<p>Payne- that seems pretty high.Where are you getting this info from? Chem E's start off at about 60k. 100k after 3 years just doesnt seem feasible.</p>
<p>There are some people on CC who'll feed you ridiculous information who you'll just have to learn to ignore. </p>
<p>Not even the highest chemE salaries offer 100K after just 3 years. Keep in mind MIT chemE starting average salaries are in the 50's range. That means the best engineers in the country are averaging in the mid 50's range for starting.</p>
<p>Out of the chemE starting salaries, the highest are offered for process design engineers working for oil companies. Even then, they don't pay over 63K unless you're working international (even then they only 2-3 thousand extra for international). It doesn't get any higher than this and few people make this much.</p>
<p>Not even process design engineers working international for oil companies make 100K after 5 years, let alone 3. The only way you'll break 6 figures in engineering is if you get into management and engineering politics are notorious. Without an MBA, it takes on average at least 10 years before you become a manager.</p>
<p>Also in chemE, there are certain levels known as level 1,II, III, IV engineer. The level IV engineers peak off at about 80K (for PROCESS DESIGN engineers) and it takes at least 5-6 years to reach that level. I suppose if you're dynamite and just top-notch, you could maybe reach that 4 years. If you're in another field of chemE, even as a level 4 engineer and 6 years of experience, you won't be making 80K.</p>
<p>The fact that you can make 100K as a chemE after 3 years is blown completely off proportion.</p>
<p>thats what i thought-that engineering salaries level off pretty quickly and almost never exceed 100K--It kind of sucks.I'll start researching patent law- heard patent lawyers make a lot of money and the work seems very interesting.</p>
<p>"
the fields are really quite different on the traditional level. top-bottom processes are all concerned with thermo/fluids and is what you learn in undergrad, which has fewer connections to chemistry than you'd think.</p>
<p>in grad school, however, most of the research you'll be doing will involve bottom-up processes where a good deal of chemistry knowledge will be used (ie. nano, polymers, colloids, etc).</p>
<p>but again, chemE's are more engineers than chemists"</p>
<p>so if one wanted to get involved with the bottom-up approach in grad school, what would be the best undergrad major? Chem E? or Mat E? or something else like physics?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
so if one wanted to get involved with the bottom-up approach in grad school, what would be the best undergrad major? Chem E? or Mat E? or something else like physics?
[/QUOTE]
I think ChemE would be the safest bet. </p>
<p>Mudder's_Mudder Thanks for the info. I am going to wait and discuss my future prospects after I fo to university where I will probably have a lot more information. For know I'm gonna go back to being a teen all happy I'm gonna go to Stanford next year!</p>
<p>Reading this thread made me question whether I did the right thing by pursuing chemical engineering (as opposed to other engineering disciplines). Are there any jobs out there for ChemEs not related to the designing of massive machines that mix the chemicals? Will I ever be able to deal with the chemicals directly (eg. designing materials or processes) rather than through machines? I want to design "things" to be used, not machines :(</p>
<p>I'm starting to think about EE because I may actually have more opportunities designing products for the public. Many universities advertise their graduates to have gone to work in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food processing, etc. and this was the initial reason that lured me into ChemE.</p>
<p>"Not even the highest chemE salaries offer 100K after just 3 years. Keep in mind MIT chemE starting average salaries are in the 50's range. That means the best engineers in the country are averaging in the mid 50's range for starting." </p>
<p>MIT Engineers start in the mid 50's? Please. 55K is the median for Mechanicals leaving my school. ChemEs can make that amount of money in 3 years. Hell, if I <em>know</em> people that do it, does that count?</p>
<p>"Out of the chemE starting salaries, the highest are offered for process design engineers working for oil companies. Even then, they don't pay over 63K unless you're working international (even then they only 2-3 thousand extra for international). It doesn't get any higher than this and few people make this much."</p>
<p>I was always led to believe that ChemE was where the money is at. I guess that's not the case.</p>
<p>Not even process design engineers working international for oil companies make 100K after 5 years, let alone 3. The only way you'll break 6 figures in engineering is if you get into management and engineering politics are notorious. Without an MBA, it takes on average at least 10 years before you become a manager.</p>
<p>"The only way you'll break 6 figures in engineering is if you get into management" - do you want to rephrase that?</p>
<p>*"Also in chemE, there are certain levels known as level 1,II, III, IV engineer. The level IV engineers peak off at about 80K (for PROCESS DESIGN engineers) and it takes at least 5-6 years to reach that level. I suppose if you're dynamite and just top-notch, you could maybe reach that 4 years. If you're in another field of chemE, even as a level 4 engineer and 6 years of experience, you won't be making 80K." *</p>
<p>I'm skeptical of this. I guess I'll just stay mechanical then - where I know I can make money like that within several years.</p>
<p>"The fact that you can make 100K as a chemE after 3 years is blown completely off proportion."</p>
<p>Yeah, I suppose I was a bit hasty in writing that message. It is possible though. In fact, it's possible to make a 100K/year relatively quickly in more than a few engineering jobs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
so if one wanted to get involved with the bottom-up approach in grad school, what would be the best undergrad major? Chem E? or Mat E? or something else like physics?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>chemE is probably the best, followed by MSE. ChemE is more liquids/gases, while MSE is solids, although there is considerable overlap. However, a physics or chem degree may land u in chemE grad school projects too. It's useful to look at professor websites and see where their degrees come from. In the chemE field, most profs have chemE Ph. Ds, but you will notice a significant minorty that have degrees elsewhere, and other's who have changed degree programs midway, etc. yet are still in chemE departments.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Reading this thread made me question whether I did the right thing by pursuing chemical engineering (as opposed to other engineering disciplines). Are there any jobs out there for ChemEs not related to the designing of massive machines that mix the chemicals? Will I ever be able to deal with the chemicals directly (eg. designing materials or processes) rather than through machines? I want to design "things" to be used, not machines</p>
<p>I'm starting to think about EE because I may actually have more opportunities designing products for the public. Many universities advertise their graduates to have gone to work in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food processing, etc. and this was the initial reason that lured me into ChemE.
[/quote]
The universities are trying to intoduce you to the newest fields (ie. biotech, nano). True, most chemE's go on to work in more traditional jobs, but if u were to go into R&D, there is a lot more chemistry involved, because the trend today is to design by putting small pieces together, not taking a huge amount of junk and extracting whatever u need.</p>
<p>Just thought I'd share the little knowledge that I have about the industry.</p>
<p>I, a MechE, currently work at a large biotech company that is primarily filled with ChemEs. The company is very well known and is extremely competitive in terms of salaries and goes above and beyond for benefits, so people flock to work there. New hires with only a BS tend to make 45-60k depending on the position that they were hired for. They progress through the company with the titles that epoch mentioned, engineering I, II, III, IV unless they get involved with the managerial aspects of it all. At least at my company level IV engineers tend to make around 100k or more (again depending on their actual job) but it takes 15-20 years to reach this level. Typically you advance in position after 3-5 years, this progression is general faster in the early stages. </p>
<p>I wish I had this article that I read in a ChemE magazine describing the average pay scale of chemEs and how they compare to other engineering fields. The median salary with 20-25 years experience in the field is about 100k, with the top 10% making 140k on average. These averages are higher than most (maybe all, I don't remember) other engineering fields. So as mr payne said, the money is there, but it is certainly not that much higher than other fields of engineering, and it would be extremely difficult to be making 100k after 3-5 years in just about any type of engineering</p>