<p>Its my senior year in high school, I took honors chemistry my sophomore year and then AP chemistry my junior year and absolutely loved it. I got a 5 on the exam. I have also taken physics. Basically my question is how should I decide between ChemE or Chemistry? what are similarities and differences? (and don't say ChemE is broader and pays better, elaborate your answers please!) Is there a significant difference in the amount of chemistry classes? how significant? Also i started high school kind of a year behind in math, so I will only graduate having finished a trig/pre calc course. Will this affect me negatively? i did well in the math classes (though i never took calc) and I also did superb in chemistry and well in physics. Sorry for all the questions I'm just trying to figure it all out. thanks for all help and advice!</p>
<p>With the chemistry major you’ll be spending considerably more time in labs synthesizing new products for a company when you graduate. Chem engs, take whatever the chemist have done and try to come up with an industrial process to be able to mass produce what the chemist did with test tubes. It might not be obvious to you what you want right away but for me, i liked spending time in labs in my gen chem classes and org chem classes but I didn’t see myself having a full time job where I’m spending most of my time in a lab. Chem eng on the other hand apply chemistry concepts (physics and math and even biology too) to create those plants, design them and control them and it could be much more than that. Also chem eng has more math classes, and you will be applying them often in upper year courses, so doing good in calculus is recommended. </p>
<p>in my curriculum in chem eng, we have to take org chem 1 and 2, physical chem, thermo and thats about as much chem classes we have. Tell me if you want more info.</p>
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<p>Not at all. The standard engineering track has one starting with Calc 1 & 2 freshman year, and Calc 3 & Diff EQ sophomore year. No worries, you’re all good!</p>
<p>So I get what your saying moeas… chemists create the products on a smaller scale, and then the chemical engineers figure out ways to produce a bunch as cheap as possible for companies correct? so If chemists work primarily in labs, what kinda of jobs do chemical engineers have? Where would they typically work out of and also who would employ them?</p>
<p>basically anything that you use, from your hygiene products to food to cell phones to cars have all been engineered by a chemical engineer at some point or another. as a chemical engineer, you can go in to alot of things such as petroleum, medicine (aka biochemical), electrochemical (cell phones and other electronics), enviornmental, and other engineering disciplines. in addition, many businesses employ chem e’s for consulting positions.</p>
<p>Chemistry major will be chemistry heavy (almost exclusively chemistry). Chemical Engineering will be engineering heavy (mostly engineering courses; only up to orgo for chemistry classes, the rest are engineering). </p>
<p>How do you know? Or rather, how could you better know (best know would be in college)? Take AP Physics C. If you like it more than AP Chem, ChE might be more for you. If you like AP Chem better than AP Physics C, Chemistry might be for you.</p>
<p>okay that seems like pretty solid advice… im in ap physics now but it will take alot for it to top ap chemistry… what is the point of engineering courses…? I know you have to take them for all engineering majors but I guess what I wanna know is what kind of material that covers?</p>
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<p>Im not sure honestly as to their purpose but I do know that they just go over some topics in a little detail. like Statics and Thermo but when it all boils down, its just glorified math classes with big words. Those seem to be the hardest courses for everyone though…</p>
<p>Thanks… okay well i’m running out of questions to ask but i think i might have a few more… so obviously a chemist has more chem classes and apparently chemE take org chem 1 and 2, physical chem, thermo. so would you consider that to be 1/8 of the chem classes chemists take? 1/4? 1/2? Is the amount of chemistry you learn in chemical engineering significantly less? Also earlier it was said that all chemists can do is work in a lab. Do chemE get opportunities to do even a little bit of lab work, even though that is not solely what I want to do?</p>
<p>Yes chem eng can sometimes work in the labs. They just wont be doing what the chemist is doing, it’ll be something “small”. In addition if you decide to do a master’s or further then you will be spending lots of time in the lab as a chem eng, if that’s what your looking for. And yes org chem 1 and, phys chem, and thermo represent so little of the class chem major have to take.</p>
<p>That is probably the biggest crossroads I have is that my truly favorite class is chemistry and chemical engineering doesn’t take quite as much of that, but basically the only options for chemists are work only in a lab or to teach. I wanna learn a lot of chem, but I also don’t only wanna work in the lab and I don’t want to teach… was chem your favorite high school class that led you to chemical engineering moeas44? If not, what did?</p>
<p>yes chemistry was my fav high school class, I wanted to go into biochem to tell you the truth and continue on with pharmacy. I chose chem eng because it’s a great backup career and I am not interested in spending lots of time doing lab work. So as you can see, I do love chem and bio classes more than engineering classes however I guess the engineering classes themselves have started to grow on me even if they are harder. And btw i am trying to go for pharmacy, but I won’t be madly disappointed if it doesn’t happen lol. Hope this answers some of your questions, cjrrower.</p>
<p>It helped basically all of them! thanks so much</p>
<p>to answer your lab question, yes you do. When you get to your syntheses course and other chem e labs, you do alot. I know at my school, they even make chem e’s take a 5 hour chem lab. </p>
<p>Chem was also my favorite class (for what its worth) in high school.</p>
<p>Great thanks so much</p>
<p>I’m glad I found this thread because i am facing the same problem. I love chemistry but think ChemE sounds really interesting too. Is it possible to do ChemE and be pre-med/dental? Or how hard is it to do?</p>
<p>i’m just not sure exactly how much lab work I want to do. I still want to do lab work, but I don’t think its all I want to do</p>
<p>It’s possible. Just know it will take a LOT of work. As a pre-med, you still must get involved outside of your academics (research & other EC’s) - and as a ChE major, the time allotted to get involved will be significantly less than if you majored in something else. How hard is it? Well, whoever can attest to maintaining a 3.7 GPA in ChE can give you a fair idea, but realize it will be even harder than that after you stack on research/volunteer responsibilities.</p>