<p>Hey, I'm new to the thread. I just transferred into a school for my sophmore year where both departments are ranked top ten. I need help choosing between EE and ChemE. </p>
<p>I have participated in biomedical research and would eventually like to go to grad school and make research contributions. I really like chemistry and math, I'm good at physics but it sorta ****es me off. </p>
<p>A concern I have is the difficulty of the math used in the disciplines relative to one another. I'm really good at math and want to be somewhere where I can stand out. </p>
<p>I'm into chemistry, but I'm under the impression that chemistry is sort of menial, and more memorization than analytical. I'm worried that if I don't do EE, however, I won't understand the very important concepts learned in the
field which will be to my detriment when I eventually get into grad school.</p>
<p>My dad has told me that chemical engineering is not really an engineering discipline and that the compensation they get is hazard pay, but he is EE. </p>
<p>Hazard pay? I guess it depends on where you live, but nation-wide statistics show that chemE's make more starting and average salary than EE's... not to mention their employment growth percentage during the upcoming decade is projected to be higher.</p>
<p>Not really an engineering discipline? That's completely false... sounds like your dad is extremely biased.</p>
<p>In EE at my school you only take 1-2 more math classes than ChemE, and trust me Cal I-III and DiffEQ will be plenty challenging, plus EE is heavy with physics which "****" you off.</p>
<p>If you are wishing to pursue a biomedical career or biomed grad school then going ChemE seems like the only choice for you...</p>
<p>Chemical Engineering is one of the BIG FOUR engineering disciplines. Your dad is wrong.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can't really comment on anything else since I have no experience with it, but I've heard that chemical engineering is definitely a good field to go into, has lots of job opportunities, and is growing.</p>
<p>Big Four - Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical</p>
<p>I think, for the most part, all other engineering disciplines can be considered a sub-discipline of one of the above. I'd consider compE to be part of EE.</p>
<p>Hmm... maybe mechanical? Wasn't industrial engineering originally meant to reduce inefficiencies in manufacturing? Of course, today it's very different.</p>
<p>You totally sound like a ChemE type of guy. I'm EE but you sound like you want to do something close to the biomedical research so I would stick to ChemE which is a related major. Don't worry about your dad. The only reason I would do EE if I were you would be if you were somehow really interested in like bioelectrics? (I probably misspelled that).</p>
<p>be aware that chemE is not just chemistry. Being good at chemistry will only take you about 5% through.</p>
<p>Deep math and physics in addition to strong analytical skills and some programming will be useful. One thing I notice about EEs is that they have no sense of the real physical world. EEs usually turn to materials science engineers to actually do their physical design (e.g. fabrication). and materials science engineering is technically a subdiscipline of chemE.</p>
<p>I'd hardly say metallurgy is a subdiscipline of ChemE. :p</p>
<p>If you're interested in biomedical and EE, I think one of the main overlaps is in biomedical imaging. Like, developing better methods of imaging in MRIs, CAT scans, etc.</p>
<p>why would metallurgy not be a subdiscipline of chemE? There's chemical bonding behavior, processing, chemical crystal structure, dopants and even fluid dynamics when trying to understand the behavior of of non-newtonian and highly viscous molten metals in industrial applications. Plenty of chemEs work on high performance materials in the area of metallurgy.</p>
<p>i think you will face less competition in the job market as a chem engineer. at my school theres like a thousand EE majors but only like 5 or 6 chemical engineers im not b.s. ing too. so i theorize it will be easier to find a job as a chemical engineer.</p>
<p>There's also 12 times more ECE positions than chemE positions, so I'm not sure about the competition theory. If anything, I think you'll have more flexibility in terms of job location if you decide to not do biomedical engineering, and go with your major.</p>
<p>Electrical Engineers: 153,000
Electronics Engineers: 138,000
Computer Hardware Engineers: 79,000
ECE Total: 370,000, not including CS programmers</p>
<p>
[quote]
why would metallurgy not be a subdiscipline of chemE? There's chemical bonding behavior, processing, chemical crystal structure, dopants and even fluid dynamics when trying to understand the behavior of of non-newtonian and highly viscous molten metals in industrial applications. Plenty of chemEs work on high performance materials in the area of metallurgy.
[/quote]
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<p>I think it's that materials tends to focus more on the solid applications of materials than ChemEs. Like, I got very little fluid dynamics in my materials education (it was about 1/4 of the semester on my class on heat/mass transport through diffusion), but the amount of solid mechanics is significantly higher. Also, talking to few people I knew in ChemE, we get significantly more crystallography, crystalline defects, and have a slightly different focus in thermodynamics (we focus on phase transformations and equilibrium states).</p>
<p>I can't find the requirements now, but in order to become a licensed Materials Engineer (which, thankfully doesn't matter), you have to pass an exam covering in depth knowledge of metallurgy, corrosion, ceramics (types and processing), polymers, and even a bit on semiconductors and electrical materials.</p>
<p>I think materials gets a reputation as being a subset of ChemE because the field is significantly smaller, but I really don't feel their relationship is like MechE to AeroE.</p>
<p>I am a che major. I will say that everyone I speak to, peers, recent graduates, current/"grown adults" engineers say that chemical engineering is the hardest of all engineering while simultaneously being the way to go. My sister's bf (Civil) had a great job waiting for him a semester before he graduated. He encouraged me to stick with CHE and said if he could do it over he would do CHE. I only have to take 2 physics (wonderful b/c I damn near failed the first one, lol). I was interested in the biomedical field. I even interned with Brookwood Pharmaceuticals, which is in the biomedical field (Google them!). Chemical engineering will definitely suit you better than EE if you wish to pursue anything medical related. Furthermore, CHE can lead to many other careers. Some of my friends are going to med school and others law school. </p>
<p>Jmilton hit the spot. My supervisor always joked that CHE has nothing to do with chemistry. CHE teaches you processes and thinking skills. We design processes that take a raw product to a finished product, or that increase efficiency. At my co-op, the CHEs were the go to guys. The chemists would run tests on various drugs or polymers, but when it came time to create the drug for clinical testing, they would send it to us to scale up and determine the best way to actually produce it. At the same time, I was still able to go in the labs with the chemists and do some tests myself. I was able to play both sides of the fence.</p>