<p>I am going to high school senior. many difficulties in choosing the major.. I do well in both Chem and Math and I previously thought I will go study Statistics and maybe work in business.. However now I think Chemistry may be more interesting and maybe easier.
I have a lot of questions..
1.Is statistic harder then Chem? I mean the numbers seem not as interesting as Chem..
also, does statistic means more job opportunities?
2.Are Chem and Chem engineering seperate departments in the university? I don't want to be a chemist since I prefer more applied work.. If I want to study pharmacy/cosmetic then what department should I go?
3.What about other job fields relate to Chem? I don't have much information about this. I learn there is a major called petroleum chemistry, is this a good major? When I think about petroleum I think about some poison substance...
4.Could anyone provide me a list of the lessons in Chem major? I wanna compare it with that of statistic.
Thanks a lot!!</p>
<p>You are still a HS senior, no need to determine your college major right now.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I’m not sure, but I don’t think you can major in Statistics in most colleges. At UPenn, its part of the Wharton school. Usually, people who learn in depth statistics are either Econ majors or business majors to some degree. There are also some stuff like Bioinformatics but those are usually more of a graduate school focus.</p>
<p>Chemistry and chemical engineering are very different. Chemistry majors deal more with basic science while the engineers deal with how it is applied. For example, a chemist might do research on aromatic properties of silicon based ring structures while a chemical engineer may try to figure out how to make aromatic compounds of sufficient yield for a specific purpose.</p>
<p>Stuff that chem majors usually take:</p>
<p>General Chem
Organic Chem + Lab
Physical Chem + Lab
Inorganic Chem
Math</p>
<p>csr, a present for you:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/che/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/che/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf</a></p>
<p>I hope that you find it helpful</p>
<p>I would disagree with the poster that said you can’t major in Statistics at most colleges. Applied Mathematics is a very similar degree that is offered at almost every college. Statistics IS NOT similar to an Economics degree (but there is some overlap) or Business degree, although they both have applications for Statistics.</p>
<p>I wish I could say Chem and Statistics are related, but they aren’t that close. As a Chem major you will probably take Stats to learn things like hypothesis testing. As a Stats major I could take Chem if I wanted to.</p>
<p>Some colleges that math-statistics and probability major will require rigorous proof based courses, such as real analysis, which is nothing like any high school math. You being just a high school senior need to still experience higher level academics, which differ greatly from high school academics, since many people end up changing majors.</p>
<p>I should have noticed this 2 months ago but anyway…</p>
<p>Whenever one asks is program A harder than program B, the answer is “it depends”. Are you good at math? How do you like labs? Those are the types of questions you should answer for yourself. If you answer no to one and yes to the other, then the choice is “clear”. If it’s no to both, neither stats nor chem will be fun for you. If it’s yes to both then you’d have to take some classes to find out which is more suited for you.</p>
<p>As pointed out, not all places will have a statistics major, it will sometimes be “embedded” in a math major. So you would have to take (and I recommend it to anyone who wants to do statistics anyway) some proof based math courses, and those are not for everyone, and you don’t really get to find out how you like them until you try them. It’s not the same as high school math. However, having statistical skills is in demand in a wide array of jobs (everyone needs statistics, from scientists to businessmen to government, data is everywhere), so there might be more employment opportunities than in chemistry.</p>