What additional courses should I take as a chem major?

[theeightman]

I am a sophomore chem major taking my second semester of organic. I plan on going to grad school. I took calc 2 last semester but calc 3 is not offered next semester so that is sadly out of the question. I can't take classical mechanics without calc 3 and I've already taken prob. and stats. No higher level stats courses offered. I have considered taking discrete mathematics (which includes topics such as logic and proofs, set theory, relations, cardinal numbers, countable and uncountable sets, permutations and combinations, graph theory, and group theory) but I don't know how useful that would be in chemistry and if it would be worth all the effort.

Any other course suggestions or ideas?

 

[mpresic]

Group theory might be applicable to chemistry, but might not be worth the trouble of going through the rest of the discrete math course. Can you talk to an academic adviser at your university or college.

 

[theeightman]

Group theory might be applicable to chemistry, but might not be worth the trouble of going through the rest of the discrete math course. Can you talk to an academic adviser at your university or college.

I do have an advisor though I won't be able to talk to him until the first day of class on Tuesday. I want to at least have an idea of what class to take so I know to attend if its first day happens to be Tuesday.

 

[mpresic]

I do not know if you need to take any required broad electives outside your major. I know at my university, you had to take or place out of a foreign language, had a Phys Ed requirement, or something like that.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

What type of chemistry do you want to study in grad school? Organic, physical, inorganic, analytic, computational, biochemical? Chemistry is so broad that the recommendations would differ significantly based on the subfield of chemistry you'd like to specialize in.

Also , if you want to go to graduate school, getting undergraduate research experience is vastly more valuable than any set of electives you might take.

 

[mpresic]

The OP is a sophomore and may not have taken particular electives the school requires by this time. I know where I went to school it was impossible to place out of all electives until completing the sophomore year. One elective was required per semester for the first two years, although this was > 30 years ago. Probably by now, most schools have eliminated phys ed requirements or foreign language requirements or electives outside the major, but who knows.

I do agree that undergraduate research will be vastly more valuable for grad school, but you may have to satisfy the university or colleges requirements regarding electives to graduate with a Bachelors Degree, and to even make it into the admissions process.