If I major in pure ‘Chemistry’ and minor in Physics could I be Chemical Engineer?
I would rather not major in ‘Chemical Engineering’ because I would miss out in a lot Chemistry has to offer.
Probably, but there are engineering specific courses you need to take to do engineering.
How would you miss out? In addition to Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, some ChE departments require Analytical as well as Materials Chemistry. And you could certainly take Inorganic, Electrochemistry or Chemical Thermodynamics as science electives related to the ChE major. It all depends upon the school.
You would miss out on a lot of the engineering side of things if you took your path. It goes both ways. Ultimately, if you want a career in chemical engineering, you’ll miss out on more important things by doing chemistry/physics than if you did just chemical engineering.
In truth, it doesn’t take much to go from ChemE to Chemistry - just a few courses is all you need to make up, and you have the benefit of a stronger mathematical education. The overlap is significant but ChemE does more Chemistry than Chemistry does ChemE. Chemistry doesn’t do any engineering, while ChemE does a lot of chemistry (though a fair few classes short of a major).
General, Organic, Physical (Quantum + Thermodynamics), Analytical, Inorganic, and Biological Chemistry are enough. Anything more than that is preferred but the advantage of having engineering experience trumps the value of more chemistry classes.
What if I drop the Physics minor and only do the Engineering Courses?
Generally engineering courses are very major-specific, and if you do all the ChemE courses then that’s the full major already.
What is it that you want to do with your career?
If your interest is in chemistry, my guess is you just are looking at “chemical engineering” because it’s a more practical major. Most people who are purely interested in chemistry would not want to be a chemical engineer. Chemistry may be at the core of what a chemical engineer does, but the day-to-day work of most chemical engineers has little to do with chemistry.
For that reason:
A degree in chemistry will not qualify you for a true chemical engineering job.
A degree in chemical engineering will qualify you for many chemistry jobs.
Another question, if I take some courses in Engineering will it show on my transcript?
I know that your minor shows on your transcript but I’m not sure if it shows additional courses.
Minors mean almost nothing as a distinction. The classes are all that matters.
If you’re wondering, the chances of getting a ChemE job with ChemE classes but not a ChemE degree is just about nil.
Your transcript shows everything.