Dear High School Chemistry Students (& their Teachers or Parents):

Are you (or your students or your children) interested in careers in medicine, forensics, pharmaceuticals, or any of the other types of chemistry? If so, we invite you to become Chemistry Majors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We have had outstanding success in training top-notch chemists. I invite all interested students & their teachers or parents to visit us on UNL's Chemistry Day to learn how we do it.

Chemistry Day is being held on Saturday, October 6, 2007, from 9:00 am - 2:30 pm in Hamilton Hall, located in the middle of the Lincoln city campus. Please see the Schedule for more detailed information. Space is limited, so register early to ensure your participation.

This year’s program will feature a variety of fun and informative sessions, including poster sessions featuring the research of both graduate and undergraduate students, tours of Hamilton Hall, the Resource Room, the Undergraduate Instrumentation Center, the Undergraduate Lounge, and three of the Professor's labs, an overview of the Chemistry program, experimental demonstrations, career exploration, scholarship opportunities, and tours of the UNL Campus. There will also be a special lecture titled “A Periodic Table of Elements in the Movies.” And if this is not enough of an incentive, this free program also includes lunch catered by Valentino’s Pizza.

In addition to these sessions, there will also be a special session just for teachers featuring a variety of lively and unique demonstrations that you can do at your high school.  We will also provide a hotel room for participants traveling more than three hours.

All participants will have the opportunity to register for prizes. High School Seniors can register to win $500 scholarships. They must demonstrate that they have an overall GPA of B+ or better (bring a transcript copy), that they will complete a high school chemistry course, and that they will enroll at UNL as a chemistry major. Everyone is eligible for door prizes. Chemistry Teachers can register to receive a visit in their classroom by one of our best instructors, who will perform a variety of instructive demonstrations. A given high school can win this prize as frequently as every other year.

So, why is chemistry such a great major to have? One answer is that you're practically guaranteed the career option of your choice. You see, one-third of our majors enter medical school, one-half enter graduate programs in the top schools in the nation, and the rest get great jobs. The Department receives frequent requests from local industry to direct the attention of our graduating seniors to their companies. Another answer comes from our students. When we asked our majors why they choose to become chemistry majors, they answered that it's INTERESTING and it's HARD. It's interesting because it is the central science and you can use your knowledge to solve so many problems. It's hard because chemistry is probably the best developed science - it has been around a long time.

Since everybody knows that chemistry is hard, how can that be a good reason to choose it as a major? Well, one example is the statistic that the acceptance rate into medical schools is higher for chemistry majors than for any other major. My guess is that chemistry majors are so desirable to medical schools because they have already experienced a difficult, deep, and broad curriculum and they have had lab experience that taught them how to solve problems. Those are the same reasons that companies like to hire chemistry majors. The reason why so many of our majors go to graduate school is probably because we require all of our majors to do 2 credits worth of research-and they get hooked. They learn the joys and sorrows of doing research by carrying out experiments in a professor's lab that no one has ever carried out before. To discover something that no one else ever has is something that very few people ever get the opportunity to do. It is exciting.

If you or your students are interested in the sciences, challenging course work, and exciting career opportunities, then we'd like to meet you at UNL's Chemistry Day.

Space is limited, so register early!

Sincerely,

Mark A. Griep
Undergraduate Academic Advisor