<p>So I am debating on either doing ChemE or Chemistry as my degree.</p>
<p>I will probably have much more time on my hands as a Chemistry major(this is just assumption)</p>
<p>But in the case that I don't get into Medical School, I don't want to end up with a worthless degree.</p>
<p>So is Chemistry really all that much easier than ChemE in the sense that I will have a lot of time, easier workloads, etc?</p>
<p>From what I hear Chemistry is harder, it just pays less.</p>
<p>You cover pretty much all of chemistry as a ChemE along with engineering principles and a bit more physics. Naturally, the workload is significantly larger.
It’s pretty hard to pre-med out of ChemE though.</p>
<p>Wow, I am in the exact same situation and have less than a week to decide! Well, I’ll share what I’ve learned so far. </p>
<p>Any engineering discipline requires a lot of work - problem sets, etc. This takes time away from ECs, which may hurt your chances at med school. However, it’s definitely doable - at my school, around 10% of graduating ChemE’s each year go on to med school. With a chemistry major, you have more flexibility with your classes as there are far fewer required classes to fill - you may have to take so many classes within your department, but you get to choose specific classes whereas there is a usually a set ChemE curriculum. With chemistry, you can also have more “free” classes to take in the humanities, social sciences, whatever you enjoy. </p>
<p>Now, what I’m about to say is somewhat controversial. Medical school admissions is highly GPA centered - this is a fact. It is obviously harder to maintain a high GPA in engineering (if it isn’t your first choice type of job) than in the natural sciences. However, some people say that med schools will be somewhat lenient given your choice of engineering major. Engineering also gives you technical skills and a problem-solving mindset that all doctors must develop. So obviously, there are two schools of thought here. </p>
<p>Here is my final take on what I have tentatively decided. I will go to school for a chemistry degree (my school is known for its humanities and I don’t want to miss out on those classes!) but should my bid for medical school fail, I will head back to school for either a PhD in Chemistry or a master’s in ChemE. The former would take around 4-5 years while the latter would take about 2 years. </p>
<p>I concluded that taking the harder ChemE curriculum as a “fallback” may be counterintuitive, as my GPA would probably suffer and I wouldn’t be able to explore the humanities as much as I want to. I would definitely also like to hear some more responses to the OP’s question though, as I am still teetering on the edge!</p>
<p>A Chem major does differ quite a bit from a ChemE major. </p>
<p>Med school admissions as either major will be regarded more or less the same. It is not “pretty hard” to pre-med out of ChemE.</p>
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<p>Why does everyone spread this false idea? At my school, a top engineering school, chem majors have lower overall GPAs but a pretty decent margin.</p>
<p>At my school I’m pretty sure the only chemistry class that ChemEs don’t take and Chemistry majors do take is analytical chemistry. We also have to take more math and then engineering courses as well. You’ll have less of a workload, but I wouldn’t say a lot of free time because Chemistry is still a hard major.</p>
<p>@KamelAkbar, why did you omit the second part of my quote? That’s distortion of data. From what it sounds, the OP is considering engineering as a “fallback” to medical school. At competitive engineering schools, many introductory classes are designated as “weed-out” courses so that those who aren’t suited for engineering or those who aren’t willing to devote their effort and time to engineering as a profession are “weeded out”. So it may be more difficult for future pre-meds than future engineers to maintain high grades in that class (assuming that grades are curved, as many engineering classes are) simply because of the type of people they are.</p>
<p>I agree, it is probably harder to maintain a higher GPA in any engineering field.</p>
<p>I do have a question though, all engineering majors basically have you develop a problem solving mindset right?</p>
<p>Does Chemistry do any of that?</p>
<p>And also, I am a transfer student, so I will be taking Upper Division courses along with Pchem, and Biochem upon entrance to university. </p>
<p>Meaning almost all my math, gen chem series, bio series, and engineering physics series will be completed.</p>
<p>Essentially I can transfer and it will only be 65 credits needed for a B.S. in Chemistry, whereas ChemE will take me roughly 100 credits.</p>
<p>This is including the additional 10 credits for biochem that I will have to take.</p>
<p>In answer to your first question, yes, chemistry does that to a certain extent. But you learn more theoretical stuff. Engineering is known to be strongly based on problem solving. For instance, you have a new drug and the problem is how to mass produce it. As a ChemE, you would need to use your problem solving mindset to solve that problem. Chemistry would be more involved with developing that drug so their problem would have been to find a drug to treat this disease. So both involve problem-solving to some extent but I guess engineering is more well known for its specific problem solving?</p>
<p>So then even BioEngineering would be ok? I take it I would learn some good problem solving skills?(comparable to ChemE?) The only problem would be not being employable?</p>
<p>Any sort of engineering gives you those skills. My school just doesn’t offer bioengineering as its own major - I have to do ChemE and specialize in bioengineering and biotechnology.</p>