Bachelor in Chemistry

The Wabash College Chemistry Department believes in a challenging curriculum, which thoroughly investigates all areas of modern chemistry, and in a significant hands-on laboratory experience in which students become progressively more independent as they proceed through the curriculum. We believe that such an education prepares chemistry majors for a variety of career outcomes, including those in research, medicine, teaching, and industry.

In recent years, three-fourths of our majors have gone to graduate school in chemistry/biochemistry or to medical school following graduation. Others have chosen to take jobs as chemists or high school teachers or to attend other professional schools (business, law, and physical therapy). We strive to provide chemistry minors and pre-medical students with the knowledge base they need to succeed in their chosen fields.

We seek to involve all Wabash students in the study of chemistry through non-majors courses such as CHE-101 Survey of Chemistry and CHE-106 Survey of Biochemistry. We attempt to teach all chemistry students about the relationship between chemistry and the world around them.

Goals

The core goals of the Chemistry Major are:

• Students will acquire a broad-based knowledge of general, organic, physical, analytical, inorganic, and biochemistry, and understand how these areas are interconnected.
• Students will be able to connect theory with experimental work, including being able to design, execute, and analyze experiments, and to present their results effectively. Students will develop confidence and precision in their laboratory technique.
• Students will have the ability to identify, comprehend, evaluate, and discuss primary chemical literature.
• Students will be able to effectively communicate chemical concepts to chemists, scientists, and the general public.
• Students will develop as scientists through research experiences.
• Students will engage the chemical and biochemical communities at Wabash and beyond.

Faculty Advisors

Majors are strongly urged to select an advisor from the Chemistry Department when they declare their major.

ACS Certified Degree

To meet the certification requirements formulated by the American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training (CPT) as a chemist and for adequate preparation for graduate school, additional classroom and laboratory work beyond the minimum nine-course major is required. The student should consult with the Chair of the Chemistry Department concerning ways in which the remaining requirements may be fulfilled.

Advanced Placement

Please refer to the Credit by Examination and Advanced Placement Credit guidelines under Academic Policies - Transfer Credit. Potential chemistry majors and minors who wish to claim advanced placement credit should discuss placement options with the Department Chair. A placement examination will determine if students are eligible to being coursework beyond CHE-111 General Chemistry.

Mission Statement

“Wabash College educates men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely.”

Founded in 1832, Wabash College is an independent, liberal arts college for men with an enrollment of approximately 900 students. Its mission is excellence in teaching and learning within a community built on close and caring relationships among students, faculty, and staff.

Wabash offers qualified young men a superior education, fostering, in particular, independent intellectual inquiry, critical thought, and clear written and oral expression. The College educates its students broadly in the traditional curriculum of the liberal arts, while also requiring them to pursue concentrated study in one or more disciplines. Wabash emphasizes our manifold but shared cultural heritage. Our students come from diverse economic, social, and cultural backgrounds; the College helps these students engage these differences and live humanely with them. Wabash also challenges its students to appreciate the changing nature of the global society and prepares them for the responsibilities of leadership and service in it.

The College carries out its mission in a residential setting in which students take personal and group responsibility for their actions. Wabash provides for its students an unusually informal, egalitarian, and participatory environment which encourages young men to adopt a life of intellectual and creative growth, self-awareness, and physical activity. The College seeks to cultivate qualities of character and leadership in students by developing not only their analytic skills, but also sensitivity to values, and judgment and compassion required of citizens living in a difficult and uncertain world. We expect a Wabash education to bring joy in the life of the mind, to reveal the pleasures in the details of common experience, and to affirm the necessity for and rewards in helping others.

Our Core Values

A rigorous liberal arts education that fosters

• An appreciation for the intellectual and physical aspects of a good life

• An understanding of and appreciation for other cultures

A personal context to teaching and learning that encourages

• Candid, respectful, face-to-face conversations

• Freedom of thought

• A local scholarly community that creates lifelong relationships

Individual responsibility and trust that are

• Based on moral and ethical awareness

• Expressed in the Gentleman’s Rule

• Required for leadership and teamwork

A socially, economically, and ethnically diverse student body characterized by

• A dedication to the serious pursuit of learning

• A culture of competition without malice

• A few years of residence, a lifetime of loyalty

A tradition and philosophy of independence that

• Keeps the College from external control

• Allows the Wabash community to shape significantly its own destiny

• Promotes independence and self-reliance in its students and graduates.