I’m going to start off with the fact that I am a freshman and actually still have some time to decide this. I am a Chemical Engineering Major at Michigan State University. I’m a member of the Honors College and have been working with a professor in a Biochemistry lab. I really enjoy it and my initial college plan was Chemical Engineering with a Biochemical concentration. I want to get involved in research and most likely will go to graduate school though I am still unsure. I was talking to a senior in my lab the other day who said that a concentration could actually close doors for you if your interests in chemical engineering change (eg If I’m a senior I suddenly want to be a part of polymer research or Bio energy company). But double majors are apparently very attractive. So I did some research and found out that if I drop my concentration and instead pick up a second major in biochemistry it would only take 8 more credits. I came in with 39 credits so I could have graduated with the engineering degree in 4 years with only taking 14 credits a semester. But picking up this second major will make it slightly more difficult, I laid out a college plan and saw that my schedule remains for the most part 15 credits and below with one exception, my junior year fall semester will have 6 classes and 17 credits (all science classes, three of which are labs). I want to graduate in 4 years no exceptions. Sorry for long back story. The actual question I want to ask is does this sound like a good idea? Does a second major in biochemistry look good to employers and grad schools if the area of research I want to get into is biochemical engineering? Is it worth taking a semester from hell? Also if I stuck with my biochemical engineering concentration do companies and grad schools even pay attention to concentrations? Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance!
You can also do a minor in biochemistry. The benefit of a second major in Biochem may be small compare with the effort, particularly if you are planning to go to grad school for BME. Does your school has a 3+2 or 4+1 sequential program for Bachelor and master degrees? To graduate faster would be make more sense economically.
There is no minor in biochem at my college, I’m also fairly certain I wanna get a phd at a different school. Either way its going to take me 4 years just how the engineering classes in chemical engineering are laid out. I’m going to be here for 4 years the issue is i’m not sure if adding the 8 extra credits as opposed to a concentration is worth it.