Is it worth anything or do you need the full bachelor? i wouldn’t stop at an A.S. degree, i’m sure i’d finish a B.S. but with an A.S. at least i could enter the job market early.
Interested in forensic chemistry? God do they need people. Contact a local lab and ask them if they’d take you with an A.S. If they would, then you’re employed. It’s always Government, so while the pay is average, the benefits and vacation are max. If they wouldn’t, but they manage to talk you into staying interested in the field, then you can aim your second two years that direction.
To be an actual CHEMIST you may need a Bachelor’s. However, in several places I have worked, they hire CHEMICAL TECHNICIANS, who perform routine and mundain tests for quality assurance. For one of these positions, an Associates’ degree is perfectly adequate.
thanks. according to the bureal of labor statistics occupational handbook
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos115.htm
“There are several ways to qualify for a job as a science technician. Many employers prefer applicants who have at least 2 years of specialized training or an associate degree in applied science or science-related technology…”
Does ‘science-related technology’ constitute an associates in chemistry? they said the average wage was $17 an hour for a chemical technician and that there were 73000 jobs in the US so the market doesn’t look nearly as small or low paying as i was afraid it would be.
I agree with the above. You’re not going to be an actual scientist on an associate’s degree, but you will be able to get a job doing technician-type stuff.
Bear in mind that the $17/hour figure quoted on the site you linked to is median salary, not average. I work in the Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology dept. in a major university in Mass. An entry level job with an AS would pay between 10 and 12 an hour, BSc would pay between 12 and 14. Post-docs only make 16 to 18. Of course, in the private sector, you could expect to make more, and salary will vary depending on geographical location and the job market where you happen to live. I’d definitely contact employers in the area to inquire about their pay ranges and the marketability they feel you would have, and would also make inquiries about job placement with the school you’re planning on attending.
I have a chem tech degree, and live in Ontario. I also did a couple of years at Queen’s U for chemical engineering first (couldn’t afford another year, so went to college and got the chem tech). I have been looking for work in that field for over a year, and I have not been able to find anything. You do hear about jobs every so often, but they always get many, many applicants.
If I could afford it I would go back to Queen’s and finish the engineering.
You can get a job as a glorified check-out-chick running samples through a GC or AA.
sultana of slash Is there lots of forensic jobs going over there? To become a scully here you need a top 1% HSC mark (thats leaving high school) and do a honours equivalent at Uni. Then you just get a job with the cops dusting for prints or looking at sticky tape.
Maybe I should immigrate to the USA. But can I get to read the SDMB for 3 hours a day?
Yep. Departments scrambling for people. The recent recession caused a hiring freeze in many states, but the lab directors are compiling lists of resumes for as soon as the economy heats up again. You can’t do endless reams of police work with not enough people forever. It spills into some Senator’s lap as trouble and then all of a sudden you have salaries again.
I forgot to mention, tons of money pouring into bioterrorism research labs, some of which need chemistry assistants. I got these two news items from the Homeland Security Weekly Newsletter, which is forwarded to Medical Examiners in Virginia by our local emergency planners. Sorry I can’t make the links active.
Pittsburgh: University Gets $18 Million to Construct Bioterror Lab (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) The University of Pittsburgh’s Biomedical Research Tower 3, now under construction in Oakland [PA], will include a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory where researchers will pursue vaccine development and treatments for both potential bioterror agents and emerging diseases, according to the Post-Gazette. [View article]
Texas: Galveston to Get Bioterrorism Lab (San Antonio Express-News) The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston will get a new $150 million research lab focused on beefing up the nation’s biodefense efforts, reports the San Antonio Express-News. [View article]
That’s a lotta millions.
Should be good for at least one assistant chemist’s salary.