<p>I love chemistry and also have a very strong interest in math and physics, and I would really like to work in R&D for a corporation, most likely in polymer nanotechnology or a similar field. Right now I'm leaning towards majoring in chemical engineering, but I really like materials science so I'm not sure.</p>
<p>(1) If I get accepted to Princeton, I would like to major in chemical engineering and concentrate in materials science, but if I end up going to another school, would I be better off pursuing ChemE as an undergrad and then getting my master's in MSE?</p>
<p>(2) Are such jobs as I described difficult to come by?</p>
<p>You can’t really go wrong with either. If you truly love physics, MSE may be the route to go. If you’re interested in a broader curriculum and to be overall better rounded then ChemE. I had this same dilemma last year. I even took an introductory MSE seminar where I got to meet many people currently working at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge. There’s some really cool things going in the field of nanotechnology right now, but its all still in a very early stage. That’s kind of how I see MSE, it lends itself more to research currently, and at the academic level. Ultimately I decided to go with ChemE because I felt it was broader and would better prepare me for industry. I’m currently questioning whether or not I want to do straight industry now, but that’s the great thing about ChemE, it opens A LOT of doors. </p>
<p>But to be perfectly honest, both are great choices, and will employ you at some point or another.</p>
<p>Here’s the quick lowdown (I’ve done both ChemE and MSE):
Polymers is in the intersection of both MSE and ChemE. You can’t really go wrong either way in that sense. That being said there is a difference in terms of curriculum:
-ChemE is a more industry focused major (in most cases-places like Princeton/Caltech/Stanford/Northwestern are significantly less industry focused than schools like UMichigan/Colorado Boulder).
-Coming out of a ChemE undergrad opens doors into both industry and graduate schools. MSE is more likely to be biased towards academia.
-MSE is about how materials behave and are ordered and such.
-ChemE is more concerned with thermodynamics and heat and mass transport (as well as plant engineering in many cases).</p>
<p>Which one would I recommend? It depends. I liked the options I had graduating with my ChemE degrees but I recognize that I would have hated taking all those classes on plant design etc (my school did not emphasize those aspects much). ChemE is a more versatile major. I was able to get into MSE programs from ChemE, the other way around is more difficult. I also have ChemE friends who are in Med School, Oil refineries, food science programs, consulting and business school. MSE would likely give you some of the same options but it is generally a more academia-focused major.</p>
<p>superwizard, in saying that the schools you mentioned are significantly less industry focused than other schools, what specifically do you mean? Is it a disadvantage to go those school? Do you know how industrially-focused UC Berkeley is for ChemE?</p>
<p>What I mean is that they often prepare you less for a job in industry. Take my alma matter (Stanford) for example. In all my BS I did one course on plant design in the very end of compared to other programs even that class was considered kinda a joke. Did this mean that no one in my program went to industry afterwards? No! I have 6 friends who went off to petroleum companies, pharma and start ups. That being said my program just recognized that most of us probably will not go into industry. It is an advantage to go to such schools if you wish to go later get a PhD or go to pharma or med school but if you are dead set on going into something industry straight out of your undergrad then other schools may be more beneficial.</p>
<p>UCB is probably somewhere in a happy medium. In general smallish private elite schools (Stanford, Caltech, Northwestern, Princeton…) will focus less of industry whereas larger public schools (UMich, CUBoulder) will focus more on industry. I think the UC schools (I know of UCB and UCSB) fall somewhere in the middle where they recognize a lot of their class is going to academia but a lot are also going into industry. </p>