help me with my ChE? future

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm currently a sophomore in chemE and am not enjoying my chemE classes AT ALL. The whole mass/energy balance thing bores me to pieces, and I cannot imagine myself working in industry. </p>

<p>I LOVE math and chemistry, and I'm pursuing a math minor. </p>

<p>I am currently doing research in a chemE department that involves stuff not even mentioned in classes until senior year if you take this class as an elective. It is a hot field of research now, though. Basically I'm interested in renewable energy.</p>

<p>I want to live a comfortable life (decent car, house, ability to travel a lot, not have to worry about bills), but I don't WANT to be rolling in money. I can honestly see myself enjoying grad school (I kind of feel like a grad student when I'm in the lab about 15 hours a week working with so many grad students). </p>

<p>I'm considering reaching toward a PhD. I need a goal to help me get through these horrible chE classes. I'm worried about eventually finding a job that I'll enjoy- like I said above, I really want to work in renewable energy (or the nano- field). Are research positions (could be for a company or a national lab...not professorship) extremely hard to come by? And just to make it clear, I don't think I could ever enjoy working in industry doing the things that guest speakers talk about doing (managing projects, making chemical processes big, etc.)</p>

2

<p>Sometimes you must do what you dislike in order to get what you want.</p>

3

<p>Renewable energy is a field that many disciplines work on; you could switch to chemistry, material science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering depending on the specifics you are interested in. There is no escaping mass/energy balances in the chemical engineering curriculum; you will need them in fluid flow, thermo, heat and mass tranfer, reactor design, separations, process dynamics & control, and maybe other course you would take.</p>