<p>Hey I am interested in majoring in Environmental Engineering but I have a few unanswered questions.</p>
<li><p>What exactly does an Environmental Engineer do?</p></li>
<li><p>What type of classes does an EnE take?</p></li>
<li><p>Is chem big for EnE, if so what’ usually the highest level class of chem you take?</p></li>
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<p>Thanks for your time</p>
<p>I'm a junior in environmental engineering and I can answer the 2nd and 3rd questions</p>
<p>2) For the first year you'll take the same core classes as the other engineers. Math, physics, programming, chem.</p>
<p>In the 2nd year you'll take more hardcore engineering classes. Thermo, fluids, solids. </p>
<p>In the 3rd year you'll get into more environmental classes dealing with water and soils. It depends on the school. At my school you take more chemical engineering classes than some of the other programs I know of.</p>
<p>3) You take 4 chem classes (depending on the school of course). The highest level is 3rd year if tahts what you mean.</p>
<p>What type of chem? Is it org? Lol the reason I ask is that Chem wasnt exactly my strongest science opposed to Bio/Earth Science/ Physics and I am alittle worried about the Chem in College.</p>
<p>What school do you go to because I got accepted to Umich engineering which is where ill probably end up going if I can afford it</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what are the 4 chem classes that you need to take?</p>
<p>Environmental engineering curricula tend to vary more than other disciplines mainly because the department they're embedded in depends on the college. One that is within civil engineering will likely have a different emphasis than one in chemical engineering, and both of these will be different from one that is its own department.</p>
<p>i take general chem 1 and 2, analytical as well as environmental chem. There are also chem eng classes which might make use of your chemistry. I'd say enve definately has the most chem except for chem eng.</p>
<p>Is analytical chem just chem lab? That's what it was at my school.</p>
<p>oh and i'm from a Canadian School and we're under the civil deparment.</p>
<p>its a class as well as labs every week. We learn a whole bunch of analytical techniques in class and have a lab about each of the techniques.</p>
<p>not to sound like a slacker, but is the chem classes rigorous? I am very nervous about taking chem classes in college when I didnt do too well in HS. 85 avg in honors chem isnt exactly too good</p>
<p>I got high 80s in chem when I was in high school and i did well in my chem classes. The thing about chem classes that makes them different from your other classes is the labs. The upper year chem classes have labs every week for 3hrs. You also have to do a prelab and a lab write up which takes about 3-4hrs every week. So thats 6 hrs a week on the labs. </p>
<p>The good news it that with these upper year classes i found that i didn't really need to study for the class itself. Without the labs, these classes would be a joke but with the lab it makes it equilvalent to any other class. We didn't get assignments in analytical and the assignments in environmental chem were pretty easy. </p>
<p>The lab situation also depends on your school. I have a friend who goes to a different school and his environmental chem class only had 3 labs through the entire term while mine had labs every single weke.</p>
<p>ah ok thanks very much for the information, now only if someone would answer #1</p>
<ol>
<li>What exactly does an Environmental Engineer do?
Make the world more sustainable. Your main concerns are water, soil and air. Most of it stems from governmental acts (Clean Air Act, Porter-Cologne Water, Love Canal ~ Superfund). </li>
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<p>See:
The</a> Sloan Career Cornerstone Center</p>
<ol>
<li>What type of classes does an EnE take?
Depends on which field you're coming from (civil/chemical engineering or environmental engineering), which school you enroll at (some chemical engineering students are not under engineering school, ie. Berkeley's ChemEs are under College of Chemistry).</li>
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<p>Generally, you take some form of engineering background (fluid mechanics, statics, circuits, thermodynamics, etc).</p>
<p>As a ChemE, I took:
Fluid Mechanics / Heat Transfer / Mass Transfer
Separations
Chemical Thermodynamics
Reaction Engineering
Process Economics
Process Dynamics
(Most of which don't really apply to an EnvE background)</p>
<p>For EnvE, I took:
Chemical Fate and Transport
Environmental Microbiology
Intro Environmental Engineering</p>
<ol>
<li>Is chem big for EnE, if so what' usually the highest level class of chem you take?
Chemistry or Chemical Engineering? Both are applicable to the environmental engineer profession. I had to take physical, general and organic in college. (SAT II Chem was 790. I received all As in college chemistry classes except biochemistry).</li>
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<p>Environmental Engineering is an eclectic mix of engineering, science and humanities in my opinion. You have chemistry, public health, geology, engineering and what not. </p>
<p>You're concerned with organics (gasoline, diesel, volatile organics, semi-volatile organics), heavy metals (lead, arsenic, chromium), radionuclides, etc. They are either in water, soil, or air and somehow have to get rid of them or improve the process so they do not emit hazardous levels. </p>
<p>Is environmental engineering and alternative energy the same? Yes and no. Alternative energy deals more with the manufacturing or process of the alt energy (whether it's solar, geothermal, biofuels, wind, etc). Environmental engineers deal with the permits, the design issues, the compliance. </p>
<p>Are environmental engineers only limited to environmental engineering companies? No, many of the process companies need environmental (esp. chemical background) engineers to do internal permitting versus out of house permitting. Boeing, Chevron, etc all hire environmental engineers.</p>
<p>thanks, that was very informative</p>
<p>EnvE is a very broad field. Basically, the role of EnvE is to assess impacts on the environment, and implement solutions to reduce or mitigate such impacts. At the risk of over simplifying, there are 2 types of Env E. There is what I call "process" related EnvE - this is where you are concerned with the treatment of waste - such as from your municpal sewage plant. For example, certain pulp mills will have specific biological processes to treat waste before it can be released. </p>
<p>The other type is what I call the "site" type of EnvE. This is probably the one that causes the most concern and where most opportunity exists. This is where one would investigate soil and site conditions to make sure that there are no hidden contaminants or other substances. This is necessary often in commercial transactions and for due diligence purposes - ie. before someone spends a lot of money on purchase of land and other property. This is often done in conjunction with a broader soils and site investigation where site properties need to be characterized for design and analysis. If you are serious about EnvE, this is the area to focus on. Make sure you have good background in civil engineering with a particular focus in geotech/soil mechanics or engineering geology. </p>
<p>The "process” type is usually handled by chemical engineers whereas civil engineers tend to handle the “site” type of problems. Again, this is generalizing.</p>