<p>Since I began looking at colleges, I knew I wanted to become an engineer because math and science are my two strong points. I have been looking at PetE and ChemE for my majors but I cannot decide which one I would rather take. I do not want to travel far from home (PA) when I go off to school. I have read many posts about these two majors already but I would like some insight to my specific situation.</p>
<p>If I go into PetE then I would probably go to Penn state unless there is a better program around. The things I like about PetE is that you get to travel a lot, the job placement is supposed to rise 18% by 2018 according to bls, and the job sounds interesting. The things I am worried about is will the salary volatile? I do not want to go into a career where the pay starts out good, but then the price of oil drops.</p>
<p>If I go into ChemE then I will have a lot more school to choose from. The only thing I do not like about the job market for ChemE is that it is supposed to drop 2% in the next decade. </p>
<p>Which would you guys decide on doing?</p>
<p>Your employment number reflects the number of jobs in existing industries the major normally fill. Do they indicate the number of candidates that will be available to fill those roles? I have seen a lack of qualified candidates for many of the roles in ChemE, and I expect that to only get worse.</p>
<p>Personally, I would major in what you are most interested in and not pay attention to projected job growth so much. Also, the more generic the engineering major the more likely you are able to work in fields outside of the magnet industries.</p>
<p>Japher is right, labor is a supply and demand situation, not just a demand situation.</p>
<p>In fact what I have done is gone to the NCES and looked at the number of degrees conferred per year by discipline and then compared that number to the BLS reports on the demand side. That exercise helped me confirm statistics/applied math as my major (along with economics).</p>
<p>I’ll make it easy for you.</p>
<p>In 2007-08 there were 4800 chemical engineering bachelors conferred across the US. ONET’s occupational report for the class of laborers with the TITLE of chemical engineer, expects 800 openings per year for laborers with that specific job title.</p>
<p>This does not actually say much about the employment prospects of students with chemical engineering degrees, but what it does suggest is that you are likely to have a job title different from that of “chemical engineer” if you do get a chemical engineering degree. If you wanted you could go research what common job titles chemical engineering degree holders are going into, aggregate those job titles, and then compare to the NCES report.</p>
<p>Another thing that I find very useful, probably even more useful, is looking at the NCES report for each discipline that I’m interested in, taking the ratio of each in order to see which discipline is overrated/underrated by students, and then looking at the BLS and ONET sites for the expected overall employment and the expected job openings/employment growth. This will help you give insight into the projected supply/demand situation for the fields you are considering.
[Bachelor’s</a>, master’s, and doctor’s degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by sex of student and discipline division: 2007-08](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_275.asp]Bachelor’s”>Bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by sex of student and discipline division: 2007-08)</p>
<p>[17-2041.00</a> - Chemical Engineers](<a href=“http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-2041.00]17-2041.00”>17-2041.00 - Chemical Engineers)</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#emply]Engineers[/url”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#emply]Engineers[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Thats good to know that ChemE is so versatile. For PetE, is it really risky to go into that major because of the frequent change in the price of oil?</p>
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<p>The most common title for new ChemE graduates would be a combination of process engineer, production engineer, or manufacturing engineer - all of which are the same position at different companies.</p>
<p>No kevin its not risky because demand for oil is currently very inelastic, so it doesn’t really matter what the price is people and companies still need it for their daily lives. Your biggest risk in petroleum engineering is the possibility that we find a way to make clean energy equal to or less than the price of oil. That could happen anywhere between 1-200 years from now.</p>