<p>I graduated college a few years ago, but I hope I'm not too out of place here. I majored in chemistry and received my BS in '06 and MS in '08. I enjoy learning chemistry, but not doing it. I currently work for a large pharmaceutical company. I've been reevaluating my strengths and interests and am very interested in mechanical engineering. I've always enjoyed tinkering with carburetors, engines, and mechanical things, and I enjoy learning science. I'm curious about how the make the change.</p>
<p>Apparently few people make an occupation change to engineering (says google), so I'm wondering what I should do. I minored in math so I should have a significant part of that course work covered, but I do lack a lot of physics and engineering-specific classes. Is my best bet to get a second bachelors? I'm curious about anyone's thoughts on the matter. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Big misconception if you think mechancial engineeirng is “tinkeing with engines” etc. First, find out what ME’s do and what the course material is about - fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, statics & dynamics etc. Then contact a potential school and ask them if they could give you a sort of idea about what you would have to do to make up your deficiency. Since you are not comming from another engineering discipline, I suspect you might have to do quiet a bit of course work before you will be ready for graduate work. I might be wrong but I dont think most schools will admit you for a second bachelors if you already have a masters.</p>
<p>Of course they will. Having master’s level knowledge of one field doesn’t imply bachelor’s level knowledge of another, especially when you’re talking about different parent colleges (science and engineering).</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go from chemistry to mechanical engineering, but I have seen two people with chemistry degrees get MS degrees in chemical engineering, without leveling classes, no less. A professional MS in chemical engineering is just a rehash of the undergraduate core classes, so it’s not a big deal, especially at a school lower than 10 or so in the rankings (the top 10 are too competitive and in demand).</p>
<p>You could try the same with ME (see if someone will take you without an ME background), or you could put serious thought into ChE, keeping in mind that engineers frequently overlap in duties. Those are two things I would consider before a second BS, since the MS can be completed in 1 year without a thesis. </p>
<p>Actually, before a second BS, I would consider an MS ChE then an MS ME (2 years, two degrees), since it’s not too bad to get into an ME program with a ChE background. Just make sure you have thermo and fluids in your first MS program.</p>
<p>^I agree; consider ChE, it’s not as much chemistry as you might think, but more a use of machines to work the chemistry for you. Scale-ups are good ChE exercise in the pharma industry; take a benchtop process make 10 units of product X per day to make 1,000,000 units of product X per day as cheaply and sustainable as possible.</p>
<p>As a ChE I’ve worked with a lot of pumps, heat exchangers, filtration assemblies, and OEM machines to name just a few and have spent very little time in an actual lab.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, G.P. Burdell and Japher. I thought about ChE because of the easier transition, but had hesitations because I’m trying to migrate away from chemistry. I think that’s why I jumped to ME. I’m interested in how things work and also think HVAC engineering would be interesting. From what you describe Japher, it sounds like there is some strong overlap. I have some more investigating to do! Thanks again.</p>
<p>If it helps, as a ChemE I have worked on HVAC for clean room facilities once and didn’t find too interesting. But then, I like working on processes with biochemical reactions, and that’s sort of my specialty, that and CIP/SIP processes. I guess I just want to point out that the opportunity to work in HVAC with ChemE is there, as are many other opportunities. It is also why I down play biomedical/chemical for vanilla ChemE.</p>