<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I was accepted EA to UChicago. At that time I was planning on majoring in physics, but since then engineering has become more interesting to me. I found that the UChicago had created the Institute of Molecular Engineering, which sounded like the perfect combination of my interests. I don't see a molecular engineering major; will one be available soon? Can you even take classes in this or is the program not far enough along to do that? </p>
<p>Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>It’s still in early stages. As I understand you can ‘specialize’ in ME if you have one of the right majors (bio, biochem, chem don’t remember) and there will be a few classes soon or you can just ask for permission to take the graduate-level ones if you take the prereqs, but don’t expect a full blown major to be offered within 3-4 years although it is possible.</p>
<p>So, I found some more information about the original proposal to establish the Institute (written in December 2009).</p>
<p>"In light of the current economic situation, the University has revised the original hiring proposal into a proposed two-phase approach. In phase one (approximately 2010 to 2015) the University would hire a total of 12 new faculty members and situate them in new space at the corner of Ellis Avenue and 57th Street (in the replacement structure for the Research Institutes Building). The University still envisions an ultimate target size total of 24 faculty members, to be reached by the end of phase two (2020).</p>
<p>Because of the breadth and strength of The University of Chicagos existing research in molecular engineering the graduate educational programs leading to S.M. and Ph.D. degrees would be developed first. The didactic graduate curriculum could be organized within the first year. Within three years an undergraduate program could be developed drawing from existing courses and requiring newly developed courses.</p>
<p> baccalaureate and masters degrees in Engineering Science or Applied Physics would not fall under the auspices of ABET certification because it is unlikely that many students entering these programs would pursue careers in traditional engineering disciplines "</p>
<p>I had some questions about this:</p>
<p>1) Does anyone know if theyre on track?</p>
<p>2) They said within three years an undergraduate program could be developed; does that mean that the program will be ready in either 2013 or 2014? Or will it not progress beyond specialization in the near future?</p>
<p>3) Also, since it wont be ABET certified, would that limit what someone could do with this degree (i.e. if someone later decided to pursue a more traditional engineering job, would they even be able to get one)?</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, at the accepted students event on Friday, the director explained that they plan to have a minor in place by 2014, and a major in place by 2015. Still not sure exactly what that means for the class of 2017 - seems to me that if they have a minor’s worth of classes available by 2014, you might still be able to major in it… but that’s assuming everything happens on time. Basically, the institute will be there for research opportunities and definitely a minor, but it doesn’t sound like you should go to Chicago if you need an engineering major.</p>
<p>“molecular engineering” is not engineering in the traditional sense. Don’t let the jargon mislead you. Molecular engineering is much more akin to classical molecular biology and the more recent discipline systems bio. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that when it comes to the real world, that is to say life post undergrad, most folks care much less about the title of your undergrad major and much more about what courses you too, what you learned, what you can do etc. (the mix depending on the goal, job, grad school etc.)</p>
<p>Most importantly, grad schools (as opposed to professional schools like med school) never have pre-requisites for admission. Nor do they care what your major was called. They care about your ability to do high level work, which can be shown in many ways other than a major or minor.</p>