<p>How is Chemical Engineering at UofA? What are the job prospects after getting a BS in ChemE? Also how easy is it to get high GPA?</p>
<p>I wanted the title to say “Chemical Engineering department at UofA”, not “Best Engineering department at UofA”. I was trying to ask 2 different things at the same time. Sorry for the confusion. This thread is only about Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>easy and engineering do not usually go together.</p>
<p>Are the average UG GPAs in various departments, engineering and otherwise, posted any where?</p>
<p>M2CK’s son is ChemE. Try PMing her about it. He did very well.</p>
<p>my daughter is a ChemE, as well. she has an excellent GPA, not 4.0 but close.</p>
<p>M2CK’s son has a 4.0 or better. (i think she has posted that recently.)</p>
<p>many many in the ChemE department are there as pre-med etc. so many of them will never look for a ChemE job. some of my daughters group of ChemE friends have gotten co-ops without a lot of effort.</p>
<p>If you are female, be sure to join the Woman In Engineering or Woman’s Society of Engineering, or whatever they call it at UA.
PS: Males can join, too! :)</p>
<p>Mike: I had forgotten your D is Chem E. Sounds like she is doing fantastic! </p>
<p>Aeromom: The name is SWE, the Society of Women Engineers. My D belongs but isn’t an officer. They are a great group of ladies. They serve food at the meetings since the meetings are at dinnertime. I like their t’shirts. They are "SWE"et! And yes, there are young men in the group.</p>
<p>I’ve repeated this many times, but here is a link to my fave data source for comparing apples to apples quickly - it is from American Society for Engineering Education: <a href=“Page not found”>ASEE.org; . This particular publication is called “Engineering By The Numbers”.</p>
<p>This data is from 2010, but gives you some idea of how many Chem Eng’g graduates there are in US every year, and where they come from. UA is actually in the top 50 schools for offering Chem Eng’g degrees in US. </p>
<p>If you poke around on that website, you can get individual profiles of every school offering Eng’g degrees, for comparison purposes. You can see how many students are enrolled, and you can look for trends. UA is always rising.</p>
<p>Ack! They have taken down the online profiles! I feel very badly about this - it was a wonderful resource. They are either in the process of updating…or maybe they only have restricted access now. Hope the former. I will update when they are back online or what the story is. I will call them to find out.</p>
<p>*Are the average UG GPAs in various departments, engineering and otherwise, posted any where?
*</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>What is that going to tell you? What does an average GPA tell you about how things will work out for your child???</p>
<p>All engineering disciplines are difficult. All require dedication and study. If you put forth the effort and you have the needed intelligence, you’ll have a high GPA. If you slack off or don’t have the STEM kind of thinking skills, you won’t. </p>
<p>The average GPA isn’t going to tell you anything.</p>
<p>It’s true that a good number of ChemE majors are pre-med, and therefore won’t be looking for jobs in that field.</p>
<p>That said, UAProphet, who occasionally posts here, is a ChemE Bama grad and he was immediately employed with a job within his field, in his home state (which I believe is in the Midwest).</p>
<p>One of the shortcomings of this Bama forum is that it’s only become popular within the last couple of years, so most of us do not have graduates yet. That soon will change as next year, a number of us will have students graduating.</p>
<p>Hi M2CK, Reason I asked about average UG GPA is because it would help D2 in determining which major to pursue at UoFA while she does her premed. As you may know already UG GPA is paramount when applying to med schools.</p>
<p>One of DS’s Engineering Professors said it best. Forgive the paraphrase from memory:</p>
<p>‘You can sail through your engineering courses here, make a 4.0, graduate with an engineering degree and still not have a JOB. Engineering is about making connections and finding your niche. You will need to go to professional meetings, do co-ops, and make connections if you want to have a job when you graduate.’</p>
<p>Much wisdom here.</p>
<p>i am sure there are about a billion other majors that would be easier than any engineering degree if the goal is to get the highest GPA possible.</p>
<p>if your child is majoring in engineering to get the full tuition scholarship, then i am sure that some engineering degrees are more difficult than others. i think ChemE would be on the more difficult end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>*Hi M2CK, Reason I asked about average UG GPA is because it would help D2 in determining which major to pursue at UoFA while she does her premed. As you may know already UG GPA is paramount when applying to med schools.
*</p>
<p>Yes, I certainly know that GPA is very important when applying to med schools. Eng’g is the probably the hardest major for a pre-med student.</p>
<p>That said, even for someone who is pre-med, knowing the “average GPA” of a particular eng’g discipline isn’t going to tell you what you want to know. Kids who aren’t pre-med may be just doing whatever’s necessary to keep a B average in their discipline. There are plenty of students who are happy to graduate with a 3.0 average. </p>
<p>Seriously, within eng’g at any school, there will be plenty of kids with 3.0 and sub-3.0 GPAs. My H regularly sees employment apps from eng’gs from all over the country with GPAs hovering around 3.0…it doesn’t impede employment, so many aren’t fighting for that 3.8+ GPA. If you were to see that the average GPA in the various disciplines is a 3.1 or so, I don’t see how that’s going to help. </p>
<p>If every student was putting forth 100% effort and the type of student within each discipline was equally talented, then the “average GPA” might tell you something. The bare numbers aren’t going to give you guidance for your D and pre-med.</p>
<p>As MikeW mentions, ChemE is one of the harder (if not the hardest) of the engineering disciplines. If your child has to major in an eng’g discipline, she’s best to major in the one that she likes the best, because she’s most likely going to do the best in that one. If CivilE or Comp Sci is reputed to be easier, it may not be easier for your D if she doesn’t like the subject matter.</p>
<p>BTW…while cum GPA is important to med schools, the most important GPA is the BCMP GPA…and none of the eng’g classes are counted within BCMP.</p>
<p>what is bcmp?</p>
<p>Biology, Chemistry, Math, Physics</p>
<p>aaah ok.</p>
<p>i thought they looked at the GPA from all the prereqs.</p>
<p>Used to be that they took a HARD look at Organic Chemistry because it is a LOT of rote memorization. That’s not going to be easy no matter the major. Besides, medical admissions folks know which majors are tougher. My advice would be to major in a field you like and could work in even if you DON’T get accepted to medical school. Having a B.S. in Biology makes it tough to earn a living if you don’t go on to medical school.</p>