Chemical engineering

<p>Hey everyone..juss thought chemical engg was missin from the list :)
How much r all u ppl applying for chem engg engaged in research rite now?
N why chemical engg?
as for me: NO research experience
n Chemical engg bcoz i love chemistry n my dad loves Engg.(its kind of a family thing :) )</p>

<p>I will be doing chemical engineering in undergrad. I want to do it because it has wide applications in many areas especially metabolic engineering and biotech which I like. I don't have any research experience in labs but I have participated in science contests and fairs. In college I want to be a research assistant for metabolic or protein engineering.</p>

<p>Go CHem E!! I'm in it now as a freshman.</p>

<p>go chemE! go chemE, go chemE!!!!!!</p>

<p>how do you guys like it so far</p>

<p>hey IlliniJBravoEcho
where do you go?</p>

<p>U of I, baby!!! yeah chem E. And to the other person. It is hard. Really hard. I could probably do better in other programs but with job security and the fact that with even how hard it is I really do enjoy chemistry and engineering deep down. Slowly I find myself becoming more and more of an engineering student each day. I am naturally not one so it can be different.</p>

<p>I have decided to go to rose-hulman and i am not much of an eng student as i am not used to studying 16hrs a day!!will it be okay once i join and will i be able to take the workload at rose?please reply thank you.</p>

<p>can u guys elaborate more on the difficulties of being a chem e major?? :)</p>

<p>I dunno about other schools but just it has the same kind of hardness that other engineering majors have (long hours in class, a lot of homework) but on top of the already difficult physics and math classes that the other engineers take, ChemE's take these really advanced chem courses (which are a whole world about regular gen chem) that are very hard. So instead of having a couple really hard subjects, it is like having 2 more because not only is the class hard but the lab that is taken co-currently is insane(!). Then the ChemE courses start and the problems take forever to solve.</p>

<p>It is a very rewarding major and does have the highest starting salary of any bachelor's degree. This is nice because the undergrad is very hard (I think it's the hardest, but ECE is right up there too in a completely different way). It is one of the most valuable degrees you can get because you can do almost anything with it or work in almost any type of industry.</p>

<p>ChemE is a good degree but it is not broad like MechE. I can only speak from the point of view of a college student, not an engineer who works in industry. I looked at a report about heat exchanger design that was done by a cheme student. The report was primarily concerned with rates of heat transfer, flow rates, etc. If I were to design a heat exchanger in my meche course I would be concerned with those calculations as well with the mechanical design of the exchanger. It order to adequately design a machine, I need to know a lot about how it operates. Then I can begin to dimension the exchanger so it can achieve the desire flow rates and whatever else. I would also be concerned with the forces present in the machine...force from the machine parts and from the fluid flow. Material selection would be another concern since different materials handle stresses, strains, thermal activity, and other variables in certain ways.</p>

<p>what r chem e problems like??</p>

<p>In cheme the problems deal with the processing of chemicals. That involves chemical reactions, temperatures, fluid flow rates, pressures, etc. My brother is a cheme major (but he doesn't post on this site anymore) and his senior design problem involves designing a plant....what machines to use, where to set them up, operating procedures, etc.</p>

<p>Yeah that pretty much is our senior project too. In the words of our prof, "We design a plant from the ground up." It seems pretty interesting. These skills can be applied to almost any job. I think ChemE is broader than MechE because of the ability to do almost any job or go to any grad school (law, med). MechE is actually my second favorite tho so I really can't say anything bad about it.</p>

<p>so if i have always had a good (i mean really good) work ethic and am dedicated, will i do fine in chem e?? i did get a full scholarship to usc, if that means anything??</p>

<p>also, r there ppl who just don't struggle w/ chem e yet still manage to get kick ass grades??</p>

<p>You define what fine means. Depending on the school, cheme can be pretty tough and even the smartest students can struggle. The difficulty of the engineering courses is heavily dependent on the courses and the professors. And even if you are smart, cheme might not be the right major for you. I thought I would be good at CS and I wasn't. MechE was what I was good at.</p>

<p>As far as ChemE being more broad than MechE, I don't believe it. MechE is designed to be an all-around engineering major. As a MechE major I am willing to go into several different kinds of careers if I needed (design, failure analysis, project engineering, etc.) where as someone like my brother only wants to do ChemE. From what I have seen, ChemE is more specialized and focused on a smaller spectrum of things. But it would be much better to get some info from engineers who have been in industry for a while, not a college student like me.</p>

<p>You will always have a hard time but it is possible to get really good grades. My friend has a 3.8. See I didn't go into college thinking I was going to be good at anything and actually afraid of math & physics. My one proven strength was English but I wasn't taking any english courses as I had tested out. Now I have discovered that I am actually a very good physics and chemistry student but it took me a while to think in that mindset. As far as math, I'm getting good grades but it takes me a while to grasp the concepts. I'm still not the best math student and never will be.</p>

<p>And syawn congrats on the full ride but that doesn't mean that you are the smartest. I got into the Campus Honors Program which is very selective and I thought I'd be pretty smart. It just means that you are very very qualified because you will always be meeting people who are in higher classes than you and are just naturally smart. Don't expect to breeze through college (it does come easier to some but not easy to anyone) because that is not what it is for. Everyone, even in much easier majors, has to work at some point. If you have good study habits now that will help the most because that is the hardest thing to adjust. Don't overload yourself thinking you're going to be able to handle it.</p>

<p>I'm smart but not really an engineering student b/c I don't think that way. Why am I? I am because I like the challenge it presents and think it is very interesting. I like the fact that everyone thinks I'm a business student and are surprised when I say I'm a ChemE haha.</p>

<p>Justinmeche, I don't mean to offend. Both chemE and MechE are very very broad. ChemE is not a specialization at all. The broadest is MechE followed by CivE and then EE & ChemE. That is why those are the most requested out of any. At least from what I've seen ChemE is.</p>

<p>thanks guys for the replies. what campus honors program, the wvt rusch one?? anyway, fine is at least 3.0 for me, cuz that's what i need to keep my scholarship :P
and your friend w/ the 3.8, how does he do it-does he stay in a lot, or is he one of the lucky ones??</p>

<p>He stays in but he goes out too (if that makes sense). Compared to students (I'm guessing you will have to deal with a lot of business students too) who go out all the time, he stays in a lot. But so do I (& everyone else in engineering majors) compared to them too. We both manage to go out but this month was a hard one and we stayed in every weekend with almost everyone else that is a chemE. It is hard but I go out when I have time. The balance is further on the work side but as far as freshman year goes ChemE is the hardest major at U of I. NO Comparison. Not only are their the math & physics that every other engineer has but the Acc Chem & Acc Chem Lab which are an addition of truly difficult and TIME CONSUMING (chem lab) courses [but very worth the time and effort.]</p>

<p>In conclusion, we both get out when we can. My GPA will probably be about as high this semester b/c I have my Adderall this semester (last semester was very hard without it and I managed a 3.1) and I am able to concentrate and study now. That was my biggest problem last semester. Don't worry. If you're reasonably intelligent, you will get out and (if you're lucky during the weekday too) but there are weekends where you will have to stay in and for ChemEs at U of I in April, that was EVERY weekend (at USC I bet it will be easier but not so much that you're going to be going out every weekend and during the weekday). So you will get out but not as much as others. Oh well, comes with the major and you will get used to it.</p>

<p>so what r the labs like, what do they involve, how r the writeups??</p>

<p>y did YOU choose chem e??</p>