Forensic Science via Chemistry Major

flemmyd
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:01:17 +0000

There are only a few employers, usually state govts, and right now they are not doing well financially. Also thanks to shows like CSI there is huge competition for those jobs even though they are not even remotely as interesting as the TV shows suggest. That is another reason why forensics degrees are not recommended. It is simple to train a chemist to be an evidence tech but not vice-versa so you are very limited. Most forensics departments don’t prefer forensics degrees anyways.



this is more a less what i’ve heard. if you’re interested in what is going on, look up a class website for a class called “analytical chemistry” (particularly the lab section) and see the kinds of experiments they do.



definitely though growth projections for chemical engineering are very alarming. BLS claims negative 2 or 3 percent. I’m afraid the collapse of pharmaceuticals and chemical industries in the US do not bode well for the future of chemists nor chemical engineers. Still there is a need for chemical engineers in other industries like the food industry.



I was originally a chemE major and i’ve met plenty of people who worked in industry and discouraged me from pursing it. apparent issues:

1. if you work at a chemical plant, where do you life? They don’t erect chemical plants right next to the nice suburbs or in the middle of a really cool city. it’s where they can pollute and land is cheap. part of why you get paid such a disproportionately high salary.

2. you don’t gain much on the job. what ended up happening was working a few years and losing your job/getting replaced by a fresh grad.

although there’s nothing stopping you from working in plenty of other jobs that use any of the skills you learn. although, i can’t imagine a good chuck of your coursework being relevant (reactor design? chemical processes?).



interesting ones are: 1 year of G chem, 1 year of P chem, 1 year of analytical.

really? I (and every chemistry professor I’ve met) thought gchem was terrible. every topic gets thrown into it, so the educational value is so diluted. and personally, i thought pchem was also kind of stupid. the main reason being that most chem majors don’t have the mathematical tools to really appreciate quantum mechanics. they wouldn’t know the difference between a canonical transformation and hermitian matrix. most of the serious learning of pchem occurred in graduate school. you kind of learn just enough of the concepts so you can see how they apply in organic chemistry (how do certain mechanics work/are they likely?) or how certain high end instruments work (analytical chemistry).



the most horrendously painful class you will ever take is biochemistry. there is no calculations, which sounds cool for those that hate math. until you realize you’ll be memorizing telephone book sized tomes within 10 weeks.



we get it. you’re a bio major who hates the fact that they majored in biology and lacks any “real” skills. rather than spend time learning new skills/from other’s experiences, you come to internet boards and rant. and everything else is a greener pasture with jobs aplenty.

i’ll tell companies like Amgen and Genentech that all their bio stuff is stupid. And Harvard chemistry professor Gregory L. Verdine that all 7 of his biotech startups are stupid.

EDIT:
forgot to mention. there are “plenty” of jobs similar to forensic science. they are basically lab tech jobs that require you to be familiar with analytical chem instruments. they go under different names, chemical quality supervisor for one.
your job is basically doing quality control test of something. the instrument will vary on industry/what you’re doing.

but from what i can tell, these aren’t real jobs that you can make a career out of. its really something you work at part time/over summer. or at best, for a year or two while you figure out what you want to do.

if i were starting school over, i wouldnt be a chem major. i finished a chem degree recently, but am pursing another major because… well because i don’t really care about chemistry any more.