I’m currently in the second semester of my senior year in high school, so now I finally have to make the choice that I have been putting off for a while now. For the past four years I was planning on majoring in engineering at Purdue University. My issue is, however, that I love chemistry and biology, but am not too fond of physics. Obviously engineering is pretty much all physics and math, and hardly any chemistry and biology, so I’m not sure what to do. This makes me think that engineering isn’t the correct fit for me. Should I still continue down the path of engineering to ensure stability and a high salary? I don’t really know what other options that exist. I don’t really want to become a doctor. Obviously chemistry and biology majors exist, but from what I have read they aren’t all that great if you don’t go on to graduate school. Does anyone have a suggestions of a major that would satiate me chemistry and biology interests, but not leave me unemployed or underemployed. Does this major exist? Help, please.
Do you have to declare engineering freshman year?
Biochem. If you don’t want grad school and you’re super worried about underemployment (which the student can often control), suck it up with the math/physics and do engineering. Chemical Engineering is certainly not all math/physics: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/academics/undergraduate/degreemaps/CHE%20Degree%20Map%20Fall%202014%20Updated_2.pdf
No major, not even engineering, “ensures” stability and a high salary. There are engineering fields with just as high unemployment rates as some humanities and social sciences majors. Engineers do, on average, make higher salaries - when they actually go into engineering. But there’s also data to show that a significant proportion of science & engineering majors don’t actually work in STEM fields. Only about half of engineering majors actually end up working in a STEM profession, according to the Census Bureau.
Biochemistry would be a good major for someone interested in both. Another interesting choice might be atmospheric science/meteorology - which in the age of climate change would be an in-demand major by many companies - but you will have to take some physics courses. There’s also ecology, evolution and environmental sciences; environmental geosciences; and neurobiology and physiology. The first two are going to go along with the amplified concern our economy has over the environment and climate change as well. The third may have many applications within health and biotechnology.
You don’t have to go to graduate school if you major in biochemistry (or anything else), and you also don’t have to worry about underemployment with a biochemistry major necessarily. A recent analysis showed that the probability of low-skilled labor underemployment (retail, food service, etc.) for biochemistry majors is about 6.8%.
Engineering classes are grounded in physics. Even if the classes are not labeled “PHYS 3400” they’re still based on principles from physics. Over half the courses in the Purdue ChemE curriculum are physics, applied physics or physical chemistry. There’s a reason that chemistry is considered a physical science.
Moreover, most of the work an engineer will do will be physics. I would never tell someone who doesn’t like physics to go be an engineer anyway, because they’re going to be unhappy.
^^^ The distinction between chem and physics is not clear in a lot of applications, so someone who “loves” chemistry might end up enjoying or at least being ok with the subject matter. Anyway, not all engineering students are fond of physics. Same with math. It’s hard stuff.
Neuroscience, which combines neurobiology and psychology to examine the biological basis of behavior and perception, would also be worth looking into.
Food science can involve a whole lot of bio and chem and result in lab work, research jobs, etc.
are you going to Purdue in the fall?