Simultaneous Degree: What complements Chemical Engineering?

<p>I don’t really understand why you want to skip Chem 4. I don’t know a single person who skipped it. It’s just a great experience, and where you’ll meet all of your new friends. If you take 140 right away you’ll have to study all by yourself and stuff. It’s not recommended…</p>

<p>Because I’m exempted from it? I don’t see the point of taking Chem 4 if I already have credits for it and taking it again wouldn’t add to graduation.</p>

<p>Anyway i probably won’t be doing CE 140. I’m enlightened on how suicidal that is. lol</p>

<p>I am a ChemE major, and I say that taking ChemE 140 right away isn’t that bad of an idea. Think of the transfer students who deal with making new friends in 140. It works out if you put in the effort–and delaying the class won’t necessarily make it easier.
I really enjoyed ChemE 140. I’ll tell you now–that class isn’t much compared to taking 141 and 150A simultaneously. </p>

<p>imo, skipping Chem 4 series won’t hurt you in the long run. You can always teach yourself whatever you missed out on or go to OH and have a GSI help you out. (Honestly, the ChemE GSI’s I’ve met are awesome.) </p>

<p>“you may have learned some basic molecular orbital theory, but can you explain Crystal Field Theory in excruciating detail, including a complete description of the order of ligands in the spectrochemical series, and pi backbonding?”
…I can’t explain this. But that’s okay–it’s definitely not necessary knowledge for ChemE. And again, if you’re curious enough you can always educate yourself later on such details by reading up on it and/or discussing with other students, both undergraduate and graduate.</p>

<p>I have no idea where 4A being uncurved came from/happened. If Singh took it last semester and the same profs are teaching it next semester he knows more than I do; if he took it fall 2009 he’s either lying, wrong, or misrepresenting the difficulty (I don’t remember if it was graded on a straight scale, but I do know that regardless of curve, the average was a C). <em>4B</em>, on the other hand, was definitely a straight scale last spring and a very easy and amusing experience.</p>

<p>The information in 4A probably isn’t necessary, and if you can skip it your GPA will thank you (assuming it hasn’t changed since I took it), but the bonds formed with the other freshman chem students are worth the downsides. I’m a BioE (doing a Chem. E. minor) and took 4A for kicks during my first semester, and while it demanded considerably more work than any 4-unit class I’ve taken since, virtually all of my friends are Chem E.s I met and bonded with via 4A and 4B, and I have a strong suspicion that they’ll be my friends for a very, very long time (barring sudden death, obviously) - and the same can be said for their relationships with each other.</p>

<p>I think they made 4A easier for our year. The courserank average jumped from a B- to a B after the data from our class was added haha. The average was definitely not a C for us.</p>

<p>Gotcha. Was it still Martin Head-Gordon teaching the first ~2/3?</p>

<p>4B is frustrating - it’s not very difficult but it’s horribly tedious and time-consuming. Weekly homework, weekly pre-labs, random post-labs, neverending midterms, proposals for the special project…</p>

<p>honestly i would’ve skipped it if I could. heh. there wasn’t much content there that I hadn’t already learned before.</p>

<p>I will add that I don’t understand why they allow exemptions for A level chemistry. As far as i know, A level chem doesn’t cover crystal field, particle in a box, separation science, etc. but if you’re willing to read up and ask around, i don’t see why not ;)</p>

<p>You probably don’t need to know Crystal Field Theory for ChemE (at all). Crystal Field and a descriptive picture of Molecular Orbital Theory is covered in Chem 104B, an inorganic chemistry course, which isn’t required for ChemE majors. For things like quantum mechanics, you’re still required to take one semester of physical chemistry that will cover that material, so you won’t “miss out.”</p>

<p>Definitely agree with meakame on 4B being less than fun; it was easy and interesting, but there was a lot of busywork associated with it.</p>

<p>kindly advise me which is the best undergrad major in engineering for sustainable development as a whole including clean energy esp. fuel cells, smart grid, transportation systems, manufacturing etc. my dream is to be a technology entrepreneur in these areas. i am very good in physics and chemistry…i am considering chemical engineering and EECS…i am equally interested in both but i want to keep my options really broad.</p>

<p>I know someone double majoring in chem e and applied mathematics, is that hard to do? Is it a good combination?</p>

<p>It’s definitely not easy, because of the large number of requirements for the ChemE major. But I would say that it’s very useful, especially for somebody interested in a PhD in chemical engineering. Advanced mathematical techniques are pretty darn useful in fields like heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and reaction kinetics, all of which are quite related to chemical engineering.</p>

<p>Higher math classes are probably useful for anyone interested in a PhD in a quantitative field (physics, chemistry, engineering, math, CS, economics, etc.)</p>