I am majoring in chemical engineering for my undergraduate studies. My school offers a complementary major in chemistry or materials science along with ChemE, however the second materials science major will take an extra year of study to complete. I know materials science is something that I would love, but I don’t know if an extra year of study is worth it, even if it’s complementary. The second chemistry major would not be much extra work. If anyone could share their input/experience on what I should do, that would be great. Will a second major in either of these subjects benefit me in the future?
My D is a very similar situation. She has declared ChemE major which she may pick one of the several focuses. She just finished her freshmen year but she only need 58 more credits to graduate. For ChemE major, it will take another 2.5 years due to the course sequence, so she will have a lot of room in her schedule (58 credits in 5 semesters). She is planning to do a dual major with Material Science Engineering too. For that, she just need less than 20 extra credits in MSE due to overlapped courses but she cannot pick material science as her ChemE focus. So even with the second major, it would not take more than 6 semester to complete both. In her case, she will be graduating in a total 4 years with dual major, instead of 3.5 years for ChemE alone. For that little cost in time and money (half of the tuition is covered by scholarship anyway), I think it worth it no matter how small the advantage in the job market this may bring. But for one full year of full cost, a second major in your case may be not that cost-efficient. The one year work experience after graduation may worth more than the second major.
@billcsho The materials science major would be complementary. I would not have to pay for any of the extra credits I would be taking. The only cost to me would be living expenses.
@hwdl1497 You mean there is no tuition cost for the extra year?
Either major would only make you only slightly more attractive for a traditional ChemE career, at best. The purpose they would serve is giving you alternatives to chemical engineering, though really, most employers looking for a chemist/materials scientist would probably take a ChemE – it’s a very versatile degree.
If you plan to go into a traditional ChemE role (like process engineering), it’s probably not worth sacrificing a year of salary and work experience to get another major. If you can fit Chem into your 4-year plan and enjoy chemistry, go for it.
If you are going to take an extra year of school just to make yourself more employable, you’d be much better off doing a 4+1 Master’s program, if your school offers it.
Absolutely what @Pancaked said. Even without the tuition, the extra year would be better spent getting a Masters and consequently a higher salary.
You can work in high tech with Material Science engineering major like Apple for example. My carpool buddy has a phD in Material Science and that’s how I know.
My question is this, if you have a ChemE major with a concentration in Materials Science and Engineering will you be as marketable in the Materials field as graduating with a straight Materials Science and Engineering degree?
Since ChemEs spend a lot of time processing fluids, I think if you want to work in material science, it would be better to major in that directly or even in MechE (understand strength and other properties of materials and how they effect things MechEs want to build). Seems like an odd bird, a ChE with a concentration in Material Science, but if your school offers it, you like the program, and the school can place people in MS jobs, that is great. Obviously there are some applications or industries where these two fields merge, but in general I think these jobs are different.
Undergraduate degrees don’t doom you to be stuck in narrow band of jobs, it is just much easier to find larger number of jobs if your degree and your college program kind of match expectations. If you can intern with a MS company and maybe take a few extra relevant classes, you may get the MS job or maybe will get the interesting MS job.
All that said, if the dual degree program would give you lots of coursework you enjoy, you can afford the extra year of non-earnings (and beyond that, trust me, payscales are not that linear), and make some good contacts in both departments - and especially if the college actually does place people in this overlapping field … go ahead.
Most people’s cost of living go up tremendously when they leave college with all the freebies and the expectation of a humble lifestyle with no car, no furniture, not much clothes, free entertainment, a pub with at cost beer, student priced athletic events …
A masters is also an option in either ChemE or even MS, but it will be much harder to get a MS in one year than take UG classes.
In my D’s case, she may either get ChemE and MSE dual major in 4 years or ChemE bachelor and MSE master in 4.5 years. She does not need to decide until the last year.