<p>I love both subjects, but I'm better at engineering than Chemistry simply because the math and physics involved.</p>
<p>I plan on going into Electrical Engineering (since mech is impacted) at UCSD or Chemistry to become a pharmacist. From what I know you can get a degree for pharmacy after 6 years and engineering in 4-5 years. Salaries from what I read: Pharmacy = $100k, Engineering = $50-60k.</p>
<p>Can anyone give me some insight on both majors at UCSD? Difficulty of each? Easy to find jobs? Maybe even chemical engineering (But I heard its insanely difficult).</p>
<p>Note: I may be grossly wrong on my statistics, everything is what I "heard".</p>
<p>ALSO I got into Revelle college, which I heard is great for Chemistry majors since you get rid of major courses along with your GE.</p>
<p>You don’t have to major in chemistry to become a pharmacist but it is a gateway into the 7 year program at UCSD. Engineering would be the better choice of employment if you were to choose chemistry vs. engineering. Also with engineering there is a the risk that your GPA won’t be so good and that will affect your chances at pharm school if you choose that path. I would also shadow/volunteer at a pharmacy before jumping onto the pharmacist train. Good luck.</p>
<p>What else is there to major in for pharmacy? I know theres Biochem, but thats an impacted major. I thought Chemistry was generally the best approach.</p>
<p>Any major. A certain major is not a requirement for pharm school. Just need to finish the pre-reqs. There are even pharms schools where you don’t even have to finish your degree and just the pre-reqs to get in. Choose a major where you are going do the best at cause a high GPA will only improve your chances to get in.</p>
<p>Well, not sure if I’m good at chemistry, but I have a strong interest in it, which I think is most important in choosing a major. (Even self-teaching myself parts of chemistry)</p>
<p>But wouldn’t chemistry make the most sense to go into pharmacy? I mean it would be weird if someone with a degree in “hotel management” went on to pharm school…</p>
<p>chemistry is very similar to the curriculum in pharmacy school, but it’s by no means a requirement. you get one shot at college. make sure you pick a major that’s interesting to you, otherwise it’s going to be a long four years.</p>
<p>Thanks I will probably change my major to chemistry!</p>
<p>I’ve always liked chemistry, although I did not cherish my high school chem class because I didn’t realize what I was missing. I managed to pass with a B but didn’t learn much.</p>
<p>Besides, chemistry is a science basically split into “making drugs and blowing things up”. Not to mention saving lives through pharmaceutical research, etc. </p>
<p>(besides you know… ion configurations, empirical formulas, etc)</p>
<p>E. Engineering on the other hand is also a great interest to me. I’ve been fascinated by circuits and programming (so fun!) since I spent so much time around nerdy things like that, but chemistry seems to provide a more stable, respectable, and rewarding financial output than tinkering with electronics. Plus this is my second year of physics (AP Physics, took conceptual before) and although its interesting and all, it bores the hell out of me! I have extreme trouble just trying to do a simple AP problem, and its most likely the teacher who used to teach at UC Irvine. No other students in my class get what he’s talking about either…</p>
<p>Pharmacist: 100K starting, 120K ending. there is absolutely NO vertical mobility in that position. You’ll be doing the exact same thing every single day</p>
<p>Engineering: ~60K starting (with only undergrad), could go up to 200K+, depending on how innovative/useful you are. Engineering has extremely high vertical mobility, I would say second to only the business field.</p>
<p>One more thing about chemistry. Usually the Chemistry PhDs are the ones who experiment with new chemicals and discover that “new chemical X can perform Y under these circumstances”. Chemical engineers then are tasked with “Using chemical X to perform Z operation through Y processes” A lot of people get that confused, so it might be beneficial to look into one or the other depending on what you are interested in.</p>
<p>last comment: Engineering is an extremely stable career. I wouldn’t be quick to jump the gun saying a job in chem is more stable without doing your research.</p>
<p>Pharmacy school takes 4 years to complete after you get your Bachelor’s degree (so a total of 8 years typically).</p>
<p>The exceptions are schools with 0-6 pharmacy programs that you enter straight out of high school that take 6 years, 3+4 programs in which you complete your bachelor’s in pharm school that take 7 years, and UCSD’s 7-year program. However, it is rare to be accepted into pharm school without a bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>My father is an engineer, and he’s always complaining to me about how unstable his job is because of outsourcing to other countries. Also, I heard that companies generally like to hire recent graduates for engineers, so a lot of the older gen. engineers get laid off first (like my father, who is on the verge of being laid off in this economy) On the other hand, pharmacy values people with experience (my cousin is a pharmacist) because you need years to be familiar with all the diff. medicines,etc, so the more experience you have, the better off you are. </p>
<p>If you major in chemistry, you’ll have to get a graduate degree though, because undergrad chemistry/biology/etc degrees can’t really get you a high paying job. I usually hear of engineers landing a job right after college. ;)</p>
<p>jasminesque, Why don’t you find out from your father more about the person who lays off engineers? Tell people to go for the same major as his/hers!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t rely on jasminesque’s anecdotal evidence solely because while it may be true, it does not give an accurate representation of how the job market is for engineers. Engineering is still considered to be one of the most stable careers out there (go to the engineering thread and search it, or even go check the BLS website for stats)</p>