[Hand15]

Hi~

I'm now planning to pursue my PhD studies at US university after two year hiatus from academic life. I graduated from Master program in Chemistry (Chemical Biology) in 2012 and started doing business afterwards due to financial urge. But for the past two years, the economy is booming (in Asia, not in US or Europe) and I have had enough money now to support my study in US.

My GPA is 3.96 (out of 4.30) with score A+ for my Thesis and
I also had one publication with my name (Non-author) in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Recently, I just took GRE exam with Verbal score of 160 and Quantitative 163. I'm a little bit disappointed with my quantitative score, as I originally targeting >165.

I'm not very familiar with US Universities, but I'm interested to apply to UC Berkeley. Any chance for me to get accepted? Or are there any recommendation? My interest is in Chemical Biology with more emphasis in Organic Synthesis.

Another question is How is PhD life in US? Is 6-day 12-hour minimum Lab work a norm there? I'm much more incline to have a more decent lab time (8 to 10 hours) instead as I need to manage my business from time to time

[pepper.j]

It couldn't hurt to apply. Though the University of California schools have a strict requirement for applicants to take the chemistry GRE subject test. Unfortunately at a top 10 school like Berkley, you're signing up for 60-70 hour work weeks in a high stress environment. As someone who went to a big 10 and left because the culture was miserable, be sure you're applying to a school with the culture you're looking for because it's not always pretty, especially in chemistry. If you want something more reasonable you might consider being your boss' favorite or a lower tier university. It sounds like you've got good credentials so far, though I'm not sure if there are different standards for international applicants. I had several colleagues in my cohort who had industry experience and that seemed to help them a lot. I would start by contacting professors you are interested in to see if they would have a place for you in their lab. Then if that goes well, email some of their students to get a feel for what the lab is like. If it's something you really really really want to do, then go for it! But if you're not prepared to suffer and you're not 100% committed to chemistry and research, I would think twice.

[408]

Chemistry likes to time itself, so long days are normal, but there can be significant downtime during.

Being the boss' favorite is always advisable.