with an older member with more publications and more honors. An appraisal of the stmgth,of related science departments is the last suggestion we offer to a student seeking entrance into the graduate school of a university. If the individual is interested in physical chemistry, he will do well to check on the physics and mathematics departments. On the other hand, if he wishes training in the biological or medical phases of chemistry, he should know something of the reputation of these departments where he will take his minor. It is not uncommon for a "minor" to become the field of major specialization in postdoctorate research; two Ph.D.'s in chemistry of my own graduate school days are now professors of physics in the same institution. If these suggestions seem more inadequate and misleading than those given to this veteran of World War I, then there is hope that there will be available a more objective and professional guide to place in the hands of the remnant of veterans from World War 111who may seek advice on what graduate school to enter for training in chemistry. It is high time that a subject so fundamental to the development of American chemistry be divorced from personal opinions, blind loyalties, and bitter prejudices.
