Differences in Chemical Engineering Curriculums

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

I firstly apologize if this is in the wrong thread. Maybe this is more of a choosing colleges question.

To start off, I am currently a high school senior who is interested in majoring in Chemical Engineering.
I have narrowed my college selection down to two colleges. Let’s call them college “A” and college “B.”
College A is a bigger university. Many different academic majors and options. It is also located in-state. $20,000 a year to attend. I would get $4500 a year in financial aid.
College B is a smaller, STEM-focused university. College B is out of state, but offers very reasonable out-of-state. About $22,000 a year. I would get about $1500 a year in financial aid.
My parents will probably pay fully for 2-3 of my college years.
But there is a final kicker. I am considering going to med school after receiving my bachelor’s degree. And the cost of med school would be entirely my burden.
But at the same time, I am not locked into this decision. And if I decide I don’t want to attend med school, a career in chemical engineering is the next career I would want.

But here is why I posted this on the engineering majors section. The main difference between college A and college B is the curriculum they offer.
They both require the same amount of credits to graduate, 133.
College A requires more generals, and a couple of non-engineering related electives.
College B requires less generals, leaving more room for science-related credits.
The list is in no way definite, but I made a sample 4-year curriculum by using the required courses list and adding in electives where they were necessary. Here is a list of courses that I would miss out on at college A, whether it be because they don’t offer it or I would not be able to fit it into my course load.

Here’s the list: Programming for Chemical Engineers, Genetics, Fluid Mechanics, Computer Applications for Chem. Eng., Analytical Chem., Physical Chemistry I, Physical Chemistry II, Mass Transfer, Molecular Modeling/Simulation, Advanced Process/Equipment Design, Microbiology, and Pathogenesis.

I’m not sure if the number of credits will match up perfectly, but here’s the classes I would end up taking instead at college A.

Intro to Film (extra Humanities credit), Unit Ops in ChemE, Statistical Data Analysis and Numerical Methods, Intro to Transport Phenomena, Circuit Analysis (EE course), Cell Biology, Dynamics, Principles of Management (required business elective), and a few more lab classes.

And on a side note, if anyone wants to know anything specific, I could name course levels, etc.

Obviously, I do not know a whole lot about these advanced science courses, seeing as I am still in high school. But I could only assume that they are important. Is the fact that I am missing out on all these classes going to be put me at a disadvantage if I were to pursue a career in chemical engineering? That just seems like a lot of useful science classes that I would be missing out on.

2

Did you take the required premed classes into account when constructing your sample course plans?

I’m also a little suspicious of being able to get through a degree in ChemE without taking fluids for School A? Are you sure that’s correct?

3

All the required Premeds are covered. I covered Psych, Sociology, certainly enough Chemistry Courses, Org. Chem I and II, Biochem, Gen. Biology I and II, Univ. Physics I and II, College Comp, etc. I do have some dual-credit courses, so it was not horribly difficult to create the space for them.

As for the lack of Fluid, here is college A and its chemical engineering curriculum. Maybe one of these courses is related. I honestly do not know.

https://engineering.und.edu/chemical/undergraduate-students/course-schedule.cfm

I rechecked and I still did not see it.

4

Okay, I have an update.

Firstly, on the Fluid Mechanics course itself. One of the technical electives that I could pick at college A is “any regularly offered 300/400 level Mechanical Engineering course.” Fluid Mechanics is one of those courses. Interestingly, it is a 300 level course. At college B, Fluid is a 200 level course. But, either way, if the second point that I’m about to make is invalid, I can take a Fluid Mechanics course. It would end up replacing Cell Biology. And while I would like to take Cell Biology (it would be another biology in the med school scenario), it is not necessary.

Here is the major point that I want to make. And if I’m wrong, I would love if someone were to call me on it. If Fluid is a very necessary class and this point is wrong, I definitely do want to take it.
I was delving into course descriptions of all these classes at College A. And I think these courses may have different names for similar ideas.

For example the Unit Ops I mentioned above is described as “Principles of momentum and heat Transfer . . .”

But the course that I’m thinking matches decently close to Fluid is Intro to Transport, which is described as “An analytical study of the transport of momentum, energy and mass; derivation and utilization of the differential equations of change.”

A Fluid course description for a different college similarly mentions, “The basic conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy are analyzed in control volume and differential form. The student will learn how to choose the right formulation, integral vs differential, for fluid flow problems.”

These courses do sound similar to me.

But there is a reason I’m asking other people. I do not know if they are. To someone who has taken Fluid, does that transport class sound similar?

5

It might be better to get ahold of a syllabus and compare course topics. The descriptions may not be specific enough for your purposes.

6

The course listed as “ChE 301: Transport” will cover fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer. Typically, in chemical engineering curricula, fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer are rolled up into one course called something along the lines of “transport phenomena.”

Almost everywhere with which I am familiar, fluid mechanics is a 300-level course. Some departments (especially aerospace departments) have a 200-level introductory course that covers some of the basic fluids before hitting the meat of it at the 300-level. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise, because fluids requires you to have taken vector calculus, differential equations, and thermodynamics, several of which are also typically 300-level.

7

I have no idea how to quote on this website, so I’ll just address both of you individually.

bodangles: Thanks, that is what I will probably end up doing. When I have new student orientation, I believe I get to meet with either the head of or someone high in the chemical engineering department. I’m sure they would know by now if all of their graduating students had a Fluid deficiency.

boneh3ad: Thank you as well. That’s what I figured. UND has a pretty good reputation as an engineering school around my area. I don’t think they would have that reputation if they were missing an integral part of Chemical Engineering. And what I also figured out is that College B just had a string of classes that covered all these topics. There is a course on Fluid specifically (a 200 Level class), a course on Heat Transfer (300 Level), and a course on Mass Transfer (300 Level).

Thanks both of you for the help. I think most of the issue was just me making an issue out of nothing. I’m at the point where I have to commit to a college soon, and my gamophobia is just looking for a reason to stall it for any amount of time.

8

Again, I’d be really surprised if the only fluids course was at the 200-level. If it was, I’d personally be very skeptical of its content.