Posted on behalf of Materials Girl
You’d think that being on winter break for three weeks would provide not only holiday spirit, but also an ideal medium for productivity — catching up on blog entries, preemptively studying for physics, etc, etc. However, it seems that the mind automatically (and far too easily) switches from textbook chemistry to everyday chemistry. Notably, I spent countless hours creating “reactions” in the kitchen, as opposed to researching for my aerogel project or finding out how to use our dusty ellipsometer that everyone in lab seems to have forgotten how to operate…
In any case, I did manage — in the last three days of break — to start and finish the majority of my summer applications for undergraduate research. This suggests a recently evolved thought: Is it better to spend summers taking classes, thereby lowering the risk of becoming a fifth-year undergrad, or to continue with research, in order to gain experience and resume boosters? Concentrating solely on research, without the pressure of the regular school year, provides a superior medium for learning and productivity in lab. Nevertheless, graduating on time is ideal, and paying extra undergraduate tuition is hardly in my budget. It all depends on how those pesky once-a-year, required courses are scheduled, but who knows that far enough in advance?
On a similar note, is it more beneficial to spend extra time as an undergrad taking non-required but theoretically practical courses, or to finish the bare minimum quickly and learn what is missing as it comes in grad school and industry? What to do, what to do…
Consider trimethylsilanizing (e.g., Me3SiOEt) your formed aerogel before dealing with solvent. Capillary exclusion keeps the bounce in open networks. The organic monolayer burns off in hot oxygen or oxygen plasma; the silicon rips off with fluoride or perhaps ammonia.
Success is all about process not product. The productive are fungible – chemistry is vastly oversubscribed.
Good questions. I thought that getting some significant time in the lab was really important for deciding if I wanted to spend another 5+ years doing the same, but I also think you run the risk of learning things half-heartedly (and thus, not sufficiently) if you don’t do them in a careful way (which usually only happens in a classroom). Also, I’ve found that the professors teaching the ‘non-required’ classes are usually the most excited to be teaching, and so the classes are usually much more interesting than the basic ones. Basically, you just need to finish that project on time travel, and then you can do it all. 🙂 Good luck deciding!
Catherine brings up some good points. As you go on in chemistry, you will increasingly be expected to learn stuff you have never taken a class in, so you should enjoy the opportunity while you can. That goes for non-science classes, too (especially languages).
You can also never predict what you will learn in a non-required class beyond what is on the syllabus. The computational chemistry class that I took as an undergrad is a distant memory, but it got me started on e-mail, usenet, etc. back when it was still relatively new (though that probably led to more time wasted in the long run).
Also, odds are reasonably good that at least some percentage of your fellow students will end up on the same track as you and you could help each other out later on (unless you become mortal enemies).
At the very least, you will end up with some unusual books on your shelf.