Ever since I heard a chemical engineer talk at my school when I was a freshman, and getting A’s in both semesters while a sophmore as well as enjoying the class, I have wanted to be a chemical engineer. But I have also heard that chemical engineering is a relatively small field and that the job growth for that field is really small. I also have heard that many chemical engineers end up working in the oil industry and I want to avoid that. I would be fine working in about any other field that chemical engineers would be employed in such as food, drugs, etc. I also really enjoy the honors physics class that I am in. I enjoyed the unit that we had on circuits and that has also sparked an interest in electrical engineering. But, I still would love to be a chemical engineer. Is the information that I got wrong? Are there actually a lot of positions available for chemical engineers? Are most chemical engineers not employed by the oil industry? I already know that I want to go into some field of engineering because I have strong grades in math, science, and the engineering classes we have at my high school(I am even going to be taking AP Calculus AB in my senior year). I want to know what engineering I should major in when I go to college in two years. That way I can know whether to take AP Chem or AP Physics. Thank you for responding to my question.
I asked my Chemistry Prof. about this. She’s a ChemE with a Phd. She said CheEs have to compete with Chem majors for entry lvl jobs. Mind you ChemEs will have an advantage over Chem majors most of the time. But sometimes companies just want cheap labor. I’m not sure how you’d get around this. The concensus is that you might have to go for a MS to be more competitive. Or maybe take a lower salary as an entry lvl and move your way up. ( If companies have a choice between a chem major and a ChemE major for the same salary, most of the time i’m thinking they’ll go for the ChemE)
Personally, I would suggest EE over ChemE for you. Based on your reasons, I think you would be disappointed when you find out what ChemE is really about and what you end up learning. Long story short, it’s a good major for working in a large chemical plant, especially in oil, but not much else.
The oil market. You know what’s happening there right? Well, I haven’t stayed fully updated with it, but guess what just happened to it and a ton of people got laid off.
Anyways, by junior year of high school, I formerly planned to be a Mechanical Engineer. Took physics, and now I’m an electrical engineering major because of circuits 
The topics are pretty fun and you’ll be using the circuit fundamentals of Ohm’s Law and Kirchhoff rules to solve circuits / tackle real life problems for the rest of your life and you’ll not get tired of it. You can do a ton of things with electrical engineering: Power systems, electronics / analog digital circuit design, communications, signal processing, robotics, control systems, biomedical engineering, and more ;D
And how would you know that I would be disappointed by being a chemical engineer? Just out of curiosity, what is it about chemical engineers specifically that you or anyone else might find disappointing?
At some point you just have to pick something. My intended major was BME; was advised to switch to something more traditional for job opportunities; now hearing things about chemical. I can’t keep switching until I find something with 0% unemployment.
Pick something viable and stick to it. That will be the best for your job prospects.
I speak from the experience of all those I know (including myself) who went into ChemE because they thought that it sounded like a neat major. The fact that it is a specialized major, and that most of the work is less-than-glamorous (oil, pulp and paper, industrial chemicals etc) is pretty spot-on, for one. But as I said, the problem is more along the lines of that the kind of work you end up doing is little more than blue collar work that requires a university degree (often an MS for ChemE, by the way). The students who went in with the mindset of, “I like chemistry and math and want something with good job prospects” tend to be among the most disappointed, only behind those who think it’s a good choice for pre med.
Most of the people I knew who were talented enough to do well chose a different route. One went to graduate school in biochemistry after a BS in ChemE, another did the same with Physics, another switched to EE (and enjoyed it quite a bit), and a lot of the ones that could code took programming + engineering jobs. There were those who genuinely enjoyed the program and were very talented, but to say the least those were the exception rather than the rule. I haven’t really seen much of this kind of attitude towards their major from the EEs or MechEs that I knew; most of them either enjoyed their major and stuck to it or quickly found that they weren’t really suited for that kind of work.
Of those who actually enjoyed the program, most of them were either the children of ChemEs who knew exactly what they were getting into, or those who were part of a military program (veterans or ROTC). But it’s hard to know that ahead of time from the way that the major is advertised by schools.
At this point, EE is sounding like it would be the better option. I know for sure that chemical engineering is a lot of spending time at production plants and just overseeing production, but I am also a little unfamiliar with what electrical engineers do as well. Do you think I would be disappointed by EE? Perhaps I should go into AP physics because I have experience with honors physics but just regular chem. I would be at less of a disadvantage in AP physics. Physics also just sounds like it would have a broader application to different areas in general.
Take AP Chemistry, actually. That specific AP test is quite comprehensive and if you can get through it with a 5, you should be good to go if you decide to take more chemistry down the road. I recommend taking the physics series in university, because Physics I (Calc-based Mechanics) is the core of every engineering major and it is an important building block for everything that follows.
I’d say a short description of EE is that it’s circuit analysis. A lot of your classes essentially involve setting up a circuit and running currents through it then recording the results and comparing it to theory. Also incorporates E&M theory and some more unusual elements of mathematics (complex analysis, probability theory, etc). Lots of programming and tie-in to computation and computer design. It can be extremely dull sometimes but I know people who really enjoyed the major. Overall, it’s pretty similar to what undergraduate physics majors learn these days.
What exactly would be so much better about taking AP Chem now and physics in university rather than taking AP Physics now? If I were to decide to go into EE, wouldn’t it be better to take AP physics now and more physics classes in university? Just curious.
Simply for the purpose of not having to take it again. Free up 1-2 classes (with lab sections as well) for electives that you will want to take. Most engineers have to take at least one chemistry class (sometimes two). In the long run, it doesn’t really matter either way, but I recommend AP Chem to free up something you probably won’t want to take again.
So you’re saying to take AP Chem just to free up some more classes in college. That sounds like it might be a good idea even though there would certainly be worse things than having to take chemistry in college.