<p>transfer rate to ChemE is about 50%! wouldn't it be a good idea to go to a cheaper school( a lot cheaper school) and then transfer to Berkeley. That way you can get some hard courses out of the way before going to Berkeley, and finish pre-med too? lol</p>
<p>Here is where I get the numbers: <a href="http://students.berkeley.edu/files/.../Transfer04.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://students.berkeley.edu/files/.../Transfer04.pdf</a></p>
<p>eh amwiteet, that page isn't found. but anyways isnt the transfer rate to Berkeley, esp ChemE REALLY hard? I mean even without that page u provided, I can assume that it is. Getting in Engineering from L&S in Berkeley is hard by itself, but transfering into Engineering? I think that's a bad combo.</p>
<p>And plus if you're in ChemE and don't get into Pre-med, ur life isnt ruined. A ChemE degree from Cal is still much more prestigious than one from an "cheaper" college (I'm assuming CC or CSU?). I wouldn't advise such a path JUST if u r thinking about it. Because fact is, seriously, how well can you plan next 8 yrs of your life? I can't even plan a week without compromising. I would just say that whatever your path be, let it be flexible so you have options later on in life. There are of course exceptions.</p>
<p>I've heard of horror stories from people at UVA talkin bout chemE. How difficult is chemE at Cal? Pretty hard or ridiculously hard?</p>
<p><a href="http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/general.asp?id=28%5B/url%5D">http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/general.asp?id=28</a> try this one and go to transfer admission</p>
<p>one person told me on cal day that chemE people have the lowest average GPA on the entire campus...</p>
<p>ok, that doesn't work either...just go to berkeley's website, click on undergraduate the undergraduate admission afterwards you see "transfer student" as an option on top, then choose online publications, and find tranfer admission, it says ChemE transfer rate=53%</p>
<p>the cheaper school I was talking about was UT Austin, not bad engineering school at all, but cheap for in-state</p>
<p>amwiteet, I wouldn't be surprised if chemE's really DO have the lowest GPAs. Are there any chemE in here that can give us their opinion?</p>
<p>hey, guys..
i am also going to major in chemE and pre-med....
after learning horrifying stories about cal people's hardworking<em>ness</em> to get a decent gpa <em>though many don't get EVEN WORKED THEIR BUTT OFF</em>, i decide not to attend...
i was there one cal-day. and it seems to me that not many girls are doing chemE. so i am scared... so i am quitting... so i am unworthy of this conversation.... so please reply..</p>
<p>uhm.... actually i am thinking about going to cal, just to challenge myself and see whati can make of myself. <em>since i have always believed that if i work hard enough there is nothng i can't achieve.</em>...but alas.....biomedical engineering is better for woman....??? .uhm.......duke or cal? that is the question</p>
<p>I have that same problem as lithiumbromide, it seems that many study incredibly hard in chemE, yet still cannot get a decent gpa because of the level of difficulty. I got accepted into cal for chemE but was told it is extremely hard to switch, which is why I have to reconsider going to cal >.<</p>
<p>ChemE's do not have to take 112A. The whole thing with the GPAs is ********. If kids don't do well, it's often because they are lazy. The kids at this school are quite lazy, usually. I don't know about upper division classes, but in general it's possible to get a good grade if you study effectively.</p>
<p>Ok..Cal ChemE is hard alright. How about its future, and quality?</p>
<p>Okay. From the other threads I've made, people have said that ChemE is more industrial - like working in manufacturing, plastic factories, etc. But what I wanted was to be able to fall back on maybe a job in pharmaceutical research, etc. Is this kind of stuff more in the bioengineering/biomedical scope? Also, is bio a good inclusive major for possibilities in pharmacy/dentistry/research/etc.?</p>
<p>Heres a helpful post by sakky:</p>
<p>If you are sure that you want to do premed, then I would not recommend chemE or any other engineering for that matter. Simply put, it's very difficult to maintain the high gpa in engineering coursework that med-school adcoms demand. You would think that the adcoms would account for the difficulty of your coursework when determiing admissions, but the evidence seems to indicate this is not so.</p>
<p>At very least, I wouldn't chance it. If you know you want premed, you want to maximize your chances of getting high grades, and you don't do that by doing engineering. Sure, there are engineers who managed to get into med-school, but the point is, they made things more difficult for themselves than they needed to.</p>
<p>By doing ChemE, you're also not going to avoid the infamous cutthroat premed culture as much as you think. You still have to do the Bio 1 sequence, which is overflowing with premeds. Chem 112 doesn't have as many premeds as the Chem 3 sequence, but it still has its fair share. You will avoid most premeds by taking the Physics 7 (sequence rather than the Physics 8 sequence. But the point is that you will still encounter a decent number of premeds along the way. Hence,by doing ChemE, you are not really avoiding the premeds.</p>
<p>I do agree with your third paragraph - chemE does provide you with a solid career if you don't get into med-school. Since more than 1/3 of all Berkeley premeds who apply to med-school get rejected from every single med-school they apply to (yes, that's right, every single one), this 'career insurance' is nothing to sneeze at. However, you have to carefully weigh whether that insurance is worth the increased chances of your not getting into med-school because of the lower grades you would receive in ChemE as opposed to what you would have gotten had you studied something else.</p>
<p>ChemE is significantly different from a career standpoint than MCB/plain-chem/biochem because ChemE is a true, accredited engineering degree, which means that you are eligible to take a true engineering job right after graduation. The biggest traditional employer of ChemE's have been oil companies (especially oil refineries), and the related chemical industry (plastics factories, general bulk chemicals, etc.). Lately, many ChemE's have been taking jobs at wafer fabs in semiconductor companies like Intel, because many of the processes to required to create microchips are chemically oriented. The legendary former CEO of Intel, Andy Grove (Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997) has a PhD in chemical engineering from Berkeley and is a noted authority on semiconductor manufacturing. Chemical engineers have also been actively recruited into pharmaceuticals, biotech, and materials companies.</p>
<p>Basically, as a chemical engineering, you are able to marry the knowledge of chemistry with a knowledge of engineering in order to efficiently and profitably produce large quantities of materials that have a chemical component. That is why ChemE's often times end up working in factories and plants.</p>
<p>Being a chemistry major provides you with the knowledge of chemistry (obviously) but not necessarily a lot of knowledge about how to produce chemicals in a profitable manner. In short, you may know how to make stuff, but not necessarily how to do so on a large scale at low cost, which is what is required in industry. Now obviously there is no solid line that separates chemical engineering and chemistry, for there is a lot of overlap between the two. Basically, think of chemical engineering as an engineering-accredited version of chemistry.</p>
<p>There is little practical difference between the BS and the BA in chemistry. The BA allows you to take a few more non-chem courses whereas the BS in chemistry means that you are formally enrolled in the College of Chemistry which does give you a few college-specific perks, like access to the college's advising system.</p>
<p>oh thanks that was very helpful! Where are most jobs for chemE located? Are there any around berkeley area? or mostly in silicon valley?</p>
<p>ditto what rose87 asked.</p>