<p>I like chemistry, and feel thats what I want to do with my life. I am leaning towards majoring in chemistry, and see what happens 4 years from now in terms of job or grad school.</p>
<p>is this a mistake? Is there really an advantage to doing chemical engineering instead of chemistry?</p>
<p>much easier to find a job (that also pays well) without going to graduate school.</p>
<p>Yeah b/c as a chemist you may be taking many of the same classes (like the overachieving or specialized chemistry majors at my school) and you will still be working under us or we'll be getting jobs before you. Benefits:
Less math (no diff eq), less difficult physics (unless specialized chem then not sure), and no chemE courses. Cons: MORE LABS! I cannot stress that con enough. No matter how cool lab sounds it's just like reading something for class. It just isn't fun when your grade depends on it.</p>
<p>If you really like chemistry then you can find someway to integrate chem into your studies more (chemical companies, research with chemistry labs not chemE, or do chem for grad school) but an undergrad in chem is basically a joke b/c you could be doing more with the amount of time you will invest into the major anyways (Specialized chem 120 hrs, ChemE 129-134 [can't remember], really not that big of a difference)</p>
<p>Frankly, I'm not entirely sure that there is all that much difference in the amount of lab work required in the 2 majors. Keep in mind that ChemE's have a bunch of labs of their own to do, including the killer senior UnitOps/Lab that is one of the most notorious time sinks known to man.</p>
<p>Addressing a few issues:</p>
<p>Chemical engineers have huge advantages in the job market. Their starting salary is $54,200/year on average; that of a chemist is much lower (low 30s, if I recall correctly). Many chemists go back to school to get chemE degrees for that reason. As a chemE, you can do the job of a chemist, but the reverse isn't true. </p>
<p>Now, there is a reason why engineers get paid more - IMO, it's because the major is significantly harder. Chemistry majors at my alma mater were required to take between 8 and 10 chem courses (depending on type of major and how you count the labs); chemEs were required to take seven chem courses, four of which have labs attached. That's just the foundation for chemE: afterwards, you pile on math, physics, and a zillion engineering courses.</p>
<p>chemistry is a stupid major imo unless you want to get a phd and teach or whatever....if you are interested in chemistry get a chemical engineering degree because you still take most of the classes a chem major would take but the job prospects are much much higher</p>
<p>Can you be a high school teacher with a chemical engineering degree? What about med school?</p>
<p>I am more interested in teaching than med school, but im just curious.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos049.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos049.htm</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos029.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos029.htm</a></p>
<p>Masters degree and PhD is virtually the same income, but job outlook is greater for materials scienctists</p>
<p>I am not leaning towards one or the other, I just want advice from someone who's been there and done that</p>
<p>
[quote]
Can you be a high school teacher with a chemical engineering degree?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sure, why not? I've heard of people with far worse degrees get hired as teachers. For example, I've heard of people with degrees in "Radio, TV, and Film" and even in Leisure Studies get hired as teachers. If those guys can get hired as teachers, I've got to believe that chemical engineers can do it too.</p>
<p>I was told that I couldn't get an education minor with my degree. If you have a question there are usually people you can contact at your school. Again you can always get hired without the minor but I'm guessing you might want some legtimacy or something so I'm just throwing that out there.</p>
<p>I dont think many of my HS teachers has minors in education - the county i went to hs in only required a masters degree at minimum in a related subject =).</p>
<p>to be a teacher the path would be BS chem</p>
<p>then one year grad school masters in education</p>
<p>RE: teaching.</p>
<p>Guys, y'all are wrong. The requirements for a teaching certificate vary by STATE. There is no one single requirement that is valid everywhere. Massachusetts, for example, requires a master's degree in the subject to be taught (with, I imagine, a few exceptions); the master's can be done while you are teaching (due to the shortage of teachers). Maine does not require a master's degree to teach high school. Many teachers do not have education majors or minors for undergrad. </p>
<p>So... if you are considering teaching... check the requirements OF YOUR STATE. </p>
<p>That's my advice for the day. :)</p>
<p>chem E has the highest starting salary for majors just with an undergrad degree-chem E and EE are kinda tied in that</p>
<p>yes, Actually My chemistry teacher when I was in highschool graduated with the degree of Chemical Engineering, I was inspired by her to pursue this course, :D</p>
<p>Chemistry is paid less because all the chem departments across the country think its cool to incorporate lots of “bio” crap that no one actually uses into the curriculum, going as far as to make it MANDATORY to know biochemistry.</p>
<p>Traditional Chem fields that are HIGHLY USEFUL and EMPLOYABLE such as polymer chemistry, polymer physics, electrochemistry, metallurgical chemistry, materials properties and separations are NOT part of the curriculum anymore; they’ve been either cancelled, moved to graduate classes, or moved to ChemE. They’ve instead replaced these highly useful and employable classes with things like theoretical inorganic chemistry and biochemistry, which no one will ever use, employers don’t care about, and are a pain to learn for no reason.</p>
<p>This is despite my school requiring, as part of ACS certification, the exact same math and physics classes as the ChemEs.</p>
<p>I suspect this is due to the need of many slaves to drive the biotech industrial revolution.</p>
<p>All Industrial Revolutions are built on the backs of millions of slaves. Britain exploited 700 million people in its colonies and 50 million at home to build its empire. The regime in Washington has decided that biotech is the future, and to do this, it needs many low wage slaves.</p>
<p>I would look into Materials Science/Engineering as well. I would say the actual chemistry of Chemical Engineering is focused mostly on chemical properties on the macro scale and the energy that goes along with it. Materials Science is more focused on fabrication using chemical principals. Not saying that you cant do that with a ChemE degree, but a Materials degree is much more focused in the respect.</p>