<p>Can someone help tell me the difference and then expand on each of those fields.</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>I find that Wikipedia is an excellent way to find out information like this. Here you go:</p>
<p>Mechanical</a> engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chemical</a> engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>And if you're looking for easiest major of the two..... choose Mechanical Engineering. I've been told by several colleagues that math is so much easier in ME than ChE.</p>
<p>At my school and a lot of others I know, the actual MATH courses are the same for ME and CHE. It does seem to be the consensus among students and even professionals that CHE is the hardest of all the engineering degrees (excluding maybe Nuclear, but nuclear isn't as common). As far as the differences, those wikipedia links should clear things up.</p>
<p>Related question: My D is considering BME. Now, we've noticed some schools we're considering, i.e. UF because we're Florida residents (and frankly with Bright Futures we'll have to get great merit aid out of state to not choose a FL school), have grad programs in BME but no undergrad program. So, in tailoring an undergraduate major as prep for a BME master's or Ph.D, we're looking at ChemE or M.E. My husband, who's a Ph.D. M.E. is definitely biased that way, but I'm not sure how much he knows of BME, frankly. Anyone have any opinions on this ... again related to the differences of ChemE and M.E.</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>I would say choose CHE. I am a CHE major and landed a co-op with a biotech/pharmaceutical company and although they had ME & CHE employees, they mainly recruited CHE's for the co-op positions. Also, at my school my degree is technically called Chemical & Biological Engineering. We are required to take a few biology electives because "we feel it is necessary in today's society that our chemical engineer graduates are well balanced in traditional chemical engineering as well as biological sciences since the two are often closely related" (the answer given when asked why is it called Che & Bio Engineering). I assume that since she is interested in BME then she has an actual interest in the pharmaceuticals and medical aspects itself. I think CHE would allow you to get more involved with the chemical R&D side whereas ME would be more 'nuts and bolts'. Again, I am still an undergrad so I have no actual industry experience besides my co-op.</p>
<p>Zebes,</p>
<p>I was a BME major first until I switched to ME for the same reasons. BME UG were spread too thin and seemed just like a mix of ChemE/ME. I felt that if anything, I could just get a masters in BME as a ME major--the saying is that it is easier to teach biology to an engineer than engineering to a biologist.</p>
<p>ME, ChemE and even EE are good alternatives if you want a solid UG major and still have options. I agree with Uaprophet, ChemE would be the best fit for BME due to the overlap and related coursework. ME is good if you want to study more fluid flow or biomechanics and EE is mainly for the microdevices or signaling.</p>