[The Tao]

Hello,

I recently just finished my first semester in a community college, and did extremely well: 3.5 GPA. Ever since the middle of my senior year in highschool I had wanted to go into Chemistry, but didn't know what field, or what it would be like. To give you a good look at why I wanted to go into chemistry-- I nearly failed highschool, but got an A in chemistry. I'm extremely interested in the sciences, and especially chemistry.

My questions are:

a. If I do not know what branch of chemistry I want to go in, do the class schedules offer relatively enough time for me to gain enough experience to make this decision?

b. I'm a smart guy, a really smart guy... but I'm also lazy. Which is why I nearly failed highschool. Generally though, If I'm interested in a  topic, I absorb it very nicely. My question is, are the classes interesting? When you were a student of chemistry, did you enjoy going to class?

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, or revelations.

[Ψ×Ψ]

I feel ya on the "lazy" part.  But don't do what I did and think you'll never use physics and calculus.  (Probably you will at some point.) 
As far as whether the classes are interesting, it depends on who teaches them.  IME, the lower-division classes are not as interesting as the more advanced stuff, but you do need a solid grasp of the less-interesting things in order to keep up.  You will probably be required to take classes in most branches of chemistry.  Some will be less enjoyable than others.  If it's any comfort to you, it's taken until my senior year for me to pick a concentration.  Sometimes you won't know how much you despise a subject until you are in the lab with it.  Take advantage of all the research opportunities you can find.

[enahs]

As for not knowing what field of chemistry you are interested in, it is irrelevant. For a undergraduate degree you will cover Analytical, Organic, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. You might also cover Biochemistry if you choose so (in America, Biochem is not typically required to get a bachelors, but it is required if you want the bachelors with a ACS certification).

These core classes cover pretty much everything in chemistry (and oddly enough, they are the first 5 listed forums here on this site after high school/gen chem!, hint hint), and are required to understand chemistry, even if you want to specialize in one specific field.
You have a few upper level electives, but the majority of your undergraduate degree you are just learning the foundation, so you still have years to be exposed to the different fields of chemistry and choose. If your school has a good chemistry department (and is well funded) and you have good grades, you might be allowed to do some undergraduate research in different fields to see which your prefer.


I am also with you on the lazy but smart. I did not enjoy a single one of my chemistry lecture classes, but I always enjoy the labs. In both cases, a lot of it has to do with the teacher, and your attitude towards the class.

In the lectures I always felt as if my professors where making it to simple, to accommodate everybody. In truth, I have yet to have a chemistry lecture class I have actually enjoyed, or a teacher I thought did a great job. But the labs are great fun, and I am interested in the subject so I learn as much as I can on my own.

You will be required to take lots of math and some physics as well (along with all the other core classes, like Histories and Arts and such).
And at first those physics and math classes seem like a total waste, but they are just as important as the chemistry classes if you really want to go far in the field of chemistry.

And even though I did not enjoy the lecture classes (and down right despised/despise some of my professors), overall I still enjoy being in the chemistry program, because not only are the labs fun, but I just enjoy chemistry. Sometimes you have to deal with the bad to get the good.

[Ψ×Ψ]

From my experience here, research doesn't really require a good OR well-funded department.  Good grades are usually a "must."  You probably won't get paid for it.

[enahs]

From my experience here, research doesn't really require a good OR well-funded department.  Good grades are usually a "must."  You probably won't get paid for it.

Good or well-funded are subjective.

In small community colleges you will find that the Chemistry and Physics department are typically combined (or Chemistry and Biology). You still get a bachelors in just Physics or just Chemistry, but the department resources (money, instructors, etc) are shared. As a result they do not have the time, resources and money for undergraduate research. In those situations their is typically not undergraduate research, or at least very little.

[The Tao]

Wow, great responses..I was afraid that I was just going to get chewed out for being lazy, and given the advice to not pursue chemistry because of it.

I'm happy to hear that the chemistry BS..(B.S. I should say!) is very general and doesn't require an immediate decision on a specific field. Although I'm a bit depressed that you guys said you didn't enjoy your lectures. Perhaps I only enjoyed my lectures because my highschool chemistry teacher got his masters in organic chemistry from Berkley, he was buddhist, a rabid caffeine addict, and played his iPod in class.

But anyways, I'd really like to hear some more input from other people...it's all great advice.

[Dan]

As far as lectures go, it depends on the subject and style. I enjoy "board and chalk" lectures, and I despise powerpoint. Most of the organic lectures were board and chalk, and on interesting stuff, so I enjoyed them. Inorganic was a mix, and physical was mostly powerpoint, and mostly (IMO) dull material.

Example: powerpint presentations on soft condensed matter at 9am. Or an hour's sleep. Tough descision...

Classes on the other hand were excellent (even physical). We would generally be in groups of two or three, and go over the week's set work in the class. The teaching generally of a very high standard, and it was much more interesting to discuss a topic, rather than having information briefly filick up on the projector.
My advice is that you never miss a deadline for handing in work, even if it means working very late (this is the approach I took). You can get away with missing deadlines, but as soon as you start doing it, it's a slippery slope down - I've seen people get completely snowed under with work because they have such a backlog of late work.

Go to as many lectures as you can. I think the trend in education these days (in the UK anyway) is to do as much as possible with the "aid" of computers. This approach just doesn't work for me. I would always check out the first couple of lectures in a given course to see what it was like, if I was consistantly falling asleep during them, I would stay in bed, or just go back to my room and do some other work instead.

[english]

As far as lectures go, it depends on the subject and style. I enjoy "board and chalk" lectures, and I despise powerpoint.

I agree totally.  You share my style.


It's OK to be unsure.  Hell I'm unsure at this point, as I'm still working on my BSC.  We actually are required to have biochem too.  We're not a traditional school.   



Most students tend to lean towards organic and biochem.  My organic professor makes it so interesting, and I am actually interested in reading about it too.

I actually do physical chemistry research with one of my professors, a physical chemist, and I haven't even had P. Chem yet! 



You will have plenty of time to choose what area.  Spend some time with your professors, talk to them during their office hours, ask lots of questions—they'll be happy to explain your head off.   

And make sure you get A's in those chem classes and forget about all of those others!  (except for physics and calculus)