chemical engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>is this a field that has a good employment outlook (i'll be graduating from hs in two years)?</p>

<p>i absolutely know i either want to go to carnegie mellon or MIT. i know my sights are high, but i was wondering if anyone could give me tips on how to get into those schools. i would obviously need high AP test scores in the maths and sciences, an excellent GPA, and stellar recommendations from my teachers, but what else would i need to get into those schools? scholarships would be nice, but my family's well-off, so i could do without. </p>

<p>could i get some numbers? for example, what's a GPA i should shoot for?</p>

<p><3</p>

2

<p>GPA: 4.0
SAT: 2200
class rank: top 2%
Great rec's
Great essays
Great EC's</p>

<p>also, carnegie mellon does not compare to MiT, unless it's compsci.
MiT, Stanford, Caltech are the harder ones to get into.</p>

3

<p>I would advise against chemical engineering since I believe the field has limited prospects. I suggest Joint Honours in Math and Computing or Joint Honours in Math and Physics rather than engineering. I think this will allow your greater career flexibility. </p>

<p>If you really want to be an engineer I would suggest Electrical or Mechanical engineering.</p>

4

<p>carnegie mellon is very good for engineering. any school in the top 10 list of schools for engineering is going to have very simliar curriculum, and no employer or grad school will look down on a degree from cmu. combined with the fact that cmu is very prestigious to begin with, its not going to matter which one you go to. </p>

<p>to get into both schools your going to need near perfect grades/SAT. cherrybarry pretty much hit the spot dead on with all the numbers (although i'm not sue about SAT, cuz i took them back when 1600 was the top score)</p>

5

<p>I was looking into chemE for a while, but it has limited job prospects, as I learned through research/contact with a case student. Now, if you're not looking to be an engineering professional (you'd be surprised at how many people aren't interested in being professionals) then that's a different story</p>

6

<p>ur going to need a 2200 sat to get into cmu engineering????</p>

7

<p>I strongly disagree with anyone who claim that the job prospect of chemical engineers are low. Firstly, chemical engineers are in high demand because of fuel reprocessing and pharmaceutical production. Many major employers such as ALZA, Chevron Taxaco, Union 76, Intel Corps, IBM, DOW Chemical, Shell Inc, General Electric etc etc all recruit chemical engineers. Also, since Chemical Engineers have a low graduation rate (few ppl pursue a chemE degree), that would definetely mean a good job outlook since competition for job openings would not be fierce. </p>

<p>Also, ChemE majors wouldn't be the highest paying engineering degree if they weren't in demand. I believe them to be the broadest engineering field since they focus on fuel reprocessing, semiconductor fabrication, nanotechnology, pharmacuetical design, etc etc.</p>

8

<p>yeah chemE's dont really have limited prospects when it comes to finding jobs.</p>

9

<p>The interesting thing about ChemE is that although it is considered to be a non-specialized curriculum like MechE, CivE or EE. It has the student numbers of a specialized engineering like MatSci or NukE. So I don't think that ChemE job prospects are low if you make it through.</p>

10

<p>I am currently an ChE major at Unv. Ill. at Chicago (UIC). My impression is that all engineers are versatile and have applicable knowlege in many fields. Although it is commonly that because your academic title is "Chemical Engineer", you only know how to engineer chemicals. The truth is that engineers are experts in applied science, specifically: design and process control. In the real world, not some flashy ivy league school or any academic environment for that matter, engineers must consult with other engineers, scientists, operators, etc. Like any
career, experience gained in the real world is facilitated and supplemented by academics and vice versa. I hope that dispelled the narrow specialist views casted by many people who GPA, SAT, ACT, GRE, and quantify the crap out of talent and the quality of schools. Is Chemical Engineering a narrow major? That depends on your interests and the companies you send your resumes to!</p>

11

<p>For getting into MIT, it's better to have a great slate of extracurriculars and challenging courseload than it is to have a perfect SAT score or GPA (although having high scores/GPA doesn't hurt, of course). The average unweighted GPA of freshman admits is 3.89 -- that and lots of other helpful info can be found [here[/url</a>]. Lots of science APs would be useful, but I didn't have any, and I still got in.</p>

<p>MIT doesn't have merit scholarships; all financial aid given by the school is need-based. You're free, of course, to get outside scholarships.</p>

