<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>like many here, I'm considering Chem Engineering.</p>
<p>But how do you tell if you have a knack for it? At 18 years, all of us have no idea how elevators or fermenters work. At most, we have been on a B&J factory tour to see the giant silver vats pouring out ice-cream.</p>
<p>Are we all starting college on equal footing here?</p>
<p>uhh dude you aren’t supposed to have some great deal of background knowledge on the hard core subjects of your major. Just know your physics, math, etc.</p>
<p>Both my parents are Engineers and what they say is that if you like knowing how things work/solving problems you’re a good fit for engineering because that’s what engineers do. Also if you are good at Math and Science you’ll be fine in Engineering, even though it’s a lot of work!</p>
<p>Haha, thanks you both! I’m pretty nervous about it because I’m an international. Many on this sub-forum have done AP Physics, that’s for sure. Er, in my school system I did Bio “AP” and Chem “AP”, but I’ve read a Bio undergrad degree is not marketable, so I’m looking to Chem E. Besides, I’m getting more excited about it. Ultimately, I’d like to be the Chem engineer at that Las Vegas hotel with the artificial volcano that smells like pina colada. Dream job!</p>
<p>Crazycat, thanks for your description! I like the frame-of-mind you have given to see if we are cut out for engineering. But Science, you are also talking about Physics, primarily right?</p>
<p>I thought your s/n looked familiar! Now I realise why.</p>
<p>Well it really depends on which Engineering Major you’re going into. I’m going into ChemE as well and from what the curriculum is at Purdue, you do alot more Chem then Physics.</p>
<p>This is the curriculum they have there and as you can see there’s not that much Physics.<br>
<a href=“https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/ChE/Academics/Undergrad/Plans%20of%20Study/Fall%2008%20General.pdf[/url]”>https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/ChE/Academics/Undergrad/Plans%20of%20Study/Fall%2008%20General.pdf</a></p>
<p>Crazycat, that is great advice. I’ll check it out for my own school too. Btw, congrats. I heard Purdue is best known for its Engineering, so you’ll be getting a respectable degree indeed.</p>
<p>You planning to double major or minor? I would love to indulge my humanities side with a general degree in the liberal arts, but maybe that’s just too crazy. Haha!</p>
<p>I’m not sure, because I want to do a Co-Op but I might try for a minor in business or something of that sort depending on if I have time.</p>
<p>You’re going to school to learn to be a chemical engineer. If everyone already knew we wouldn’t need to go through 4 or 5 years of classes! And don’t get too hung up about AP classes. It’s nice to get the credit and be ahead but some people prefer to start from scratch and get used to the pace of a college class with something they are more comfortable with. </p>
<p>You should be able to think critically and creatively and have really good math skills but you will develop those out of necessity if you don’t have them already.<br>
If you have a real interest in ChemE and its applications it will make it a lot easier to stick with it through all of the impossible classes and projects and labs.</p>
<p>@crazycat: not much physics? my god, look at the ChE courses. They ARE not chemistry but math and physics in disguise. heat mass transfer, chem eng thermo, separation, momentum transfer…</p>
<p>even your CHM has a Physical Chemistry in it. believe me, it’s almost purely physics.</p>
<p>check this out: heat mass transfer overview</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.acavisual.com/rqin/gift702/lecture4.pdf[/url]”>http://www.acavisual.com/rqin/gift702/lecture4.pdf</a></p>
<p>which part of it is chemistry? lol</p>
<p>It is pretty normal to not know anything about something that requires 4 long years beforehand!</p>
<p>Btw, which country are you from?</p>
<p>I’m entering chem eng too this august. At least I have sneaked peek into one or two chem eng books… and voila! Physics! double integral! multivariables! fluid mechanics, flow, drag, shear, injection, etc2!</p>
<p>but it’s interesting, so I still take it ;)</p>
<p>sure hope I don’t fail tho</p>
<p>
In fact, a lot of it is. Just take a look at it, it is both.</p>
<p>mostly when we talk about chemistry there is at least a chemical reaction happening. We talk about moles, reactants, reaction rates, reaction equations, etc. In the above case that’s not different from physics, at least imo</p>
<p>This thread is a great reassurement (a red line came up under that, so I don’t think it’s a word…haha). I was kind of bummed about not having the drive earlier in my high school years to learn stuff, since I’ve seen lots of physics type people have self studied themselves halfway through the curriculum already.</p>
<p>I’m going into chemE next semester as a freshm, and I’m really excited. I love chem, physics, and math, so it’s like a triple major in one! I’ll have to work the most on my application skills, since I’ve been thinking mostly analytically…</p>
<p>It’s tough for regular Joes and Janes like me to find DA PASSION straightaway. I supposed very few know exactly when and why they want to be an engineer (maybe they had an engineering parent). And even if one enjoyed the job, or their perception of it, who could honestly look forward to advanced thermodynamics? Maybe only on CC.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Dilbert - The Knack](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw)</p>