<p>I really want to work towards getting a degree that would allow me to work in designing processes for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
I finished my freshman year at University of Puget Sound and will be a sophomore next semester. I am planning to participate in the 3-2 chemE engineering program that my college offers. To do that I have to get a BA in chemistry after three years at UPS and then transfer to an affiliated engineering institution (either USC or Columbia) where I would take two years of engineering courses.
The major problem with this approach is that I would not be able to get any internships in engineering until the summer before my senior year. I would be able to get chemistry research experience over the summer at my current school, but I am not sure if that experience would have any value. What can I do to prepare myself for getting a job in this specific field?</p>
<p>You’re probably going to need a graduate degree to get involved in pharmaceuticals. Keep that in mind.</p>
<p>What do I need to do to get a graduate degree from a top university?</p>
<p>First ask yourself whether there will be a pharmaceutical industry in the USA when you graduate :)</p>
<p>My wife spent a dozen years in pharma manufacturing IT and I got to meet a lot of her coworkers. Most were undergrad chem eng and grad pharmacy, or undergrad and grad chem eng…</p>
<p>To get a graduate degree from a “top university,” you need to have a decent GPA and get some experience under your belt, either research or industry. Industry would probably be better for the ChemE grad route, research for the pharmacy route.</p>
<p>I feel like pharmacy is the better route if you’re more interested in the chemistry side and ChemE for the process/engineering side.</p>
<p>Unfortunately pharmaceuticals is just a tough industry to jump into without a graduate degree, I think.</p>
<p>Anyways you could get internships in chemistry at any point, way before you even start your engineering courses. Internships in chem will look fine for anything you do down the road.</p>