Petroleum Engineering

<p>I'll be a freshman at Tech in a couple of weeks and was wondering if there's anyway to do petroleum engineering. From what I've gathered Tech doesn't offer a PE degree, but would there any other options to get a job as a PE upon graduating Tech? There's a shortage of PE's and the careers look extremely lucrative.</p>

<p>The nearest equivalent at GT is chemical engineering. Plenty of ChE’s go with the petroleum companies. The ChE’s always seem to have the most job offers and the most lucrative ones. Many of my friends graduating as ChE’s seemed to have their pick among 6-10 offers. Pretty impressive.</p>

<p>Would ChE’s at petroleum companies work as PE’s or ChE’s? Isn’t there a notable difference? EE’s work at Boeing, but that doesn’t mean they design aircraft.</p>

<p>Chemical engineers can and often do gets jobs as petroleum engineers. The two degrees are essentially the same, and most petroleum engineering job postings actually list chemical engineering as the preferred degree, because there are not many schools that have dedicated petroleum engineering degrees. If you look at the curriculum of a petroleum engineering degree and that of a chemical engineering program, you will see that all the major classes are the same with the difference being a few elective courses.</p>

<p>The median salary for a Tech Chemical Engineer graduating in the Spring of 2013 was $70,000, and the highest salary reported salary was $100,000. A fair number of these students went to work for oil companies doing what would be considered petroleum engineering, but those working in other industries often made just as much.</p>

<p>What type of job are you specifically interested in? There are multiple types of positions that are considered petroleum engineering. The highest paid ones typically require at least a masters and are more research focused.</p>

<p>You seem to be motivated purely by money, and while there is nothing necessarily wrong with that, if you don’t have a strong interest in what you are doing, you will likely not do very well at Tech, even if you are smart. Companies like Exxon and Chevron are typically only interested in those with GPAs around 3.5 or higher. </p>

<p>Your current focus should be on gaining admissions and doing well in the program you eventually enroll in. Whether you end up in the oil industry is a decision you can make later. As has been mentioned, chemical engineers with strong grades and decent leadership records pretty much have their pick of jobs.</p>

<p>I used to be a chemical engineering major at georgia tech(changed to industrial eng due to a change in interest) and before I switched I was seriously considering working in the petrochemical industry. I’m currently a sophomore btw. From what I had looked into it seems like mech eng from gt would be better for petroleum eng(at least the extremely lucrative side of the business that you are looking for) The ChemE majors tend to work on the refining side of the business, while the mechE majors work on the extraction side. Either major from tech can get you a good PE job at the top oil companies, although they differ in the roles that they would be most effective in. Just as a side note, dont be blinded by PE’s high salaries. A lot of the highest paying jobs in the industry require you to be away from home for long periods of time and live in some pretty boring areas.(oil rigs in the middle of the ocean for example) If you enjoy the work and dont mind certain characteristics of the job then by all means go for it. If your just doing it for the money you should honestly just go into finance. But to answer your origional question, yes chemE can get you a job as a petroleum engineer. ( I would recommend talking to both a mechE and chemE advisor when you get to campus) Hope this helps!</p>