Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

What college is best for a education to being a chemist?

"Being chemist" is somewhat vague - each of the schools will offer chemistry with some specific slant. What do you imagine you'll want to do with your chemistry degree? Create new drugs? Create new rocket fuels? A school will have ongoing research in some areas and I think most people would agree that the 'best' school is one that has excellent academics but also has research interests in a field that interests you.

When you look at the lists of top-ranked schools for chemistry it's a pretty consistent list. Here's some links I found with Google and you can find more, I'm sure.

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... y-rankings
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-gl ... /chemistry
http://www.collegefactual.com/majors/ph ... op-ranked/
http://www.topuniversities.com/universi ... se+search=

What I would do is contact the schools you're interested in and ask about their areas of research. When you go onsite to check out the school, ask if you can meet with someone researching something that excites you and get a sense of what the research opportunities will be for you. A school with fabulous resources for researching new rocket fuels might not be as good for you as an equally ranked one if you're more interested in something else.

Howard