How Can a Young Aspiring Scientist Like Houssein Start a Career in Chemistry?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the career path for a young aspiring scientist interested in chemistry. Participants explore the necessary steps, challenges, and skills required for a successful career in the field, including educational requirements and language proficiency.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • Houssein expresses a desire for guidance on starting a career in chemistry and questions the necessary steps and skills required.
  • One participant emphasizes the importance of hard work and maintaining good grades across all subjects to keep options open for future career decisions.
  • Concerns are raised about the necessity of language skills, particularly French, and whether they are essential for a career in science.
  • Another participant mentions that many universities require a foreign language taken in high school, but notes that English is increasingly dominant in scientific discourse.
  • There is a discussion about the possibility of self-learning languages like German and how that might be viewed by colleges.
  • Houssein shares his academic performance, indicating a strong aptitude in math and science, while others share their own academic achievements as encouragement.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the importance of hard work and maintaining good grades. However, there is uncertainty regarding the necessity of specific language skills, particularly French, and whether self-taught languages would meet university requirements.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention that language classes taken in middle school may count towards university requirements, but this is not universally confirmed and may depend on individual school policies.

TwigLaser
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Hello everyone I'm currently new here and was hoping to find some guidance to my scientific career. I'm 14 years old, I was born in 25/05/1995(mm/dd/yy). My favorite sport is Hockey. My favorite team is...Pittsburgh penguins. My favorite player is Sidney Crosby. I like chemistry, I always work independently, and I'm a fast learner. I can also work in isolated places and disturbing places( like a room filled with lots of yelling kids). I also have a natural skill in mathematics and science. Although I got some problems with my language marks(English is my second language)

Now that you know me better, here's my question: If your going to become a scientist who likes chemistry, how do you start? What's the system of becoming one? Is it hard? What do you need to have a great science career(what kind of languages, skills, etc.)? I was thinking about it but didn't come to an answer so I decided to look on Google and happily found this forum.

Oh I forgot to mention my name, it's Houssein.
 
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TwigLaser said:
If your going to become a scientist who likes chemistry, how do you start? What's the system of becoming one? Is it hard? What do you need to have a great science career(what kind of languages, skills, etc.)?

Firstly, welcome to the forums, TwigLaser! I hope you are happy here, and that we can help you with any questions you may have for many years to come.

How you start: hard work! Work away and keep up the grades in school, in all of your subjects. This makes sure that you have the biggest range of options when the time comes to make a decision about your career. To work in science, you probably already know that you will likely need to go to college/university. You will spend a few years there, working in the lab and going to classes, learning as much as you can - and when you finish, you can choose to keep on studying to get more qualifications or try and find yourself a job!

Is it hard? It can be. You won't find anyone that will tell you it's easy, if I can put it that way :smile: You're young now, if you put your mind to it and stick to your goals then you'll give yourself a good chance.

And what do you need to have a good career? Keeping with the theme I've introduced before, hard work! Have a passion for what you do. If you enjoy chemistry, great, you're already taking on half the battle. Enjoying it every day when you go to work is very important, but it is also important to work away at the things you don't enjoy so much - you never know when they will become useful.
 


Wow, your words really opened my mind a bit. But when you have a weakness in subjects like french and language, what should you do? I mean, do you really need them? I understand why I need ''language''. In fact I am nether excellent nor poor at it , I am right in the middle. but its french that's nagging me. I don't know if I'm ready for a third language. So is french really necessary? I even heard that Latin and German is really helpful when it comes to science(for some reason).


Anyway, thanks for the advice. It really inspired me to work harder.
 


TwigLaser said:
Wow, your words really opened my mind a bit. But when you have a weakness in subjects like french and language, what should you do? I mean, do you really need them? I understand why I need ''language''. In fact I am nether excellent nor poor at it , I am right in the middle. but its french that's nagging me. I don't know if I'm ready for a third language. So is french really necessary? I even heard that Latin and German is really helpful when it comes to science(for some reason).


Anyway, thanks for the advice. It really inspired me to work harder.

Hi TwigLaser and welcome from me, too :smile:.

Many universities require a language taken in high school, usually two years. More and more in science, English is the primary language used, though. German used to be used a lot in chemistry, but not as much now.
 
TwigLaser said:
I was born in 25/05/1995(mm/dd/yy).

Oh? :-p
 
universities require a language taken in high school.

So if I learned German from the internet or from some person willing to teach me- it wouldn't count because I didn't take it in high school?
 
TwigLaser said:
So if I learned German from the internet or from some person willing to teach me- it wouldn't count because I didn't take it in high school?

Well, you can learn it by yourself and take the German SAT Subject test. I don't know how colleges consider subject tests in place of credit.
 


Well, I'm too young to think about this anyway o.O. Il try my best with french in till I am in high school.( IM in grade 8 at the moment)
 


TwigLaser said:
Well, I'm too young to think about this anyway o.O. Il try my best with french in till I am in high school.( IM in grade 8 at the moment)

Ah, I thought you were in high school. Well you should check with your advisor to be sure, but I believe language classes taken in middle school count towards the university requirement. So you may not have to take German in high school, unless you want to. Again, check with your advisor.

Since your interest is in chemistry, be sure to give those classes a lot of attention, and also your math classes. Good luck!
 
  • #10


Thanx, I heard that I'm getting 100% on my math for my report card. I am not sure but I am expecting a really high mark. Expecting the same for science, but more in the 80's.
 
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  • #11
dude...i just graduated and got straight 90's on my math marks. 92 for my science mark. 1 of my math marks were 99%! hurray!

I also got the science, math, and academic improvement awards.
 
  • #12
Congratulations dude.
 
  • #13
Thank you.
 

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