Chemical Engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Colorado
1

I am admitted into chemical engineering at CU-Boulder, and I have to make my decision this week! CU-Boulder was not on my short list, until just today when I am having second thoughts. I loved the campus when I visited, and all of the engineering students I talked to seemed really confident about getting jobs after graduating, and they seemed happy, but my parents were not happy about the party atmosphere and thought it might be too big. Could anyone please answer any of the following questions?

Most importantly: What is the job placement (especially for chemical engineering)? How many and how big are the career fairs? Are there grad school fairs? I cannot find information online about where graduates are working or going to grad school. Where can I get the salaries, job placement, grad school information?

Do most students have summer internships, jobs, or research? Do you know anyone who did not have a job by the time they graduated? If so, why?

How big are the classes? Is it hard to access professors? Are there a lot of professors with accents who are difficult to understand?

Any other useful information is welcome, too. Thank you!

2

I don’t know about engineering, but at the business school they provided us with this type of information on admitted student day. This board is not very active. Your best bet is to call the Engineering School directly. If they have their own career placement office, call them. They should be able to provide this information to you easily. They should be able to provide you a list of the companies that recruit at CU and job stats for their grads. They should also have internship stats and class size stats.

3

“They should be able to provide this information to you easily.”

That is what I thought, but I am becoming very frustrated that they have not been able to provide this information to me. I have contacted the Undergraduate ChBE advisor, and this is what she sent me:
“80 % of our graduates are employed within 6 months of graduation
Salaries range from $50s - $80s
15% continue on in grad school all over the country”

… So then I contacted Career services and the Undergraduate Chemical engineering department, and they only directed me to this:

"Where do CU graduates work?
Chemical and biological engineering graduates are working at bio-based companies such as CaridianBCT, OPX Biotechnologies, and SomaLogic, as well as energy companies like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell. Many also choose to go onto graduate school. About 20 percent of CU-Boulder engineering bachelor’s graduates (college-wide) continue onto graduate school, gaining admittance to top schools such as MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Job Outlook
Biomedical engineers are expected to have a much faster than average growth rate, with employment projected to increase 72 percent or more through 2018. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Starting Salary
The average salary nationally for chemical and biomedical engineering graduates with a bachelor’s degree in 2010 was $49,690. CU-Boulder graduates with a bachelor’s degree in chemical and biological engineering reported an average starting offer of $52,050."

At least the advisor gave me some real numbers, but I cannot just take her at her word without getting some real data. How can they have a well ranked program without keeping track of their students? I should probably just give up on this school, but it is so frustrating that I cannot find any real statistics for a program that is ranked relatively well… College Confidential has been my last resort. Thanks anyways.

4

Don’t give up yet. This is too important of a decision. Call the chair of the chemical engineering department. He or she should know most of this information without even looking it up. I would also try the engineering honors RAP. Even if you don’t qualify for it the people over there should be knowledgeable and may be able to put you in touch with an upper level chem E student. And you can call the office of the Dean, what have you got to lose? But try to do this by phone, talking to people, rather than email. Have your list of questions ready. Good luck!