<p>Just curious. I'm definately going to study it, but I was just curious how popular it was in the world of engineering. Whats the most popular engineering major?</p>
<p>I wouldn't say its the most popular. They do get pay more than most of the engineers out there, but they are the least in number of all the engineers. I don't know why though...</p>
<p>Mechanical seems to be the most popular along with electrical and civil.</p>
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I wouldn't say its the most popular. They do get pay more than most of the engineers out there, but they are the least in number of all the engineers. I don't know why though...
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<p>Because it's freakin' tough! That, and petroleum engineering is luring a lot of potential chemical engineers away from the major.</p>
<p>My D is a junior at Vandy in ChemE and they have 35 of 49 left in the major. It is their smallest engineering major, I believe.</p>
<p>At MIT it was wildly popular. Between ChemE and BiochemE (which were both under the ChemE department), last year they were 5.8% of the undergrads. Not the engineering undergrads. The undergrads. It was the third most popular department for undergrads (total, not just in engineering), after EECS and MechE.</p>
<p>pmrlcomm: </p>
<p>Let me make sure I get it.... Of the 49 that started with your D as freshman ChemE majors now as junior there are 35 of those still in the major as the others either changed majors or left campus.</p>
<p>Do you know how many ChemE Vandy graduates each year (with undergraduate degree)? Based on the above it would be about 30-40 I guess...</p>
<p>Do you think Vandy is pretty well equiped to educate/train ChemE majors (teachers, lab machines and equipment, etc) even though it may be one of the smaller engineering programs on campus?</p>
<p>I believe those are the numbers she gave me. There have been a number of students switch to other majores...primarily Biomed if I recall.</p>
<p>Obviously if my D is there I think they are able/capable of providing a quality education. They have actually changed the program and starting with the class of 2011 (I think my D will take the additional classes to acquire the diploma in 2010) it will be a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering degree. I don't know how many they graduate each year but I would guess somewhere in the range you suggested. Total enrollment in the Engineering school is just south of 1,300 so on average that would work out to about 425 student per class spread amongst 7 engineering majors. Sounds reasonable. </p>
<p>Are these just questions you have or is there a point you are trying to make that I am missing?</p>
<p>I'm a senior at Vandy and am also a ChemE. Our graduating class will be roughly 40- the biggest class in recent years so I've been told. I think the ChemE teachers here are very knowledgable and definitely push students to do their best. As far as research, I think we focus more on biological-chemical fields than others so expect more equipment that are centered around those. Undergraduate labs have the usual: towers, packing towers, different reactors, pipe setups, etc. Not sure what other schools do in their undergraduate labs.</p>
<p>Thanks ecner. I'm just a dad trying to relay what I hear and have experienced.</p>
<p>There are roughly 30,000 chemical engineers in the US, enough said.</p>
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There are roughly 30,000 chemical engineers in the US, enough said.
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Compare that to 256,000 civil engineers, 226,000 mechanical engineers and 291,000 electrical engineers and electronics engineers.</p>
<p>ChemE's make up approximately 2% of all engineers in the United States.</p>
<p>And there's about 1.5 million engineers in the U.S. So one out of every 200 people in the U.S. is an engineer.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, ME, civil & electrical tend to have big departments. BIOE can also be quiet big, just depends on the school.</p>
<p>I dont think ChemE is unpopular. I dont know why there are not more people studying it. Perhaps it might have something to do with the subject area of the other disciplines (such as electronics, automotive, etc) that are more "visible" in our lives, thereby getting more students more iterested in the discipline. </p>
<p>I'm sure if you really looked hard into it you could find some reason why the numbers are low, however, I would'nt say its because it is unpopular or significantly harder than the other majors. While a lot of people consider it to be the "hardest" engineering discipline, other majors, such as ME or EE are no picnic either.</p>
<p>I received my alumni newsletter and the engineering faculty mentioned that electrical engineering department now gets more than one-half of all applications to the faculty. The reason there are so few chemical engineers is that growth is rather limited in that field. They are no longer building chemical plants and many are being shut down or major projects are being scaled-down. Here in Canada, they recently announced more plant closures. </p>
<p>I think honestly, you are better off taking mechanical or civil. I think a great field is geotechnical engineering - lots of growth. I think ChemE is very limiting option.</p>
<p>"no longer building chemical plants": Chem E isn't applicable to just chemical plants. Manufacturing of food products, consumer products, adhesives, soap, etc. depends on chem E's. Who makes beer? Detergent? Post-it notes? Soda pop? Ice Cream? Baby formula? Resins? And what about materials like asphalt? Nano-tech? Integrated circuit manufacturing has many chemical processes too.</p>
<p>Chemical engineering is a limited degree? HA! There's a reason that ChemE grads make top dollar.</p>
<p>Post of the year goes to Toronto guy.</p>
<p>One of my family friends said that chemical engineers are involved in cutting edge research in medicine and industry. He also mentioned that the field has come a long way from process engineering. It seems to entail a lot of math and physics; I was bent on either mechanical or electrical engineering because chemistry looked more "qualitative," but I'm not sure now.</p>
<p>Is chemical engineering filled with R&D? Thanks!</p>
<p>what is meant by "cutting edge"? o.o</p>