<p>If you'd like to have an MIT admit to feel superior to, feel free to read [url=<a href="http://mollie.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/07/how_to_do_every.html#comments%5Dmy"&gt;http://mollie.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/07/how_to_do_every.html#comments]my&lt;/a> pathetic story](<a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/cds2005.html%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/cds2005.html). :) MIT really does place heavy weight on personal characteristics; admission isn't just based on statistics.</p>

12

<p>Comeon people, don't bash chemE. It's a great major.</p>

13

<p>people have the tendency to bash a major that they see is too hard for them. Everyone has the facts that ChemE is the highest paying BS degree and is the broadest field (topics ranging from electrical to medical fields) in engineering. So in essence, you are either in ChemE or not.....if you are not....i don't see any reason to bash it.</p>

14

<p>I am ChemE (graduate) and I am not bashing it. The training is great and it is very interesting. Problem is job market is HORRIBLE. Do not be misled by official stats. Those only take into account starting with a major oil or chem company. Most ChE grads cannot get close to those jobs. Far 2 many grads for that limited market. </p>

<p>Take Honours Math and CS or Honours Math + Economics.</p>

15

<p>then why do chemE's make more than any other engineer?</p>

16

<p>They do if they get in with a major oil (shell, amoco, ) or major chem (Dow, etc). However, these jobs are really hard to get because every ChE who goes into the job market (as opposed to grad school, prof school) wants one of these jobs. In truth, there are 2 many grads for these top jobs, by a large margin. </p>

<p>Otherwise, salaries are modest in small consulting or mktg jobs. If you want ChE take it joint with ME or EE. Then you will have a good profile.</p>

17

<p>Toronto<em>guy, I think I have to go back to eternity</em>hope2005's comment. The fact is, if the market for chemical engineers really was truly horrible, then the salaries would have dropped and ChemE's would no longer have the 2nd highest paying starting salaries of all engineers (Petroleum Engineering is #1, but PetE is a pretty specialized kind of engineering). </p>

<p>Furthermore, I have to disagree that getting in with a major petrochemical company is that hard. Especially these days with oil exceeding $70 a barrel. I suppose the dispute comes from how you define 'hard', but what I think is indisputable is that it is far easier to get a job in Big Oil than it was at anytime in the last decade. Furthermore, huge slews of chemical engineers have been picked up by high-tech firms like the semiconductor industry. I know that Intel has been one of the biggest employers of chemical engineers coming out of Berkeley and Stanford for many years now. Heck, Andy Grove, the legendary former CEO of Intel (and Time Magazine's Man of the Year of 1997) is a chemical engineer by training. Chemical engineers also find tremendous employment in large-scale diversified manufacturing and engineering companies, like GE, like P&G, 3M, and the like. Heck, legendary former CEO of GE, Jack Welch, is a chemical engineer. And then of course there is potentially a great job-growth engine for chemical engineers of the future - Big Pharma and Biotech. I don't know where that's going to go, but the pharma/biotech already hire plenty of chemical engineers and may well be poised to hire plenty more. </p>

<p>Of the recent classes of chemical engineers at Berkeley who chose to get engineerng jobs (hence, not grad school or consulting/banking), I would estimate that something like 1/3 went to work in the semiconductor industry, another 1/3 went to pharma/biotech, and the remaining all went to other categories like petrochemicals, or diversified manufacturing, etc. </p>

<p>One thing I would point out is that chemical engineering employment is highly localized. If you want to do petrochemicals, you gotta go to where the industry is, and much of it is concentrated on the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast. If you want to do Big Pharma, you have to go to the Northeast, especially around the Connecticut/New York/New Jersey/ Pennsylvania area. If you want to do semiconductors, that basically means Silicon Valley, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix, Portland, and places like that. If you want biotech, then it's a matter of Silicon Valley and Boston. If you're not in any of those places and you don't want to move, then I agree that things might be difficult for you. </p>

