<p>I have been interested in chemistry since high school, and I have continued with that interest through my freshman year in college. I always thought I would major in Chem, ChemE, or MatSciE but recently I have been exposed to and have become more aware of the career paths that lead out of these majors and I am not too excited by what I am seeing. I have a job working in a lab with some ChemE, ME, and MatSciE grads who are researching different aspects of biodiesel. It's really not bad at all, but I just don't know if this is the kind of career path that I want. It doesn't really encompass as much chemistry as I would like or at least it doesn't encompass the aspects of chemistry that first drew me to the subject.</p>
<p>When I did AP Chem in high school, I liked doing the calculations and I also liked trying to figure out what products would form based on the given conditions. My favorite class this past year was orgo and I think I liked it so much because of the problem solving that is involved when determining the products from reactants or vice versa. It was also the class I did the best in. I really thought I would just major in Chem or ChemE at that point, but from working in the lab, I have found that I don't really care for the meticulous, repetitive work involved in conducting experiments. I definitely don't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. I would like to do something more creative/design focused and/or something that involves more logic or problem solving skills.</p>
<p>From what I know about ChemE, I would be doing more of the calculations involved with mass production of chemicals. This sounds ok, but I would also like my career to incorporate some of the smaller aspects that chemists usually handle, such as looking at reactions on a molecular scale. I know the higher you go in ChemE, the less chemistry there is.</p>
<p>For a minute, I was really considering MatSciE because I like the current research in alternative energy plus I like all of the nanotechnology buzz about looking at materials atom by atom which I find fascinating because it is similar to looking at reactions on a molecular scale. I don't really know what careers will be available to me if I decide to go down this path and from what I am experiencing in the lab I don't think I want to go down the research road.</p>
<p>I don't really know how to explain this, but I think the things that I like about chemistry are the computations and the problem solving, which is what CS is all about. It seems like when I was doing my orgo hw, the problems were presented in such a manner that I needed to think logically about the rules that applied in that specific reaction to reason to the correct solution. The way I look at it, the problem solving skills that I used are similar to the ones used in software engineering. Plus, I think the ability to write my own code gives me the design/creative element that I am looking for. I haven't had much experience at all with CS, but I did take a little introductory course in java last summer. I did pretty well in it considering the program didn't really go in depth, and it was my first time doing any sort of programming. From what I've heard about CS, it sounds like something I would like but I am unsure about switching into a field that I don't really know much about. In order to graduate on time without killing myself, I would have to seriously start taking CS classes and that would cut out space that I would need to continue on my ChemE track.</p>
<p>I guess what I am asking is what do you think? Are my reasons for switching valid or should I stick to ChemE/MatSciE and just look harder for a job that meets my needs? Is there someway that I can combine both chemistry and CS?</p>
<p>I know this was a bit long and wordy, so thanks for taking the time to read it.</p>