<p>Okay, I'm not sure if I need a reality check, but I'm being completely sincere here.
I'm good at math. Like, really good. I get it, it's my all around favorite subject, blah blah, okay.
Now, for sciences. My interests are
Chemistry (is greater than or equal to) Physics >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Poop > Bio
I tend to exceed at chemistry (or from the little I've seen from high school chem...), and I'm above average in Physics (and again, from the little I've seen in high school).<br>
Now, I'm going to be doing some kind of engineering, and so I decided to \attempt\ Chemical Engineering. Why? Cus well, I don't wanna do something like Mechanical and live purely in the world of physics and math without any real diversity, and so I'm sitting here assuming that ChemE will be a nice mixture of the three disciplines.
Yes, I am dedicated, but am I going to be in for a rude awakening by assuming these things?
I'm very well aware that it's going to require hours and hours of work, so I don't need to have that drilled into my head, the other Engineers already have, hehe.
Thanks in advanced!</p>
<p>Mech E is pretty diverse</p>
<p>At most schools, majoring in Math will give you a lot more flexibility, and if you’re very good at math it’s probably a good major for you.</p>
<p>Engineering majors generally don’t have much math. You can always take more but it’s just the intro calc and linear algebra required for the most part.</p>
<p>If you’re in ChemE solely because you like chemistry and math, you’re probably going to be in for a bit of a surprise.
First year or so, you learn chemistry. After that, it’s going to be all physics. You’d better learn to love physics, because everything in engineering is physics through and through.
Bio, you take Ochem and maybe one other class. You don’t have to take more if you don’t want to. Math, you take Calc 1,2,3 and DiffEqs and Linear Algebra, and after that you don’t have to do more if you don’t want to (but you are very much free to do so).</p>
<p>You might learn to love ChemE, but maybe not. Be prepared to be disappointed in a lot of ways you wouldn’t expect. This is true for all engineering majors, but I think it’s more true for ChemE than most.</p>
<p>What math courses have you taken and what did you like about them?</p>
<p>You’ll have to take general chemistry I and maybe II for any engineering program. The big difference for ChemE will be organic. I don’t think a high school chem class is likely to tell you anything one way or another about how you’ll like o-chem.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys!
And I don’t know, something’s just unappealing about majoring in “mathematics”, I’m pretty sure my parents wouldn’t be too happy about that either because they’d probably assume I’d be going for education also (it’s what I’d wanted to do at the start of high school-that dream’s long gone).
And don’t get me wrong, I really really like Physics! Like I said, I’m about as interested in physics as I am in chem, it’s just that I didn’t want to stick to an engineering that had all of one and none of the other, I’d like"the best of both worlds", if you will. And as for the math, is it math heavy? I understand that I won’t be taking math forever, and the Rutgers curriculum (atm I’m a Freshman Animal Science Major, I had originally enrolled for the School of Engineering, but ended up convincing myself to give bio a try… ew. On the bright side, I got the bio requirement out of the way this semester!) only goes up to five semesters of calc, but I’d only guess that there’s still its fair share of math just as any other engineering discipline would have, right?
edit;
@above
Animal Science/pre-vet majors are required to take Calc 1. There are two calc 1 at Rutgers, for non-physical science majors and eng/physical sciences. I took the eng one, because I was well aware ALL my backup majors were physical sciences, and so far, I got a 100 on the first exam with a class average of 65, so I’d say I’m going down the right road. I can’t really say much though until after Calc2, but I’d definitely be putting my best foot forward for it. xD</p>
<p>All first year weed-out classes have horrible averages. It does wonders for an inflated ego.
It also means that all the kids that don’t belong there won’t make it to year 2.</p>
<p>
Ignore the advice to major in math unless you have taken a math course focused on proofs rather than computation and found it enjoyable.</p>
<p>ChemE is a fine program. If you are interested in a career as a chemical engineer, go for it. I wouldn’t choose it because you liked your HS chem class.</p>
<p>Of course I’m not choosing it based solely off the fact that I liked my HS chem class, but hey, it’s a start.<br>
Just one more question, how important is orgo for the major in general? Am I going to have to know it for the upper level classes in any way/shape/form?</p>
<p>Ochem can either be a springboard for future work or a class you take and barely use again. Your call.
As I said, ChemE is a good program, but be prepared to be disappointed in quite a few ways.</p>
<p>Okay! I’ll keep that in the back of my head, thanks for being helpful and sincere! =)</p>