<p>Look, I'm not saying that chemical engineering is the greatest thing in the world. But I would hesitate to say that it's terrible. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Those only take into account starting with a major oil or chem company.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>How is that? C&EN publishes studies that I consider to be highly reputable and perform a lot of statistical corrections to eliminate problems with sampling. So does the BLS. In any case, I fail to see how the salary data for chemical engineers would be any more skewed than the data for any other engineering discipline. For example, why would the chemical engineering data only reflect salaries from major oil/chemical companies, but the mechanical engineering data not just reflect data from the major auto and machinery companies?</p>

18

<p>Last spring, Fortune (I think) published the highest-paying majors. ChemE topped the list at $54,200 median salary for grads. (Petroleum perhaps was too small a major to put on there?)</p>

<p>I did chemical engineering undergrad and used that to go into nanotechnology. There are many things which can be done with the major - straight-up chemE, biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials sci., polymer processing, finance, you name it. It's a great major and one that will command you a lot of respect when you graduate. </p>

<p>I strongly disagree with the person who said that math-physics is a more practical combination. Unless there is a specific programme at a school you are referring to, the numbers just don't support you. Engineers are paid more and are thought to have additional skills that math/science people don't have - mostly because engin. requires the bulk of the courses that a math/science double major would have to take, and then piles the engineering on top of it.</p>

19

<p>Yeah, math/physics guys better off than chemical engineers? I find that assertion to be HIGHLY dubious. Whatever else can be said about chemical engineering, at least it provides you with a clear career path. It may not be the greatest and most lucrative career path in the world (not when you have consulting and banking running around), but at least it's a clear career path. What clear career path do guys with undergrad degrees in math/physics have? Is there really a well-established profession of mathematicians or physicists available to people with just bachelor's degrees? Not really. When you hire a guy for an engineering job, you know what he is going to be doing. What exactly is the math/physics guy going to do? Lots of companies need chemical engineers, but how many companies need mathematicians? Or physicists? It ain't that many. </p>

<p>The truth is, guys with just bachelor's degrees in math/physics have to scramble around and prove to an employer that he is worth hiring, because it often times isn't clear what an employer has to gain by hiring such a guy. So maybe such a guy can talk his way into getting into McKinsey or Goldman Sachs on the strength of his quantitative acumen. But guess what - the chemical engineer can also vault himself into McKinsey or Goldman Sachs on the strength of his quantitative acumen. And at the top schools, many do. I know consulting and banking are 2 of the top career choices of chemical engineers at Berkeley, and also at MIT, and I am pretty sure it's the same at all the other top ChE programs. </p>

<p>The point is, BS ChE's have all the career choices that the BS math and BS physics guys have, and in addition can also work as chemical engineers. Hence, I completely fail to see how math/physics is somehow better than ChE. Keep in mind, just because you have a degree in chemical engineering does not mean that you are forced to work as a chemical engineer. This is a mistake I see made time and time again - people think that just because they have a degree in some field, they are obligated to go work in that field, and that's wrong. All degrees are inherently flexible and fungible. </p>

<p>Bottom line. Besides working as a mathematician or a physicist (which are generally available only to people holding doctorates), I don't see anything that a math or physics undergrad degree can deliver that a chemical engineering degree can't match. In addition, the chemical engineering degree actually lets you work as a chemical engineer.</p>

20

<p>I agree with sakky.</p>

<p>toronto_guy,
I wonder if you are talking about Canadian market. I came from Hong Kong and I know quite a few people living in Canada. It's hard to get professional job for ANYbody in Canada, especially in places like Vancouver. It's probably the prettiest place in N.America but it's so hard to find a decent job! Good place to retire though.</p>

<p>My guess is it may be true that one of the historically biggest employers--oil industry, isn't hiring many chemEs as before. sakky, I actually heard that oil company isn't hiring many of them because there's not much R&D going on anymore. After all, the processing and refinering of cruel oil is pretty much the same for quite a while. That the chemE's salary continue to be high is probably due to the fact many jobs they get are actually managerial position (managing small group). For example, my friend got a job managing a small paper making operation owned by P&G right after college. </p>

<p>However, like sakky and couple others point out, the pharm/biotech industry are going strong. ChemEs are also well-suited for environmental consulting due to their knowledge of chemistry and math modeling. If one wants to take advantage of the biotech field, all chemEs need to do is to take couple bio/biochem/biochemical engg classes and they are ready to tackle the bioengineering field because that field borrows a lot of concepts from chemE while the chemistry side is already taken care of.</p>