<p>I'm a high school student about to finish my junior year and start college apps in the summer. I already know the schools I'm applying to and I know I want to do Engineering, but I'm not completely sure which type I want to do yet. I have a strong interest in Chemistry as well as Physics, so I thought Chemical Engineering would be great, but people I've asked have said that ChemE is mostly Physics and very little actual Chemistry. The other field I was considering was Materials, since that seems to have more of a chemistry component, but salaries seem lower than ChemE on average. I also kind of wanted to do NucE but the job field seems smaller than I'd like and there aren't too many opportunities. Can anyone speak to the differences in these three disciplines in terms of curriculum, job description, and salary? If it helps, my number 1 career path is to go into renewable energy specifically working on solar (If I did NucE I would obviously just do Nuclear Energy), but I'm open to other options as well. Thanks!</p>
<p>Nuclear energy will most likely be phased out in 50 years time or at least cut back on. that said does bother you that you could develop cancer or become infertile if an accident happens at the nuclear plant? same thing to a much lesser extent to chemical engineering. if you want to do solar go into electrical engineering as they are the ones who usually develop the new solar energy cells and things like that. also who says that chemE has little chemistry? does this look like few chemistry courses, <a href=“Undergraduate Courses, Curricula, and Academic Standards”>Undergraduate Courses, Curricula, and Academic Standards; i counted quite a few chemistry classes on a glance. ChemE is a great field to go into and it is very fun from what i hear.</p>
<p>that said ask yourself this question as nobody but you can answer it. good luck :)>- </p>
<p>What you should know is all engineering has a strong physics component. As for the chemistry component. Chemical engineers have the most chem requirements (for most programs require atleast organic chemistry, while most others stop at inorganic chemistry), although this varies on the program of each school. </p>
<p>As for salaries, on average, most engineers make similar figures. The reason chemical engineers seem so high is because the salaries of petroleum engineers are typically included, inflating the average. Even so, the difference is only a few thousand dollars, not a large difference at that pay grade. </p>
<p>In terms of your interests if you want to go into renewable energy, environmental engineering. For solar energy, Electrical engineering. </p>
<p>As for your 3 questions.</p>
<p>Curriculum: That depends on the school. Different schools require different things. In general though, the first two years are virtually the same. In the upper divisions, as a ChE you’ll be working with more process engineering mass, heat transfer etc… As an EE you’ll be working with circuits. As a Nuc E, depends on your school. In many its a subdivision of ChE, so same core classes, but different electives. </p>
<p>Job description: Impossible to say. Engineering is very versatile, and there isn’t a typical job. as a ChE, you could go to a lot of different areas. You should conduct a search about the jobs each discipline. There is a lot of things you can go into. </p>
<p>Salary: Refer to above</p>
<p>The ignorance about nuclear engineering in this thread is staggering. You might as well warn of impending Godzilla attacks on nuclear plants. I just… wow.</p>
<p>For ultimablade: no just no. uclear engineering is still used today will continued to be used for medicine and other applications. </p>
<p>For boneh3ad: I agree, neither poster knows much about nuclear engineering. Still, I like the second poster’s answer better. Their information is more accurate.</p>
<p>The comments about nuclear engineers are ridiculous. The radiation levels in nuclear plants are completely nonexistent. There is no leakage whatsoever. Nuclear plants are held to ridiculous safety standards. None the less, nuclear will NOT be phased out in 50 years, incredible advancements are being made in the field of nuclear fusion which can provide exponentially more energy than fission already can. </p>
<p>Regardless of anyone’s political stance on nuclear, these are the facts… and the poster should make a decision on that.</p>
<p>Also, for some comparison, here is a jet plane crashing into a nuclear power plant containment building - the structure completely unharmed. The plane was vaporized.
<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>Nonetheless, according to the BLS, the job prospects for nuclear engineers are going decently. While no new nuclear plants are scheduled to be built in the USA, there are many upgrades that can be added to preexisting plants that require the knowledge of nuclear engineers. </p>
<p>Be sure you are making informed decisions. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are relics of the past before the modern safety standards on nuclear were implemented. There’s a bigger chance of being in 100 plane crashes than there is a nuclear power plant incident (that was an exaggeration.)</p>
<p>Don’t forget, Three Mile Island was not even a disaster; the failsafes all functioned properly and averted a major nuclear disaster. That’s an example of the engineering succeeding.</p>
<p>Yes, it is.</p>
<p>Uranium is also a finite resource just as much as oil. In fact, it wouldn’t last much longer than our petroleum reserves if you only consider available uranium ores. It will eventually become too economically and environmentally costly to extract. Not to mention both nuclear waste and the heat pollution it produces. Fusion will be much more realistic as a long term answer to our energy problem. It may only be another Manhattan Project away.</p>
<p>That’s not remotely true. Uranium is relatively plentiful, and beyond that, thorium is even more plentiful.</p>
<p>I appreciate the debate, guys, but I feel like we’ve gotten away from my original question. Does Nuclear Engineering involve any chemistry at all, and if I like chemistry would I be better off in Chemical or Materials Engineering? After what people have said so far it seems like money isn’t an issue for any of the majors, so my main concern now is what I’ll be learning.</p>
<p>This may seem like a basic question, but what kind of chemistry do you want to do? Chemistry is a very diverse subject overlapping to life sciences like bio, to physical sciences like physics. I’m a student in the same boat, but from what I’ve researched ChE has a lot of opportunities for chemistry in the industry. I’ve also researched the courses in school aren’t like your job, so if you really want to do chemistry you can, although you may not do a lot in school</p>
<p>A non-biased answer, </p>
<p>In nuclear engineering you can develop new forms of energy, new fail safes, new safeties, better designs for cooling, etc, etc</p>
<p>Chemical engineering you develop new forms of chemicals, improve manufacturing of chemicals, make chemical weapons, make artificial sweeteners, make even Coca-Cola and shampoo to a new form of Novacane</p>
<p>In all honesty, a chemical engineer can domost of the things a nuclear engineer can do and more.</p>
<p>If you want to develop new chemicals though, you would be much better served with a graduate degree in chemistry. </p>
<p>If you want to do bench work do chemistry, if you want to do management and R&D and office work, and possibly evem bench work go chemical engineer</p>
<p>If you want to do factory work, Nuclear R&D, plant design, and nuclear safety do nuclear engineering</p>