<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I am right now between ChemE and ME and not sure which major to go with. I started one year of ME and I realized I love the desing aspect but hate the physics but I love Chem so ChemE seems like the reasonble way to go. But I'm still wondering if I should stick with ME and wait for the upper div design classes because the reason I went into ME was because I want to go to grad school for Architecture. Anybody have some advice?</p>
<p>ChemE has a lot of physics as well. If you want pure chem... major in chem.</p>
<p>There's not that much chem in chemE actually. </p>
<p>And do architecture schools really care what your major is if it wasn't architecture related? I don't see how ME would be any different from chemE in this aspect since you have an equal shot of getting in from either major I think. Just be sure to have a portfolio ready when you apply.</p>
<p>Why not consider CivE if you want to go to architecutre school, its by far the closest thing engineering has to it.</p>
<p>my school (UCSB) does not have civil. I thought about it but the only engineering they have is com, ece, me, and cheme. So what do you mean exactly with chemE does not have that much chem in it? I really like thermo and electro chemistry which is why i wanted to do cheme bc it seemed like the y have a lot of that. What does it then?</p>
<p>By no chemistry, it means that you won't be taking much courses in organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, quantum mechanics, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, analytical chemistry, etc.</p>
<p>Thermochemistry is really just physics and electrochemistry does not have as much chemistry as you'd expect either. Of course you'll have to balance reactions here and there, but that's probably as far as you'll go.</p>
<p>I fell into the trap of thinking there's a lot of chemistry in ChemE as well, but after a while, I just get used to it. Instead, I take extra/elective courses in chemistry/biochemistry. It certainly eases the boredom from looking at distillation columns every day.</p>
<p>For most chemE programs, you'll take general chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry, plus labs for each. The general direction of chemical engineering curricula nationally is to add more biology, so you could also need to take biochemistry. </p>
<p>That's more than a little pure chemistry you're going to have to take. It's really enough to be considered a minor.</p>
<p>Compare that to the two semesters of pure physics you'll have to take.</p>
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For most chemE programs, you'll take general chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry, plus labs for each.
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<p>Is that much more than the core engineering requirements though? As a civE I had to take gen chem, physical chem, chem lab/analytical chem.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Why would they make you take that many courses in chem if you're a civil major?</p>
<p>My gen chem course didn't have an integrated lab portion, so we had to take the chem lab/analytical chem course separately the following semester. The physical chem course did serve as good background for when we took thermodynamics, but I feel like we could have done without it. This physical chem course wasn't identical to the chemE physical chem course though we did use the same textbook, except we covered fewer chapters.</p>