Coursework is an opportunity to delve deeper into the science of your chosen research area as well as the discipline of chemistry more broadly. Required skills-based coursework in proposal preparation, pedagogy, and ethics, among others, will help prepare you for your thesis work and for the job market.

Required courses for all scholars

• six 3-credit chemistry graduate courses (or approved external courses)
• TATT 600 + 605 (TATTO)
• JPE 600 + 606 + 610 (JPE)
• ELSP courses, if required (ELSP)
• CHEM 504 (Rotations)
• CHEM 597 (Proposal/Library Course)
• CHEM 798B, CHEM 798C, CHEM 798D (Milestones)
• Research credit (every semester except the first)

Grading

Courses are graded as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) or on a letter grade basis (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C, or F). Courses that offer a letter grade must be taken for a grade if they will be applied towards the requirements for candidacy.

Understanding course levels

Graduate courses at Emory are offered at the 500-level or above. The following guidance may be helpful in distinguishing between levels:

• 500-level: core/foundational graduate course; appropriate for any graduate scholar
• 600-level: required training courses, including TATTO and JPE
• 700-level: advanced graduate course; first year scholars may enroll, but are encouraged to seek advising support to ensure they can be successful in the course

New scholar enrollment

New scholars will meet with faculty during orientation to select coursework for the first semester.  A signed Course Selection Form is required for the first semester only.

Enrollment in two chemistry graduate courses is considered a full load during the first year.

First year scholars wishing to take a third course in either the Fall or Spring should request DGS permission prior to enrollment via a petition to the graduate program. Scholars are advised that two courses is considered a full load and is the most common successful path through the program. Scholars who elect to take three courses have the option of dropping one course at any point during the semester; this action will result in a “W” notation on the transcript.

ELSP courses

The LGS English Language Support Program (ELSP) provides high quality language support to graduate and professional students, postdoctoral fellows, and scholars with diverse linguistic backgrounds at all stages of the academic journey.  Scholars for whom English is a second language may be required to take an ELSP assessment during orientation. The chemistry graduate program strongly encourages scholars to take all required and recommended ELSP courses. ELSP courses are also recommended as an excellent resource for fluent English speakers seeking support in graduate writing and presentation skills.

Registering for external (non-Chemistsry) courses

In most cases, first year, first semester scholars will be best served by taking all of their courses in chemistry. However, after this point, scholars are encouraged to broadly explore course offerings across Emory.

Scholars who wish to register for courses offered outside of the Department of Chemistry must complete the External Coursework Petition. This form requires signatures from the primary research mentor (or DGS prior to joining a group) and the Instructor of Record for the requested course. If a scholar wishes to apply a non-chemistry course towards the six chemistry courses required for candidacy, they should indicate this request on the petition.

First year research credit

All scholars in the graduate program are required to maintain a full course load consisting of at least 9 units during the fall, spring and summer semesters.

First Year, First Semester (Fall)

First year scholars should NOT enroll in any research credit during their first semester at Emory. Research effort during the first semester is tracked via enrollment in CHEM 504: Rotations. Scholars may be automatically enrolled in research credit as a temporary placeholder prior to course selection – it is the responsibility of the scholar to drop these credits when they enroll in their selected courses.

First Year, Second Semester (Spring)

Scholars should enroll in 6 credits of CHEM599R to reflect research effort.

First Year, Third Semester (Summer)

Scholars should enroll in 12 credits of CHEM599R to reflect research effort.

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