<p>Which major would be better suited for this field: chemical engineering or materials science?</p>
<p>I've already selected chemical eng on some college apps (I can still change however), but I think materials science may be more suited towards nanotechnology. The reason I didn't choose matsci was that I knew two people with matsci degrees (Ph.D's) that don't have jobs right now. Do chem engs fair much better or not? Also, I thought chem eng is a broader field and would give me more options.</p>
<p>Or should I not worry about which major to choose and pick a school that has a focus on nanotech (ie. research opportunities in nanotech)?</p>
<p>I would say materials science. Really? My dad is a material scientist and he is actually uring me to be a materials scientist becasue the job outlook is good and probably will get better with the advent of nanotechnology.</p>
<p>Materials science is more specialize, and I think the demand for materials scientist tends to fluctuate more than for a more developed field such as chem E or EE, which are much broader fields. Many schools to not offer an undergrad major in materials science. Materials science is probably more closely related to nanotechnology, but chem E and EE can both lead to a career in nanotechnology.</p>
<p>ChemEs always have the best job outlook of all engineers. The thing to do for nano would be either to double in MSE (you have to take so many courses for ChemE that at some places the double means an additional three classes) or do a masters in it.</p>
<p>I agree, with chemE if your interests change, you're not out of a job, or stuck doing something you don't love. Same with EE. The more specialized the engineering degree, the more fluid the job market is. It could be going great, or terrible.</p>
<p>As a chemE who did nanotech, I'll weigh in. ;)</p>
<p>Start off with chemical engineering, then move to materials science (mechanical engineeering) for your masters. Most of the materials science people I know actually did that route, not the mat. sci. undergrad. You can take polymers courses within a chemE department to get the materials. For advanced chem electives, organic chem and inorganic chem would be good... but I took quantum, quantum, and more quantum and was fine.</p>
<p>This is in keeping with my advice to take a broad, "meat and potatoes" engin. major undergrad, then specialize in grad school. Note that, as mat. sci. is still a solid major, that my other advice (always take the one you like better, as you'll have to do it for the rest of your life) still applies.</p>
<p>would doing materials science as undergrad be boring? I'm thinking about doing material science undergrad and going to grad or med school afterwards. Would this field provide lots of job options after 4 years of undergrad?</p>
<p>material science departments are usually the smallest departments in the engineering colleges. there are a lot of jobs out there, but your options are more limited compared to ME, EECS, ChemE, because it is a pretty specializaed field of study.</p>
<p>the best nano programs in the country are at northwestern university and MIT. i want to do EE at stanford but ill take MSE classes too. nanotechnology is an interesting field because you can major in a different fields that feed into the nano program (i.e. EE, MSE, etc). so EE, ChemE, and MSE all take you on slightly different paths depending on what you want to do. If you're interested in nanoelectronics, EE would suit you. MSE deals a lot with solid state physics, and ChemE deals with the sol-based end of nano.</p>
<p>a downside of doing nano: as an undergrad you need to get internships and publish papers. very important for getting into a good grad school. GPA is almost as important as how published you are. long hours in the lab when you're friends are chillaxin isnt always fun.</p>
<p>nano is pretty big everywhere these days. just about the entire department at Michigan ChemE is working on nano stuff. Cornell is spending a lot of money on nano, northwestern is strong, i think most of the top engineering schools are doing this.</p>
<p>I think a microelectronics concentration would be better for nanotechnology. You can take a fabrication course and then do some undergrad research, while solid state physics is theoretical and won't help you much with that. You'll learn all the solid state you need in grad school anyway.</p>
<p>I'd say don't base your choice of major around your desire to enter nanotech--this is a very, very specialized field that you might want to consider much later, for grad school or something. I'd say stick with whatever interests you more--chem eng or matsci?</p>
<p>For safety reasons, I think you should go with chem (or any field that is more "traditional" than matsci).</p>
<p>"nanotech" is also pretty vague... you can call pretty much anything "nanotech". Exactly what type of nanotech are we talking about here? Messing with structure of materials, building tiny machines (in which case you might want mechanical engineering), or what?</p>